So what are the odds????

[Jim Laumann]

Hauled a bunch of old newspapers to the county recyle bin on Sat. afternoon, then went to the local convenience store for a bottle of pop and a newspaper. Got my change, went home. Once at home, I took a peek. A quarter, nickel and 3 cents....

About those cents....

All were copper (a little odd, given all the zincs in circulation and the number of coppers which have been taken out of circulation by collectors, but ok)

All were wheaties (Wheat cents have been out of production for a long time)

All were the same year (1958 - this was starting to get weird)

And all were the same mint mark (D)......

[Steve Peterson]

Maybe the store just opened a roll that had been sitting at the bank for a while. One time in the mid 70's my parents got a roll of nickels to restock the lunch money cup. Most of them were buffalo nickels that were over 40 years old.

Steve

[Jim Barkelew]

I worked in a facility that opened in 1942 and had the concessions run by the same vendor for decades. I routinely got nickels as change from the 40,s and 50's from the vending machines. They were being churned round and round for decades until I put them in my pocket.

[Doug Garson]

There's another thread on this forum about things that make you say hummmmm . This is one of those. You said you went to the convenience store for a "pop" and you got change in pennies. I always thought pop was a Canadian expression and most Americans refer to it as "soda". The fact you got change in pennies rules out that you live in Canada, we no longer use pennies. So where do you live? Did no one else pick up on the word pop? I recall one time years ago I was in the Bahamas and asked for a pop, the storekeeper immediately recognized me as Canadian and said the only reason he knew what pop was was that he lived in the US near the Quebec border for a few years, no one else on the island would have known what I meant. hummmm..........

[Stan Calow]

Google up "soda vs pop" and you'll see a map of the US that shows the preferred term in US regions. Basically its soda in the NE and the SW, pop in the middle, and coke in the south. Ask for a coke in the south, and they'll ask you "which kind?". We say pop or sometimes (formally) soda pop around here. Maybe we just learned to speak Canadian.

[John Terefenko]

I would have bought a lottery ticket 1958

[Doug Garson]

Interesting, watching US TV all you hear is soda, guess that's because it's mainly broadcast from New York or Hollywood. Didn't realize a large part of the US used the term pop like we do. Did know about the use of the term coke for all soft drinks from a relative who visited Atlanta.

[Yonak Hawkins]

This is beyond coincidence. Surely these coins came from someone's now-tendered collection or from a roll found hiding in the back of a drawer somewhere. I, myself, am now using postage stamps that I faithfully squirreled away in neat blocks of four every week for thirty years.

[Ronald Blue]

My wife worked at a bank for 24 years and routinely got coins that came in that were old, or rare. Also some paper money from time to time. I assure you no bank sits on money. What a business might do is hard to say. However people for whatever reason would often bring in money that was in a drawer or jar or piggy bank. Condition dictates whether a coin has any value in the end.

[Wade Lippman]

Many years ago a guy bought a shirt from my grandfather with a 1858 penny, that GP gave to me.
More recently my father found on the ground a 1858 penny, which he gave to me.

I was convinced there was something magical about 1858!
But then my MIL died and I got a box of coins. Inside was a 1859 penny. I was really bummed; the magic was gone.:( Oh well.


The shirt was also paid for with old half dollars, including one from 1795; though its not as valuable as you might think.

[Jim Becker]

Regarding the "soda" vs "pop"...that was always an indicator of where someone was from (relatively speaking) when I was doing my time at Penn State, which is physically located in the geographic center of Pennsylvania. "Soda" folks were from the eastern half of the state and "pop" folks were from the western half the majority of the time. :)

[Steve Peterson]

Back to the original question: What are the odds?

If you assume that all 3 pennies came from a random distribution of coins, then you need to know the odds of finding a single 1959 penny. Wheat pennies are still in circulation, but wheaties get removed much more often than other pennies. My guess is somewhere between 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10000 coin in circulation are 1959 pennies. The odds of finding 3 at the same time would be somewhere between 1 in a billion to 1 in a trillion.

It is much more likely that the pennies came from an old roll that got released back into circulation.

Steve

[Jim Laumann]

Doug Garson - I live in the SE corner of the Land of 10,000 Taxes. Cold, sugary, carbonated beverages have been pop for as long as I can remember.

Steve Peterson / Yonak Hawkins - My guess is that there were a couple (or more) hand rolled (non machine wrapped) rolls in the register.

John Terefenko - See below

Wade Lipman - A penny from 1858 would be a Indian, and quite old. I'd call it a keeper...


So after I looked at the 3 cents, I went back to the store, to see if I could get some more. I asked the kid at the register if I could buy all the pennies in his drawer. The kid looked astonished - so I explained the whole story. He declined, would not clean out his drawer. He did sell me 1 roll of pennies from his safe - all that he could do, due to the way the chain (Caseys General Store) does business. The roll he sold me was hand wrapped, so odds are that someone cleaned out a drawer or some such.....

I did manage to clean out his Have/Take a Penny tray, got 10 more Wheats out of it (everything in the tray). The roll had 13 copper cents, all of them Memorials.

The 10 Wheats were: 30D, 34D, 46S, 46D, 48D, 49D, 2 50D, 55D, 57D

I also bought a Power Ball ticket. It only matched on 1 number - not even the Power Ball. :(

[Chris Padilla]

Regarding the "soda" vs "pop"...that was always an indicator of where someone was from (relatively speaking) when I was doing my time at Penn State, which is physically located in the geographic center of Pennsylvania. "Soda" folks were from the eastern half of the state and "pop" folks were from the western half the majority of the time. :)I use soda, pop, soda pop, and coke interchangeably but as I sit and think about it, I use soda the most. I, however, no longer drink it. :)

[Jim Becker]

I don't drink "sugary drinks", myself, Chris...outside of a tiny cup of Coke on airplanes if I'm not in the mood for Bloody Mary Mix. :D

[Jim Koepke]

A penny from 1858 would be a Indian, and quite old. I'd call it a keeper...

An 1858 penny would actually be a flying eagle:

364837

1859 was the first year of the Indian head penny series. There was some comments about how the image had a remarkable resemblance to the mint's chief engraver, James Longacre's, daughter.

If one is really picky, the United States has never had a coin legally designated as a penny. It has always been the cent. It is just called a penny due to our British heritage.

My guess about getting three same date 'obsolete' coins in change is someone likely traded in a roll of pennies from a coin collection. This happens often when someone squirreled away a few rolls or someone dies and family members spend the collection.

jtk

[Jim Mackell]

Growing up in Maine in the 50's and 60's the generic term for all carbonated drinks was tonic. Went to basic training at Lackland in San Antonio in 66 and asked where the tonic machine was. Got a lot of blank faced stares. That was the first time I learned most of the US called it soda.