pennies

[handyeddie1]

i have found about 200 pounds of pennies from a clean out job where this lady live in this house since the 1920, she was 100 when she died i did some research, the oldest penny i found so far is a 1919, out of about checking 200 of them, it is very time consuming  looking at these pennies what should i do?

[Art1.2]

Since you didn’t have them before you began this job, just leave them stacked somewhere and go through a handful at a time over many months. Perhaps you’ll gain interest that way and become a collector. 

[showmetheBUcoins!]

i find that the easiest way to appreciate coins is to single out the lustrous ones, which for copper means those with any gleaming red or even orange color. Perhaps also sort them out by date in ascending order? It will then get a little more complex when you find out which ones are key dates, those with especially low mintage figures. The pennies were made in either philadelphia, denver or san fran and this will be easily identified by the absence of any mintmark( found right below the year), or the presence of a D or S mintmark. Then it gets even more technical when you get to errors, which are basically coins that have features that weren't intended. There are numerous resources that will help you identify those. If it'd make sorting out this 200 lbs of pennies more appealing, perhaps knowing that the 1969-s double die obverse fetches from thousands to over a hundred thousand dollars, not forgetting the 1955 double die obverse, and numerous other dates with valuable errors which i can't remember now, would help your motivation!