Where are they now?

So my question is where are all the old coins? As for the silver and gold coins, I know many were melted down over time, many are in collections, and some were just lost and waiting to be found. But, the sheer number of others that had little or no real melt value or much collector value should mean they would be plentiful and easily found-right? Maybe, maybe not. Looking at Indian head cents just for example, according to mintage numbers listed on USA coin book there have been well over a billion of these coins minted during their run! The copper-nickel alloy wasn't worth much, and likely much less than the face value of the coin, so I would think few were destroyed. That's also a really huge number to be in collections, which would mean every man, woman and child in the country could have at least 4 of them. So where are they all today?

Love to hear thoughts, ideas, or theories!

Pretty much. For the large cents, they were actually sold for scrap which would yield more in return. You give them a large cent and you get back three smaller pennies. I'd say that is a good deal.

For coins in general, some did end up in private collections and some were lost. We're trying to find the ones that were lost. The coins that stayed in circulation, banks are supposed to return the worn and mutilated coins to the reserve. I think it was the morgan dollars they melted down and re-used. I'm sure it was done with other coins as well like the IH melted to make wheats.