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A jar of pennies is almost never a treasure chest
Most penny jars are face value plus time. Wheat cents are usually still cents. Keys exist. Hours of sorting a $28 jar is a hobby, not a payday.
Bring the jar if you want. Know what it usually is: face value plus a few wheat cents.
A shop will look. They will not pick five thousand zinc cents one by one on a Saturday unless you are paying for that time.
What is actually in there
Most coins after 1982 are copper-plated zinc. They are one cent. Wheat cents (1909–1958) look older and are still usually a few cents to a couple of dollars unless you hit a key date. Wheat key dates. Why old wheat pennies are not a fortune. Old is not rare.
Steel 1943 cents are interesting and still usually cheap. 1943 copper is a lottery ticket people fake. Error hype.
A better use of an afternoon
Sort at home. Pull wheats and Indians. Take those to the shop. Take the rest to the bank. That is the adult version. Do not clean them. Don’t clean. Kids and coffee cans.
More on the coin and money library.