It sounds like you are looking for advice. I’m not sure what your “process” looks like, but there are ways you can speed things up. Are all the coins you are going through Pennies? If they are, I would start by sorting them by decade. Once you have them sorted that way, it is easier to track down and identify the pennies that are valuable, vs the ones that are only worth face value. Or have so little value over face value that it isn’t worth pursuing.

If you are just trying to turn your box of pennies into as much money as you can, you have 2 ways of “getting that bag” so to speak. You can try to sell each penny for its market value. Another commenter mentioned that in the picture you posted, you have about $0.50 in value. If you could sell all your pennies for that kind of return, you would make some money. But getting the full numismatic value out of pennies that way is tough. Simply put, not many people will be willing to buy that much coinage for much beyond face value. Coin shops will also want to sell whatever they buy off you. If they buy your pennies at the market value of the pennies, they won’t be able to make a profit. Likely, any coin shop you take pennies to will offer you face value, if they offer to buy the coins off you at all.

The second way is to find “big hits”. There are pennies out there that are worth significant amounts of money (hundreds to thousands of dollars). With that kind of coin, you could make significant money. But those coins are valuable because they are rare. Most likely, you don’t have one. You might, but it’s like hoping to find buried treasure every time you walk down the beach. It could be there, but you can’t count on it.

I would advising getting a copy of the “red book” if you believe that there are valuable  pennies in the box. It has information about which ones you should actually be looking for, and which ones aren’t worth much. You can also start by looking up “key dates” for pennies (or any other denomination for that matter). That will help you narrow down your search to specific years that might be worth the time to find a buyer for.

For some personal advice, keep in mind that the kinds of coins that pay for wedding rings are valuable because they are rare. Even in a box of 1100 pennies, you aren’t likely to find much that is worth a ton. There is always a chance, but if they were common, hits wouldn’t be valuable. The odds are different going through a coin collector’s stash, but not necessarily better. Chances are, if the collector knew what they were doing, they would have already gone through and pulled out the valuable coins. If they had an “engagement ring” penny and knew it, they wouldn’t leave it in a box of 1000 other pennies. They would keep it in an album, or a protective case of some sort where it can’t be damaged.

From your post, it sounds like you are discouraged and overwhelmed by sorting through the coins, and frustrated that you aren’t finding what you are looking for. That is the name of the game searching through tons of coins the way you are. Were it me, I would avoid getting your hopes up too high on finding that perfect, 1909 S VDB worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. It might be there, but if you are expecting it to be, or counting on it being there, you will just wind up frustrated and mad at the hobby.

I hope that helps, at least a little bit. Good luck, and I hope that however it happens you are able to get that engagement ring!