Thread: Roll searchers.....is it worth it?

I have just decided to give up on my long time childhood hobby.....baseball cards. So, I am new to the coin game, but still enjoy the thrill(gamble) of opening things to hopefully find that BIG 'diamond in the rough', pull of a lifetime.

For all of you roll openers/searchers........do you ever have any luck finding errors? Should I only look for errors listed in the RED BOOK?

Also, do you buy unc, bu, obw?

How do you know how rare an error is.......since it will not match mint totals?

thanks for your help!

welcome to the forum.
And, no, although the red Book generally lists the most populat errors & varieties, pick up the Cherrypickers Guide and any specialty book on the denomination for listings of doubled dies, etc.
Good luck.

Pennies seem to be the best for errors. Here are my stats. All mine were found in $25 Brinks boxes of pennies.

Total boxes searched: 9
Total Wheats: 83
Most wheats in a box: 14
Least wheats in a box: 3

Errors found: 6 total
3 - 1998 wide "AM" in America
2 - 2000 wide "AM" in America
1 - 1997 double ear "doubled die"

The person you should ask about seaching pennies is a guy on this board whose user name is "foundinrolls". I printed off a copy of a post he made almost 2 years ago when I started searching pennies for errors. Here's the list of errors he wrote down off the top of his head(these are only the errors since 1959):

1959 DDO
1960 DDO
1960 D DDO
1960 D Repunched Mintmarks
1961 D Repunched Mintmarks
1962 DDO
1963 DDO
1963 DDO
1964 DDR atleast two types
1966 DDR
1968 D DDR
1969 S DDO at least two types
1970 S DDO
1971 DDO several types
1972 DDO several types
1972 D DDO several types
1972 S DDO
1973 D
1980 DDO
1982 DDO
1983 DDR two types
1983 DDO four types I think
1984 DDO at least three types
1984 D DDO
1985 DDO
1985 D DDO
1986 DDO
1989 DDO more than 20 varieties
1992 AM touching on reverse
1994 DDR
1995 DDO several types
1995 D DDO
1997 Doubled Ear DDO
1998 AM seperated on reverse
1999 "
2000 "


There was also a website that listed ALL the penny errors. I went through those pictures and made a list of all the ones that were the "easiest" to find - that is, the easiest to see/pick out. Unfortunately I lost the link. I suggest doing a google search for penny errors.

If you want to start looking for errors I strongly suggest you get a jewelers Loupe. Using a loupe is alot easier that using a magnifying glass.

What I would do is as I would go through a box of pennies was to set aside the "key dates" inside a small box(key dates being the dates of errors I was looking for). When I got done looking through all the pennies I would then grab my loupe and start looking through all the "key dates" to see if any were errors. As you can see from my totals, 7 errors in 9 boxes, thats close to 1 error per box.

Good luck! It takes time and effort, but if your interested in doing this, the error coins ARE there. You just gotta keep at it!

im not a roll searcher but think about it

your getting them for face value and any thing you dont want is still worth face value

Originally Posted by chicken_little

There was also a website that listed ALL the penny errors. I went through those pictures and made a list of all the ones that were the "easiest" to find - that is, the easiest to see/pick out. Unfortunately I lost the link. I suggest doing a google search for penny errors.

www.coppercoins.com

Yes, that's it! Thanks Topher!

I find searching half dollar rolls to be very "worth it". For the most part, I don't find much silver, but every once and awhile, I'll hit into a batch of older rolls and have found 3-4 silver halfs (20s - 64) per roll. The oldest find being a VERY warn out 1908 O, not worth much, but a fun find. There are also a number of valuable errors worth looking for.

Beyond that, its just a fun way to let the stress of the office go by.

Enjoy and good luck!

I do quite well searching halves.
It's definatly worth it, in my opinion.

I would have to say it probably isn't worth it monetarily. You could probably earn more money doing just about anything else and just buy the coins you want. But if it is fun for you, by all means search away.

I suspect it's been many decades since there have been so many neat coins in circulation.

If you're interested in varieties it's a good idea to put together a set of regular coins as a reference collection. These can be fun in their own right as well since some coins are getting pretty tough to find in nice condition.

Welcome to coin collecting. I think you'll find more similarities than differences.

From my own personal experience, you will not get rich from searching rolls, but it is a lot of fun

Originally Posted by coinwarrior

From my own personal experience, you will not get rich from searching rolls, but it is a lot of fun

I agree.

You CAN find silver when searching halves, but most of the time you will find nothing, or next to nothing. In my experience, the best coins to search for errors, or oldies, is pennies or nickels. Pennies being the better of the two. I've never found a box of pennies or nickels that didn't have several 'keepers' in it. However, I've had many boxes of halves that didn't have a darn thing worth keeping in them.

Originally Posted by chicken_little

I agree.

You CAN find silver when searching halves, but most of the time you will find nothing, or next to nothing. In my experience, the best coins to search for errors, or oldies, is pennies or nickels. Pennies being the better of the two. I've never found a box of pennies or nickels that didn't have several 'keepers' in it. However, I've had many boxes of halves that didn't have a darn thing worth keeping in them.

Not to mention, pennies and nickels can be searched when you are low on funds. (Or if you don't have much to start with!)

i like searching nickels, becuase with the wheat cent, people save them becuase it has a different back on it. with the nickels, you can't tell a old one from a newer one becuase they have the same design. that way there are alot more old nickels out there!

Well i like goin to the corner stores, especially the one that sell cheap candy.. so far I've got a 1972 cent error {in date} 2000 wide AM and a 1984 cent with the ear doubled... and i only went threw like 60 dollars in coins..i have otner coin i havent mentioned but i'm waiting to see there worth..Just find your own way, your be happy