Please don't say with your eyes I would like to start coin roll hunting pennies instead of the other denominations because i keep getting skunked. I do not do it for value but enjoy finding cool things. I have gone through about 5.00 in pennies but even with a magnifying glass I can't tell if its a double die or this or that. Does everyone here use a usb microscope? If so what kind should I look into?
The magnifying glass I use seems to be playing tricks on me. At the right angle, I think every penny is a dd. I think I need to go to a shop and see real errors and varieties before I can truly judge for myself. I'm a newb too and way too eager to find a variety. I use the black plastic fit-in-your-eye glass that coin stores sell for $5.
Play around with your lighting. Try to find the angle and direction that gives you the best REAL look. I know that sometimes reflections from around the devices simulate a DD. I can't be more specific than that since I rarely look for this sort of thing.
I have about $27 in copper pennies and last night I started going through them to see if I had the 1972 DD, but because I was having trouble looking at each one I stopped looking pretty quickly. If I have one in there I may never know I just don't have the time to look through them all.
A decent, inexpensive microscope at around 20x magnification works great. My son has one that I use. Use a desk lamp or two to shine down on the coin, since microscopes illuminate from the bottom. I have no luck with loupes - they're small, and I already have thick glasses, so they're just too clumsy.
I ordered a 40.00 USB microscope off of amazon. If its easy to get it focused and just slide the coin under it and have it show up on a screen i think that may be easiest. I am hoping it works out that easy. I mean maybe its my lack of experience but sometimes when people post pictures on here (like the close AM) i still don't see it.
Me too. I have an easy time with some of the really dramatic DD's and RPM's, but the more subtle ones elude me. Somebody will say, "there's definitely some tripling going on here," and I just can't see it. Perhaps I don't know what to look for.
How do you see ? Well the first step is to learn about what you are looking for so you can recognize it when you do see it. The next step is to realize and accept that when it comes to the true rarities that you are not going to find them. If you could, they wouldn't be rarities. So what should you look into ? That first step - education. Get yourself a copy of the two Cherrypicker's guide books. Read them, study them, and I mean study them not just look at them once or twice. You have to learn what is in the books. And, become a member of CONECA. Read about and study all of the varieties and errors that you can find on their web site. And there are a lot ! Once you have learned, that's when you start looking at coins. And you don't need a microscope. Just get yourself a decent magnifying glass, a big one. You want a glass about 4x (5x if you can find it but good luck with that) and 3 inches across. Get a regular incandescent light, the goose neck lamps work best. With that knowledge, that glass, and that light, when you start searching through coins you'll see them easy enough. That's how you see
This is going to make me sound horrid but me and a guy from work routinely pull up some of these error forums and have a laugh. Sometimes i feel like if you look hard enough at anything your going to find errors. Nothing is perfect. But then again its likely valid errors and my inexperience allows me to have a laugh.
I have the cherry-picker's guides, as GD suggests. It just takes some time to really study them. I don't expect to be fluent in spotting varieties in my series for a while. But I have become adept at spotting machine doubling.
As always Doug, great advice. I started taking your advice about a year ago now - stopped ordering coins to fill my collection, do a little searching, but mostly, I have plowed through over 20 books and have more ordered. Some I'm reading more quickly than others. After reading some of the books cover to cover, and not getting much out, now I read one book, pull the reference guides constantly, compare them to my coins, and repeat. I found that I am really, really learning a lot more this way. I also invested in a couple of glasses/lights, and found the one I like best is a desk lamp/magnifying light combo I got from staples, which is about 6-7" diamater with a 'full-spectrum' bulb, so not incandessent, but not that fake-white of many other bulbs. (something like this, not this one exactly) (http://www.staples.com/V-Light-Clam...t_850806?cid=PS:GooglePLAs:850806&KPID=850806) The differences in lighting is dramatic. My desk is next to the window, and with the blinds open a bit, I can choose between the natural light, the old desk (incandescent) and that 'full spectrum' light or a combination. If you're roll-hunting, you'll likely appreciate something that's hands-free. Next step - calibrate. I have a couple of coins I look at EVERY time, and I adjust the light and magnifier, and my mind set, on these three coins. Now I'm ready to go . . . Using this magnifier and the right combination of light, once I pull the arm down and position the light in front of me, I then have two hands free to handle coins and books. This is WAY prefreable to any hand-held device. My $.02
It's pretty much already been said but, better light and maybe a decent loop would do it but usb micros work well too. I split the difference and bought a digital loop (SVP DM540) that also doubles as a camera and takes some nice shots (better if I ever invest in a tripod/stand to hold it) but the USB scope probably better for quick searching.
"l can see clearly now the moonshine's gone..." :3three: If they hit any die cavities while polishing them that too will appear as doubling. Lighting really is everything. A coin that is beginning to laminate will look like a die crack until you notice that the crack seems to have an angle to it as if someone slit it sideways with a knife. But, IMO, it's the lighting that's right for your eyes that's most important. Remember the movie The Recruit? Al Pacino's motto was fitting for bad lighting and coins: "Nothing is as it seems."
And step three is experience. The more you actually look at the coins the more familiar or trained your eye will become and you will start to notice when something is truly "off". After you have seen your umpteenth example of MDD you won't have to ask "Could this be a doubled die?" because you will know if it is MDD or not. You will start seeing the subtle differences between hub changes or between dies, things the casual collector does not see.
Get a 5 power and a 10 power pocket loupe by Bausch & Lomb, so you can see good details of the coin that you are looking at. Learn how to turn the coin in the light to see the details at different light angles. Good luck.
I still have nerve damage in my neck from searching penny rolls. Limit yourself to 1 bank box a day and take breaks. All that looking down can strain your neck pretty badly.
