The Marks We Leave

As anyone here who searches rolls, you know people like to mark the ones we search.

My thought for this thread is to post pics of the marks we find. I would be curious to know
if anyone here recognizes their mark that someone else has found.

I'll admit, I've marked some of the ones I've searched. It's about the only way to know if you
are getting your coins back. My method is simple. When I open a box, using black marker, I write
the current date (mm/dd format) on the heads side of any non keeper coins facing me on the
top of the rolls.

My logic is simple.

I don't want to waste time marking too many coins. When searching coins, I focus on the face of the coin. If I mark the back of a coin, there's a 50/50 chance I won't see my mark.

I don't mark bicentennials. I don't flip those over unless something catches my eye, so again a 50/50 chance I won't see my mark.

I don't mark all my coins. If I'm getting my coins back, I will find a few marked coins. I don't need to get 350 marked coins in a box to know that I've searched most of those coins. Inevitably, there are varieties out there that I'm not going to recognize and there's no need for me to callously mark up coins that others might want to keep.

Attached is an example of how I mark my coins (if I mark any).

Please post examples of how others are marking theirs (and the logic behind it if any).

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

OK, the one "line through we trust" makes some sense to me. I'm assuming the person is searching for the double die and is trying to mark ones he's already looked at to avoid putting the same ones back under the magnifier.

Also attached are a few others I've found. Feel free to claim yours if you recognize it.

 

and more....

 

and one more....

Please note, I'm only scanning them if I've found multiple with the same mark. I know some people like to doodle on their money (or abuse/mutilate it or whatever floats their boat), but I figure someone is deliberately marking them if I find 3 or more with the same marking.

 

I have to admit it, I've done it a couple times too. The bad part is that I've gotten many of them back! And I return all my halves to a different bank too.

 

Only once did I get mine back (and it caused me to starting marking mine almost everytime now).

It's good to have an idea of the path your coins are following both when you buy them and return them.

I thought I was golden. Buying boxes from multiple banks and returning all my coins to the same bank which supplied a unique style of boxes that I wasn't getting. It gave me the impression that my returned coins definitely had to be going through the Federal Reserve before I could get them.

Well the one time I got my own coins back, the date stamp on the 2 boxes was only 3 days after the day I cashed in the coins. The lucky part was, I got 9 silver coins out of the two boxes.

Lesson learned,

1. I'm returning so many coins that the overflow could easily be getting boxed up and shipped back to me.

2. Just because you are getting some of your previously searched coins back, doesn't mean you aren't still getting new coins also.

 

Not a bad idea. I may start doing that when I start Kennedy searching again.

 

Very true. I've still been finding a decent amount of silver.

 

I wouldn't want to do that to a coin, keeper or not.

 

Many years ago when every drive-in and coffee shop had a juke box, it was customary for the business owners to put red nail polish on coins that they used to feed the music maker, so that when the machine owner came to empty them, the marked coins would be put aside and returned to the owner before the rest were split between the location and the machine owner.

Coin-operated pool tables often had the same procedure.

 

Marking coins is just WRONG haha.

Just because the coin you mark isn't a keeper to you doesn't mean it's not a keeper to someone else.

Example, maybe someone was looking for that 71D Kennedy to complete their set.

Don't mark your coins. If you do you may have that luck come back to you when you find your 1909svdb or whatever that someone who didn't know any better decided to scribble all over.


Jasn

 

I used to come across the 1974-D with the black line through "WE TRUST" fairly often when I lived (and roll / box searched) in Iowa, but haven't seen more than one or two since moving to Maine.

The mark I find most often now is on the edge, a black mark about 3/8" wide.

 

I come across the line through "We Trust" in almost every box now. Sometimes I'll see 20-30 of them in a box. I don't know if it's one person, or a group of people colluding, but they must rival me in the number of coins they've searched.

 

While I think it's flat out wrong to callously mark every coin searched, telling someone to not mark any coins is the same as telling someone not to spend any coins for fear of knocking them down from MS to AU condition. Coins were meant to be used for commerce. Marking a few with permanent marker that comes off with acetone is really not out of line in how one treats the rejects they are sending back into circulation.

now nail polish, gold paint, scratches, acid, etc are all just wrong, but we will all draw our line somewhere in how we decide to respect the coins.

 

I also get a black line through "we trust" in my boxes (all 74D). I'm in Indiana. Where are you Gatzdon?

 

How about just getting a steel punch to mark your coins, that'll ruin em but good.

 

LOL

I was going to say something to that effect, but I held my tongue.

 

i also think its wrong to mark coins. just like the person who marks only 1974D. what if he or she market a 1974D double die?

 

This seems like vandalism to me. If the coins are ever to be collectible, they'll have to be cleaned and that diminishes their value.

 

I think that's the point- they're probably checking for 1974-D doubled dies and didn't want to get the same coin back and have to check it again.