Like i have said in other post i am new to collecting so please take that into account, I am getting 20$ in pennies today, and would like to know what to keep a heads up fpr, well what to look for in general, if it is too broad a subject a referal to a book or website would also be greatly appreciated. I have filled in one of those penny books but have no clue what to look for. Any help would once again be greatly appreciated, Thanks
I would keep 82 ones because of the switch over to zinc and all wheaties. link for 82's http://coincollector.org/archives/001915.html
If your just starting, I'd start by just trying to collect all the dates & mint marks in something like a whiteman coin book. Then, as you go along you can upgrade a given date as you find a better example. Most folks pull all the wheaties (pre-1959) they find. Check out www.coinfacts.com for a general idea of what are key dates to look for. Also, get a copy of the Red Book and Cherry Pickers Guide for further onhand references. Personally, I like hunting for varieties and errors. Once you've gone through a few thousand lincolns, you'll be able to spot the differences easier. I also suggest using good lighting and nothing more than a 10X loop (magnifying glass). Hope this gets you started
Thanks, I did fill one of the books spending quite a bit on it, but i will look through which ones can be upgraded and look for them. The only ones i am missing from 1941 0n would be a 1943-Denver and a 1948-San Fransisco and a 1949-Denver. Are these rare in any shape or form or do i just need to do some more searching? Also a quick question on the 43s,i am fammiliar with the steel story and have gotten quite a bit of them, but have never found one that had the original penny color, are their many of the 43s out their with the color still intact?
Not sure of your age and don't want to kid you if your a YN. That is a Young Numismatist otherwise none as a coin collector but you do sound young. First of all if you are using one of those albums where you push the coins into a slot and can't see the reverse, stop using them. Note inside the slot and you'll see that most are made so that the entire back sheet is glued and then the slotted page is put in place. That means that the slot has glue touching the reverse of your coins. If your are just starting out, look around for either a Dansco or Whitman Classic type of album where your coins are protected on both sides by a plastic film that slides out for adding or removing. Next since your interested in pennies, check out the coppercoins.com web site. The guy that has that web site, named Chuck, has photographed virtually thousands of Lincoln Pennies and has written two books on just them. His web site has tons of information on pennies. As to the 82's mentioned, there are at least 8 varieties. You would actually need a balance beam scale to note the difference in many of them. Oh one more thing, if you should run across a Lincoln Cent with a date of 55 or 72 and it is all blurry you should send it to me right away. As to those funny looking 1943's, keep watching for the ones that look like copper. Might be worth a few dollars.
There are very obvious double died cents from those years that are worth hundreds of dollars, even in circulated grades. He was making a joke about sending them to him. Those are all common, just keep searching. Not unless they were removed from circulation LONG ago! The zinc coated steel cents were an abysmal failure, in part because they rusted so easily. To get a brilliant white one you will have to purchase one at a premium from a dealer. Be very careful, these are routinely replated with a new layer of zinc and they can be rather deceptive. A good rule of thumb is that if there is any wear the coin shouldn't have full luster. If it does it has been replated and is considered permanently damaged. The best website that I can recommend for someone looking through Lincoln cents is www.coppercoins.com.
Not sure but I think when he was referring to original penny color he was referring to the copper color. If this is in fact what you are referring to and if you should find any 1943 Pennies with a copper color you should also send to me right away. Just kidding. Actually those are worth thousands. Same with the 55 and 72 double dies. The 72 is going for about $400 to $600 and the 55 is going for well over a thousand lately.
A quick question about errors, For the majority of errors how much time do you need to spend looking for them, if you glanced over a error penny would you notice it quickly? I understand that i am a rookie at this whole search, and that the obviousness of an error most likely ranges from hard to find to easy to find, but what i am trying to ask is, what are the most common penny errors and would they be obvious enough to see the error as you breeze by. Approximately how much time should a novice allot to take a look at one penny. I apologize that my questions are somewhat stupid, but hopeully when i get out to the bookstore i can read up on these obvious questions.
well, the big errors (55 DDO, 72 DDO, 43 copper, 44 steel) are all really obvious, you won't miss one even if you only spend a couple of seconds looking at it. On the other hand until you start finding errors and begin to know what you are looking for it will take a while to look through the coins. The owner of that site that I mentioned above (www.coppercoins.com) wrote a book entitled "Looking Through Lincolns" and it is excellent if you want to search your cents for errors.
Not just pennies but all coins are normally easy to spot the average type of errors. For instance you don't have to be a coin expert to notice that a coin is off center. In other words an offset. Large rims and occationally doubled rims are easily regognized. Any coins that make you feel like you should not have had that last Martini because it looks all blurry is possibly a double die or coin that has been stamped at least twice. When it comes to lesser noticable errors like the stupid 1995 Lincoln Cent now selling at coin shows for $50 to $100, it make you wonder if you should spend your life with a magnifier or microscope. The oddest thing is as you notice the errors, you'll notice that the majority are on the front of all coins. That is because hardly anyone looks at the reverse of a coin. For instance I recently told a coin dealer that has about 60 years of experience that all US coins are made so that as you turn them over from top to bottom, they will always be right side up. That is true of ALLLLLLLLL US coins. He didn't believer me and started to turn over coin after coin after coin. What a dummy. Then one day I told the same guy that I believe that abaout 30% of all Mercury Dimes have the reverse turned from what we just talked about. Again, started to turn every Mercury Dime he had and came up with an astonishing 40% were all turned from 5 to 90 degerees. He thought that was great. Back to pennies, just look at them front and back. Look for odd things such as double images, double buildings on the reverse, image offsets, oversized rims, no reverse, missing numbers or letters and on and on and on and on. Missing letteres and numbers are becoming more noticable at coin shows.
thanks for the advice, i hope books will further increase my knowledge on this subject, now just to get to the bank.......
I hate to be a nit-picker (my wife would dispute that), but there are two types of 1955 double dies. The really valuable ones are clear to the naked eye. As a dealer once said to me, "when you're looking at it, you see it as if you're drunk." Those cents are worth lots of money. There are also what's known as the "poorman's" double die. For those you generally need a loupe (magnifying glass). They're worth keeping however. They are worth a few dollars, and would be a good find.
To continue the nit-picking thing you must know that there in NOT actually two different 1955 double dies. The one classified as a poor mans double die is actually caused by die erosion or just a worn out die. This is very common in that year and in many other years and is NOT a douable die. However, because of the fame of the real double die the poor mans one sells for about $5 to $10 at coin shows and the dealer will normally explain that it is NOT really a double die. Many people use them to fill in the stupid spot that Whitman put into thier albums so that the book appears full. I've got close to an entire roll of those from just going through bags of pennies from the bank.
Todd.. this is a very old thread from 2006.. most of those members are not even on CoinTalk anymore.. Start your very own unique thread with clearer pictures!
