How do you go through rolls? Have a system? or just run through and look for dates or something that catches your eye?
I think I have a weird way that I go about doing it. I place them in rows of 10, by decade. and stack each year on top of of the other. So I end of with piles of each year. Then when I have some tall stacks I look through each of them year by year. When I'm being lazy I just look at them one at a time. I look at the date, inscriptions, flip it, etc. -JB
I don't go through the rolls as fast as most, and don't use a sorting machine like some others have. I spend a few minutes on each roll. I sort years that have DD's available for those years, I usually have the Cherrypicker's guide on the side. Then I sort copper, wheats, errors and so on. A full box takes me a couple hours, probably 4 times the amount of time everybody else does. It pays off, because I've found die misalignments, cuds, DD's and so on.
I go through rolls of Lincoln cents fairly fast. Mint BU cents from the 1960s-1980s are easy to notice due to their relief and mint lustre. I pull them aside to give them a better look. I will also keep cents from the 1990s if they are Mint BU. All foreign coins and wheats are set aside and entered into my stats. Everything else is automatically set aside to be rerolled.
I dump the roll onto my desk, then flip them all head side up. As I look at each one for the dates I need, I also flip it over to make sure there isn't a rotated die. If it's one I need to check (such as 1972), I set it aside. The rest go into a container for dumping at the bank. I then check all of the coins I set aside, and then move on to the next roll.
Place all cents on the table face up. Create piles by date. Divide each pile into three piles (P, D, and S). Familiarize myself with varieties for a particular year & mm. Look at each coin of that date & mm under the microscope.
Empty roll into coin tube. Empty coin tube onto desk. Scoop up cents with my forefinger and thumb. Look at dates. Wheats go into a tube, coppers into a container, and any WAM suspicions go into another tube for further examination.
First I open all the rolls and dump them out onto a table. I turn all the coins face up. I pull out all the 1955 and 1972 doubled dies. Then, I look for WAMS and CAMS. Then I watch tv. Then in a week or so, I look at each and every coin with a loupe and re-roll the rejects. Whatever I have left, I put into my albums.
Those pesky ones. I tend to throw those flawed things away because they are just not right. I know I had a 1969-S DDO that I cut up and threw away because it was just simply ugly.
Hello wmercer84, I was wondering if you received the answers you were looking for in this thread. I would like to expand on my technique for clarification- I first sort all the cents by date & mintmark. I end up with stacks of various heights. Then, I carefully inspect only one date & mintmark stack at a time. I find it useful to look in all my references (Internet & books) and familiarize myself with all the varieties for that one date & mintmark. Different varieties have different pick-up-points and I need a quick refresher course before I look at the stack of coins. With that information fresh in my head, I then look through all those coins having the one date & mm. When I am through with one stack, I go back to my references & study for the next date & mm. I look at each coin in the stack under a binocular microscope. However, you may find that a loop or other magnifier may work well for you. Some varieties are difficult (if not impossible) to pick-up without magnification.
I just flip them around and look for wheat backs. I only save wheats from cents since i dont need nor want any memorial cents.
Why worry about what X reference has listed? All are quite limited, so would it not be more important to be able to identify a variety than to worry about whatever a guide/reference/list has to say? If your variety searching interests are mostly in profit, by all means select the known valuable dates only. If obtaining varieties for your collection is the goal, why not take closer look at each (condition worthy) coin? You may be surprised what you find. There are over 100 different DDR's known for the 1964-P alone (Wexler) while Cherrypickers lists three and coppercoins seven more. If you have a solid understanding of varieties no guide is necessary. JMHO.
