Good afternoon, I am new to coin collecting and I searched few one cent boxes looking for the coins to fill my folders. While looking at the several forum threads I noticed few older proof one cent coins. I saw few newer proof coins and they seem to be easy to recognize, however I am not sure how to recognize older cent coins. This also applies for all the older us coins. Any help and examples will be appreciated.
1968, all proof coins were, and currently are being, struck at the San Francisco Mint, with the exception of bullion proofs which are mostly struck at the West Point Mint, i.e. gold and silver eagle and buffalo proofs, and commemoratives. Prior to 1968, Philadelphia struck the proofs.
I believe his question is how does he tell a proof from a circulation strike. And no I don't know the answer.
Proof coins are usually much shinier and brighter than regular coins. Unless someone decided to use them for circulation. Another way to tell is by the strike, most proof pennies have strong strikes, but again if for some reason they were circulated it would be hard to tell.
Proof coins will be FULLY Struck. Their rims will be sharp and much higher than a coin struck for circulation. On edge, the coin will even appear Thicker than its circulation struck counterpart. The mintmark is the tell tale sign for proof coins minted from 1068 thru today although not all S Mint coins are in fact proof coins. The San Francisco facility produced S Mint mark cents from 1968 until 1974. Prior to 1968, experience in knowing what a proof coin should look like is your best friend. Circulated or not. The sharpness of the strike, and some of these are literally sharp on the edges, will identify a proof coin. If the piece has been in circulation, it will more than likely exhibit literal "mirrors" in the fields. You could comb your hair in these mirrors. The exception is the Matte Proof Lincolns of 1909 through 1916. Some of these have been found but it requires a bit more technical expertise than I possess.
Put it this way: if you're roll searching or going through your pocket change, you aren't going to find any proofs unless you are having a really rare day. Even if you do find one while cherry picking, it ain't going to be worth putting in your collection.
I believe the OP is saying the newer proofs he has been dealing with are more shinier. That is because most of the modern proofs are struck being ultra cameo/cameo, which give them a deeper shine. Whilist, older proofs (wheat cents) were used are just proofs, not as many cameo's that there are now. OP; this is a ultra cameo cent; http://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-S-1C-P...39?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item256c4d4f3f here is a regular proof; http://www.ebay.com/itm/1960-LARGE-...67?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item19ce4a2aff I know it is hard to see, but try to gather that the ultra cameo has deeper mirror surfaces.
