I'm curious how everyone searches rolls. I'm gonna grab a red book sometime and I have just ordered a loupe. So up to this point, I've probably been doing fairly poor searching. How do you guys do it? Do you grab each coin and look it over and check for any errors? Then if you see something, go check the book? Or do you sort your coins and then verse yourself on the errors for a certain year and search through a bunch of each year? Thanks.
Well what i do is i look for what years i need to complete or help along my sets. Good job getting a magnifier but u do need a book. Did you decide on a certain series of coins yet? Lincolns, Jeffersons, Washingtons, Kennedies etc. You could go with buffalos and indian heads but those are more of cherry picking collections because rolls are hard to come by. So decide on a coin buy lots of rolls, get a glove, and the Red Book is what i would suggust. Any one else? Just my techniques... Peter
I'm not sure about everyone else, but I'll make a note of what year/mint mark combinations I'm looking for in a specific denomination, then set to sorting by (depending on exactly how many coins I'm going to be looking through) either year or decade, setting aside only those that match my list of what I'm looking for. At that point, I'll grab a reference and go through looking for the identifying characteristics. A textual description of the variety is helpful, but pictures really are worth a thousand words here. Hope that helps, Fish
Start a collection of whatever you're looking through if you expect to do it for a period of time. This may sound like very obvious advice but you'd be surprised how many people look through something like half dollars and don't have a collection of them. They'll just pull out silver and good varieties they're aware of. The great thing about a collection is that you'll learn a great deal more about the coins. You'll be able to spot things that stand out as being different after a time. Sure a 1971 kennedy will never sell for much even in gem AU but you'll never know the coin is tough if you don't save the nicest one you see. It's also much easier to spot varieties. You'll learn what your collection looks like and spot coins that are different. A collection also serves as a handy reference when you do suspect a variety. You don't have to look and look for a coin of the same date for comparison. Remember that a very high percentage of lightly worn coins are special in some way. Frequently they are lightly worn simply because a collector noted something special and saved it for years. Then they get accidently spent or the heirs take it to a dealer who invariably will tell them it's junk and they should spend it. Don't get bogged down in the mundane. If you pour over every beat up old coin looking for something special it will deduct from the time you have to search. You''ll miss a few coins but at least mostly it will be junk that you're missing. It is imperative that you learn the good dates, grades, and varieties. This will be a daunting task at first but you'll quickly start picking it up. After time you can almost smell the rarities even if it's disguised as beat up old junk. At first you won't be able to go very fast and will have to look stuff up but the pace should pick up rapidly as you learn what is junk. I make three piles; rejects, keepers, and questions. These go into the piles very quickly and a roll takes only a couple minutes. In my specialty there will be 990 rejects, 4 keepers, and 6 questionables. These questionables are usually coins that I looked at wrong at first. A brief look will reveal that they are just run of the mill coins or are better dates but just aren't quite nice enough to keep. Many of them are good enough and go into the keeper pile. A few will be varieties which I've never seen before. If they are significant then it's added to the list of things I look for. Keepers are divided into multiple types; Those which are so nice they are compared to the coin in the collection, coins that aren't good enough for the collection but are scarce enough to save, and unc coins gem enough to save. These categories each get processed differently. Use a glass but don't get bogged down with a glass unless you're collecting very minor varieties. The more desirable ones can be spotted with the naked eye (or smelled). If you're just going through a bag or something then that's an entirely different matter. The process may be equally complicated but it's much different. There's no need to have a collection of something if you're just going through a batch of coins looking for anything special.
As I am mainly just intrested in Silver I concern my self with dates then anything early gets looked into further
Definitely have a question pile. Set them aside until you are all finished. Saves time on looking up stuff or close examinations. Also a good point on learning what to look for first. Once you know that, rolls go fast and you graduate to bags!!!:thumb: Rolls are just a gateway search that leads to boxes or bags of coins. Happy hunting, Michael
