These two nickels I found appear to have only half a rim, and on the otherside the bottom nickel appears to be somewhat missing lettering. Is this an error or wear from circulation?
Is there an acceptable amount of lack of rim? Would an error like this increase the value of the coin?
Yes, I think so. Do you have calipers? Can you measure the %-age of the rim that's lost? If it's over 63.705%... PS: Actually, no on both questions. And welcome to CoinTalk; where you ask the questions, we find the answers.
Ill see if i can figure out how much rim is missing since you brought up an exact percentage now i gotta know lol... what type of errors are rare and of value? I see a lot of hype over error coins and crazy values and it kinda makes me wonder what the big finds would be... seems like there's way more to all of this than I would've ever imagined
Wish the obverse images were clearer. The 1999 appears to be a misaligned die strike - note how the reverse is well lined up, while the obverse is off-center. The 197? seems to be genuinely off-center on both faces, although in different directions. This one is a bit more interesting, although neither type gains any additional value until letters "fall off" the edge. The older coin seems close. Either way, don't start planning retirement.
Most of it is just that, hype. You get an empty room and the right kind of people in it, and there's no stopping you. Your question related to which are really valuable to most collectors is harder to answer than you know. Isn't there a Wiki or something on coin errors? There aren't too many real basic types. My advice, use your Google bar, get a basic understanding what's out there. Then, just find it, show it to us, and we'll take it from there.
Oh I'm not looking for the worlds most time consuming get rich quick scheme but have worked behind bars and other retail postions all exchange all sorts of random change and it really makes me wonder how much you could let pass through your fingertips, i do like the idea of error coins just because the fact that they goofed up a bit but don't really see why someone would pay some of the prices listed for some of the over hyped coins I've seen fox articles on lol