Lincoln help

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by spock1k, Jul 30, 2008.

  1. spock1k

    spock1k King of Hearts

    Hi I am not really a Lincoln expert per se. My collection up till now was limited to the vdb and the steel cents in gem unc. but recently i have been gifted 5000+ cents all Wheaties for the most part few indian heads and a couple of memorial reverse cents. How do i go about sorting the bag? what are the key dates/mint marks that i should be looking for? Do i take the rest of them to the bank to deposit remember they are all wheaties. I have 45 days from July 1 to complete this (i cant really answer more on that but thats all the time I have) Thanks for all the help guys :)
     
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  3. davidh

    davidh soloist gnomic

    45 days might not be enough time to do this right. That's over four rolls a day, 7 days a week for 6.5 weeks. Doing that gets old after a while.

    I'm not a Lincoln expert be any means, but here's what I would do.

    First, decide what you want from all this. Just key dates? a full year set? A full year/mint set? Only certain grades? I'd say, that instead of just looking for key dates, you could see if you could make up a few year sets.

    Second, get a book on cents, or at least copy a chart from the internet showing the relative rarity of the years.

    Third, sort them all into decades - pre 10s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and Memorials. With that many coins you could use whipped cream or butter tubs to organize them.

    Fourth, using an egg carton, sort each decade down by year.

    From there, it should be easy to pick out the years/mints that appeal to your needs and wants.

    At the end, if you have enough to make a few year sets, you could make up a few to sell/give to kids starting the hobby. With the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Lincoln, there's likely to be a spike in interest.

    When you're all done doing what you want, if you just want to get rid of them, I'll take them off your hands. Don't take them to a bank; at the very least a dealer might give you more than face value.
     
  4. grnwavdav

    grnwavdav Numismatic Addict

    The major key dates are:
    1909 s vdb
    1909 s
    1914 d
    1922 weak d/ plain
    1924 d
    1931 s

    And I think some dealers will give you $.03 a piece for the commons.
     
  5. Harryj

    Harryj Supporter**

    Be kind to Jack, Maybe he will send you one of his Lincoln books. I think even a regular wheatie is worth more than a penny. With condition being a factor, I think pre 1920 lincolns a worth a little bit more. There is also a 36 double die.
     
  6. TC2007

    TC2007 Senior Member

    Look at all your 1922's very closely...they may have slipped you a nice surprise!
     
  7. sf340flier

    sf340flier New Member

    The was I do it is I take and sort initally via teens, 20's, 30's, 40-d's, 40-s's, 40's, 50-d's, 50-s's, and 50's. I have a seperate bucket for culls, and one for those that are keepers, just need to be cleaned. I also have my airtites and 2x2's on hand for the BU's and errors.

    Eventually, you will want to get these together by year and mm. You can then look for the varities. I like looking through the lincolns as a guide, but there are others.

    Don't ever take these to the bank. Put them here in the BSt if need be...you should be able to get 2 cents a piece even if they are searched.
     
  8. Arizona Jack

    Arizona Jack The Lincoln-ator

    Grasshopper

    When you can sort a bag a day for a week, then ask me for further advise. Untill then, watch Karate Kid and do what Pat Morita says.
     
  9. NPCoin

    NPCoin Resident Imbecile

    Agreed, with minor adjustments. :)

    $50 face in cents can be gone through, sorted, and cherry-picked in a good 72 hour session, less proper sleep, food, and commode time. ;)

    Like sf340flier said, you will want to sort by decade first, keeping all 1909 varieties separate. As well, keep the memorials, Indians, and "others" in their own separate piles. If you have a moderately sized mirror, clean it with distilled water and dry it with a microfiber and buff it out. Use this as your slider and work area. Do not even bother with gloves, just keep your hands off of anything moist or dirty, including drinks. Take regular breaks throughout. A little bit of finger oil and mirror sliding on the sides and edges of the rims is not going to turn your cents into problem coins.

    I would take a good sizable amount out of the bag and start off (just pour some onto the mirror. Then, just quickly separate the obverse facing from the reverse facing. Slide the obverse facing coins around the mirror to separate the 5 different decades. Once you have those separated, just slide them off the edge of the mirror/desk into the appropriately marked container. Slide the reverse facing coins back into the bag, and start the process over.

    You should be able to have $50 face sorted by decade within about 5 hours of this. Now that you have the cents sorted, you can start cherry-picking from decade 1 on up to the 1950's. I would personally take the extra time to sort them by date (mixed mint marks). After that, I would scrutinize each date carefully looking for any errors and/or varieties (using whatever source you want to determine what would qualify for such).

    If you are putting albums together, I would put the coins into albums at this point in the sorting/searching stage. You may also want to consider putting the coins back together as year/MM rolls as well at this point. It will make things easier to go back over again later if you decide to keep certain ones or need to find specific date/MM's later.

    Most importantly, enjoy your time with your coins while you have it! ;)
     
  10. NPCoin

    NPCoin Resident Imbecile

    Sort, easy...extensive cherry-pick, near impossible. ;) Then again, I have five kids, so there is quite an amount of disruption and interruption.
     
  11. Arizona Jack

    Arizona Jack The Lincoln-ator

    Checking my invoices, I think I have sorted upwards of 200,000 wheats this summer alone, all tubed by date/mm/grade and the better stuff carded.

    Thats 40 bags since March

    Yes, the decade sort takes about 5 hours
     
  12. andycook

    andycook Supporter**

    I find that dixie cups are my best friend. I set one up for each year and mm. After the sort by decade, the year and mm goes pretty quickly. Coins go in the tubes by year and mm at the end of the sort. I then sort each year/mm again by a rough assessment of condition. I suffer a few setbacks when "helped" by my 4 year old and 2 year old but the time together is worth it.
     
  13. vegasvic

    vegasvic Vegas Vic

    If you take them to the bank, let me know when and wherre. edited
    Vegas Vic
     
  14. grnwavdav

    grnwavdav Numismatic Addict

    Where do you get these bags from? A local dealer? And are they guaranteed
    to be unsearched?
     
  15. spock1k

    spock1k King of Hearts

    i used to do that but they were gold coins. i used to take a daily swim in them. Too bad those days are gone :rolleyes:
     
  16. spock1k

    spock1k King of Hearts

    there are 1909 svdb floating around in that bag not to mention silver. that should answer your questions
     
  17. vegasvic

    vegasvic Vegas Vic

    I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I would be glad to sell to anyone that thinks that there are actually unsearched Wheaties still around.
    Vegas Vic
     
  18. Harryj

    Harryj Supporter**

    Have ye little faith? Never underestimate the power of a Budgood Bag.
     
  19. spock1k

    spock1k King of Hearts

    my friend i believe in what i see and what i get. there are skeptics who beleive that gold cannot be bought at m5 65 levels for under melt but i have done it there are those who believe that budgood bags dont contain lincolns i will tell you the lincolns i got in one of his bags wil make some of the cents out there pale in comparison i hate toned coins but i loved those coins breathtaking. so word tot he wise if you colect cents buy the bag if he agrees to sell you one that is. I should have bought my bag of gold dollars when i had the chance
     
  20. rlm's cents

    rlm's cents Numismatist

    I cannot guarantee that it was unsearched, but if it was they sure missed a good one. Look at this! http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=38521
     
  21. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator



    You're not visualizing correctly - wax on, wax off ;)
     
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