Methodology of New Roll Searching?

For you experienced collectors, what is the methodology for searching new rolls? For example, if you open a new roll of buffalo nickels, what do you look for? Obviously one answer is errors. Another would be to how many contact marks are on each coin. Are there other steps that should be taken?

Thanks

 

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The best bet is to learn to do it quickly and to always be on the lookout. There will usually be only a few die pairs represented in a small sample or a large sample. The range of the die life represented by these coins will typically be fairly brief and usually less than a quarter of their life. It's not really necessary to look at every coin very closely once you've determined which ones warrant a better look. With brand new coins there is a much better chance of there being unreported varieties represented. Do a good side by side comparison of each die before you even get started.

Some bags won't have a single coin worth saving in it. You can spend ten or fifteen minutes determining this and go scout out more to check or you can spend hours carefully scanning every coin. Even when there are a bunch of keepers, you can go through pretty fast when you know what you're looking for.

 

So when you say there are a few die pairs, do you mean that when you open a roll, you focus on the ones that have higher luster because they were struck when the dies were fresher?

 

I should have phrased this better.

Most coins now days will all be struck by 1,000 or 2,000 sets of dies, more or less. Each set of dies (die pair) will tend to strike their finest coins when they are new and horrible coins right before they are retired. Coins from new dies are not necessarily nice coins though. The dies can be misaligned or spaced improperly or just not hit the planchets with enough authority to bring up the entire design, but they don't normally get better with time.

When you get coins from the mint they come in large bags. These bags are not representative of what was struk that year. The bag could contain only ugly coins from fifteen or twenty die pair or it could contain almost all gems from brand new dies. But it will not contain a few coins from all the different dies because of the way that dies are used and the bags are filled. When these bags are counted into smaller units these smaller units will be representative of the bag not the mint's production. This means every single example of a rare and valuable variety like a '55 DDO cent or an extra leaf WI quarter might go into a single bag. It also means you can check these pretty fast since in you know what die pairs are in the bag then you don't have to actually look at every coin. (if there are a dozen different coins in a '55 cent bag and none are doubled dies then there are no doubled dies in the bag).

This will also apply to badly worn dies since every example of a die that is included will range over only about a quarter of the dies' life usually. On rare occasion coins will be damaged as they are ejected from the dies. Since this will affect every coin this can help speed you through a bag. By the time you get well into an accumulation you should have a pretty good idea of what you're looking for. This will save you the time required for close inspection of each coin.

You really can go through $500 worth of quarters in as little as 10 minutes with little danger of missing anything important. With the newer coins there are a lot more nice strikes and this can slow you down consideranly. You can also be slowed if there are four or five die pairs you're pulling out or if there is some minor variety that's difficult to see. For these a large magnifier on a flexible arm will speed things up and save wear and tear bending over with a hand held loupe. The longest a $1000 bag takes me is about 7 hours and the shortest is about fifteen minutes. An hour is typical. I try to save the nicest of each die pair even when they're not very good.

 

Thanks Cladking, your information is very informative. Essentially what you are saying is that the theories of statistics apply here. Generally, a small sample will tell you how good the die pair is for the lot, and after that, it is merely a matter of looking for varieties.

 

Yes. But, of course, there will be ten to twenty die pairs represented in most of these samples.

 

What about rolls - 1 or maybe 2 die pairs?

 

It's luck of the draw and will vary over time and from roll to roll. Figure six to eight but it will be higher sometimes.

 

Thanks, CladKing, U always have informative post!