Looking for Error Coins

Do you guys eyeball every coin through the loupe or do you just target year/mint combinations that are known to have errors?

I also read on here that the more visible an error to the naked eye, the more valuable it is so I'm using my loupe for now but hopefully I'll develop an eye for soon.

thanks!

JAC

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

With halves, I first search for the silver of course. THen I usually sort by date and mintmarkchecking for rotation, no FG initials and placing into stacks. After all sorted, I examine the edges of all coins in a stack at the same time. Last, roll up all the ones that are not in cherrypickers. Not worth the trouble, to me, to check harder. Thinking about not looking for no FG's and clad DDO's and DDR's as no dealers seem to want them. Same idea for other denominations. I check for 98,99 and 00 wide am all at once. Those can all be one pile and I don't check the edges on these.

 

I check every coin with a magnify glass, you never know what you might find.

 

Yep, I check every one as well.

 

Search the entire coin carefully, take your time but don't concentrate on one specific area. If you stare to long, whatever you think you have found will not go away in your mind...

 

With erros if I can't see it at 12 to 18 inches under light

With erros if I can't see it at 8 to 12 inches under light I do not look any further - with varieties I search the known dates/mint-mark combinations.
For instance I search all 1983-P Lincoln's but no 1979-P, (just an example).

 

every now and then i just check the ones that are to have errors, but 95% of the time i check them all. i found alot of errors on coins that are not supposed to have em---bill

 

What you guys don't find, leaves more for me I check everything. Over the years I've discovered at least a dozen previously unknown doubled dies.

The key is to first learn about what you are looking at so that you don't just pile away hundreds of machine doubled coins.

By looking only at the known die varieties, which easily run into the thousands of coins in the Lincoln cent series for example, you can miss out on something big.

One of the folks on this forum Ziggy, made a brilliant catch awhile ago and found one of the most dramatic doubled dies on a Lincoln cent that had gone unnoticed since 1982. Why? Because everyone was paying attention to 1983 and 1984 cents and skipping over the 1982 cents.

Learn what a doubled die looks like and learn what junk looks like and then check everything.

Have Fun,
Bll

 

Just another opportunity to educate. Most of the time when you guys call something an error, you are talking about something that is really a die variety.

Don't confuse the two. Any coin will have minor imperfections. They are not errors.

Here's a brief encapsulation of what is what.

Errors are relatively major mishaps that occur during the actual, mechanical part of minting a coin. An off-center struck coin is an error, for example.

Die Varieties are coins that have major issues with the manufacture of the die itself. Doubled dies, tripled dies, etc. occur as hubs and dies come together without being properly aligned. The details on the die are actually doubled. Repunched Mint marks are die varieties that can occur when a mint mark (prior to 1990) is added to a die.

Die chips are an indication of the stage a die is in. Many specialists include these in a separate category. I do.

The terms are important to use correctly and should ot be interchanged.

A 1955 Doubled die cent, for example is a die variety and not an error.

A coin struck by a capped die is an error and not a die variety.

A coin with a clogged 9 or a filled 0 due to a die chip or two indicates that the die being used is at a certain stage in it's life. The clogs are acceptable as far as the Mint's specs go so technically they are not an error although some may disagree with that.

Machine doubled coinage is common and to most, junk with no value. People , including some dealers think they have value because their eyeballs light up at the sight of any kind of doubling. Unfortunately, machine doubling is as common as sand on Jone's Beach, and is also acceptable based upon the specs used by the Mint to mint a coin. It is a form of damage.

Try not to confuse the terms so that as you progress in the hobby, others can learn from you. This is an area of our hobby that is truly growing and you get a chance to understand it by first learning and using some of the terminology correctly.

Thanks and Have Fun,
Bill

 

Bill I respect your style and right to "look at every coin"

Bill I respect your opinion and you certainly have the right to "look at every coin" but all of us tired eyed roll and hoard searchers do it a little different I think.
I look for "the money coin" for years I sent in box after box of stuff to Bordner, Welxer, Ribar, Potter and Crawford and added several dozen new varieties to the above mentioned files.
Then if had 37 (or 237 as I often did) extra BU copies of say 1960-D WRPM-200 where to go with them. I found myself with several thousand new and old die varieites in tubes that no one except a few would ever want. I sold boxes of them to Sullivan in Nashville for the grand total of 5 to 9 cents each.
It began to dawn on me that while it's great to find these minors it was never going to be that profitable.
Don't get me arong, I still buy every bank wrapped roll that is offered to me but this is not where "the money is" and it's not what the "coin buying public wants" either. For better of worse, if it's not in the Red Book or at least the CPG it ain't going to bring much attention or "feed the bulldog".
The guy that found that 82 rev. was indeed a lucky and determined variety dude. But I will never, I mean never search 1978 or 79, 1965, Lincoln Cents unless they are MS-67 Reds and then just for the coin itself without a die variety. Now most other dates I will check depending on condition. Now I may miss something big but I'm going to chance it.
By the way I always search the 82's because it was a transition year and I have manged to put most of the 7 different ones up in 66, 67 Red.
I guess what I'm trying to say is at first I searched everything and found everything but it was not helping me that much spending time on "the minors" - nobody including me really cared or desired them - I felt like a was waisting time.
For the very recent minors I find dozens every week, I like the wavy steps but the extra collums I just throw back in the sak to be returned to the bank unless they are gems then I give those to kids or others who may find an interest in them - I also give all circulated doubled dies and top RPM's to folks just to share "the finds". This past week I found 2 1968-D/D RPM #1, a 1964-P DDR #1 and several of the big 1960-D RPM's - I will give them to friends at my show Saturday. I have sent doubled dies free of charge to several on this site.
I think many go thru this early learning stage when they get excited about every little thing. I know I did but now I look for the better ones - it's hard enough doing that on a full time basis.
If someone ever finds a big 1979-P Lincoln DDO I'll say, "well I guess I should have looked" and be the first to say I was wrong but I think this boils down to "bang for the buck".
I think we all search different in some way or another and that's just fine.
Maybe it's best at first to search everthing and on that you may be right!

 

I can see how that would be true for some. But I like to check at least 90 percent of my coins. If you check out site like coppercoins.com, you will see that there are so many varieties and errors out there. To put them back in circulation knowing what they are worth is like throwing away money to me. I believe that if you keep them, then some day they might be worth more. But, I am 33 years old and have a little time for that to happen. So I will keep them. Good example of that is the 1983 DDO's. Most people just look at the rev. and then toss them. I have found at least 4 DDO's and would have not if I followed the advice from many to just look at certain ones. Just my opinion.
Jessie

And by the way, I have found many 1979D RPM's

 

good stuff here

 

I have a binocular disecting microscope and it sure reveals much more than my 10X loupe. I discovered I actually had an 1869/9 Indian head cent already in my collection.

New question: I just bought what I hoped would be an 1869 Indian Head cent standard mint strike to discover it appeared to be a double struck or shadow image on the obverse and the reverse is about 20 degrees off verticle from the front. I am not sure if this could be a mint error or a sloppy counterfeit. Any help?

 

Post a pic for us to observe. it usually helps.:thumb:

 

1869 Indian Head fake or fortune

Thanks for asking. I've uploaded three images. Note the obverse and reverse are about 20 degrees different from being parallel with each other. The shadow image adjacent to the obverse features isn't as obvious from the scanned image as it is through a binocular scope.

 

If you didn't know, from 1864-L thru 1886 T-1, extra outlines were added to improve the sharpness of the strike. Alot of times these are confused as being doubled die. Hope this helps...

 

Thanks I didn't know that. How about the reverse being 20 degrees off verticle in comparison with the front of the coin. How can that happen in the minting process?

 

WOW, I really admire the patience you folks have , my eyes would:bigeyes: bug out & :rolling: never stop rolling around :smile

 

I believe this is an example of Longacre doubling, you can google it.

 

THANK YOU! I was just checking out Ken Potter's site for that phrase. It was on the tip of my tongue, but couldn't remember it. That is what is going on w/ this coin. The 20 percent off strike though is a good find either way. Not sure on the value, but it should get you a good premium