How is it humanly possible to examine every last coin you search, for every last variety listed on Variety Vista? And even if you like to spend all of that time looking for those varieties, which ones are actually worth something? Variety Vista shows 17 DDO varieties for the 1972 Lincoln penny, while the Red Book mentions only "doubled die obverse". Variety Vista shows plenty of doubled dies for coins that the Red Book makes no mention of. Is this because those varieties aren't worth anything above face value? I mean, with 17 types of DDO on the 1972, surely a lot of them will be doubled and that'd diminish the value. Many of the doubled die varieties showing seemed hardly doubled at all. I have a bunch of pennies I've kept and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to take the time to sort them by year and mint mark so that I can check them for varieties. I may as well not do that unless I'm likely to hit bank on a variety, because beyond that, I see no point in holding on to a coin that I'd only be able to differentiate from a "plain" example by using a microscope. "Hey, check out my 1975 doubled die! Lemme fire up my microscope so that you can tell why it's so special!" Any thoughts?
Only so many varieties can be listed in The Red book. It was never intended to be an encyclopedia on die varieties. It is a general, quick research guide for collectors. If these varieties were listed, it would become “The Red Book Encyclopedia” because there are far more varieties of U.S. coins than you have cited. You buy the die variety books if you want to learn or specialize in those coins. Having said that, there have been lobbying efforts for years to get certain coins into The Red Book listings. It does boost the price of an item once it gets in. The trouble is, they can’t all be listed.
Not sure why you are complaining about how many varieties there are and that it isn't worth your time. So, don't look through them. If it was so easy to find valuable coins, well, they wouldn't be worth so much, right? Maybe you are searching coins for the wrong reason: profit instead of actually learning.
Information as such is there because an element of the collecting community is interested in adding some variety to collecting. I have said the same thing about the VAM listings of Morgan dollars. Some have more than 50 listings. And, it is very difficult to differentiate one from the other. But VAM collectors are very knowledgeable of the minute differences and love the search. It is all a matter of what a person wants in their collection.
I must've been thinking about another date I just checked, that had 17. Still, 10. That's a lot. Would you say that to someone who searches halves and dimes purely to find silver? I'm trying to pull stuff that's optimally valuable for the least time investment. If an esoteric die variety only commands a few times face value, it's hardly worth putting the coin under a microscope to find it. I read recently of a CT poster who went through 2,000,000 pennies. There's no way he microscoped each and every last one of them. What I really want to know is - which ones are actually worth something? Is there a resource where I can find values for this stuff - even relative values - like the Red Book? To give you an idea, there's a big thing about the 1975-D nickel, where the location of the mint mark can cause it to be a valuable die variety. But there are numerous locations of that mint mark, some of which are "closer" than others, and apparently only the "really close" one is worth more than face. (And how much more, I don't know.) The "close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades" variety isn't worth more than face, even though it's a variety. (And none of these are listed on Variety Vista, as far as I can tell!)
my sentiments exactly, i prefer a machine doubled letter coin that i can actually see to these varieties you can only see under 20X magnification, do not care for whether valuable o=r not, i like to see it..anyways...
The chances you are going to find ANYTHING worth your time that someone wants to buy is one in several Million. There are much better ways to use your time and make a profit. Cashing in aluminum cans, bottles, and striping out copper wire come to mind and will be more profitable. Very, very few get-rich-quick folks make money with coins. So you can go two ways, try something else with your time or HAVE FUN learning what to look for as you educate yourself looking at pocket change you get for "FREE" at the bank. As for resources, the internet is all you need but chances are you will not find any specific pricing info. Also join CONECA. Good Luck. I REALLY hope you find a "Discovery Coin" to post here and make me eat my words.
Sure. Variety Vista likes to sell books and a part of their market isn't necessarily collectors but people who imagine they can hit the jackpot by wasting their time searching for the countless worthless errors they like to list in their books. And you bought one of their books. Are you beginning to get the idea?
Every single coin is unique if you look close enough. It'd be easier to track these "varieties" if the mint would just put serial numbers on EVERY coin!!!
My parents used to say read, research, learn. Of course, I used to say, do I have to. Final answer, YES! Thanks for the post.
Some people have a focus. James Porter has assembled the only known complete set of over 100 varieties of the 2009 P Formative Years Lincoln Cent doubled dies. That would be a show worthy exhibit INMHO. There are also over 100 doubled die varieties of the 2015 P Homestead Quarter. I am working on this set. It is for my enjoyment only and I currently have around 50 of them last I remembered. I'm never going to get rich doing this, but that was never my intention. Some also try to complete progressions of a simple die break (crack/chip). It's tedious but satisfying also. And it might be fun to complete certain runs of RPM's. In the end, it's what brings a happy face to you during and at the completion of any given project. Collect what you like and move on from the rest. It's really that simple.
Oh. Well then that's the way to do it. Unless you're into collecting all their errors, just look for the ones that have resale value. It's not that hard, as there aren't that many.
There are many coins, that because of a high mintage for a given date & mint do not command much value even in high grades because there are many of them extant, so collectors may look for something else to distinguish them from the rest, such as vibrant toning, prooflike, deep cameo, or a Variety. As far as Varieties go, the big 2 (PCGS and NGC) are restrictive as to what they will attribute as a Variety, even if you present them with a letter from a noted specialist. In those cases, if I truly want the variety attributed I will send the coin to ANACS and for the $9 or $12 fee they will--if they concur with what you're claiming--slab it with the Label Annotation.
Definition of a Numismatist: An individual that will spend outrageous amounts of money on a single cent, sometimes hoping to resell it at a profit so they may purchase a better example of the same coin.
Well, SOME collectors collect for the varieties, value isn't a consideration at all really, they are collecting die varieties, and by die marriages sometimes too. if you are in it for "the money" and don't want to waste your time for minor varieties, stick to the ones listed in the redbook alone, or go on variety vista and look up the varieties on ebay and see what they are selling for and the factor in the cost of grading into their sold values and determine if it's worth the effort and make a list of what you want to look for and skip the rest. variety vista is for variety collectors, same goes for cherry pickers guide really, there's plenty of better ways to spend your time to make money than searching coins. Some people enjoy searching coins, and spending the time doing it regardless if there is a profit in doing it and enjoy finding a new variety to add to their collection even if it's face valued. errors would be a different animal, and those are few and far between to find them also. Yeah, I'd say for the time spent, just get a job that pays minimum wage and you'll come out far ahead with the time spent of coin roll hunting for profit. Possible to make money on it, but the people that do, do it as a 16 hour+ a day, 7 days a week type job or start a youtube channel to look through rolls and buy the coins to give away to people that donate money to them. as a cost of doing business making them think theres all kinds of finds. The "job" isn't the coin roll hunting, the "job" is the youtube channel and making money off the viewers any way they can from donations, or selling roll searches, or merchandising ect. yeah there's a lot of varieties, most aren't valuable, if you don't want to look for them, don't look for them. I was stoked to find 1998 and 2000 WAM lincoln cents, also stoked to find quarters with rim cuds. all these things, maybe a $5 bill each on a good day on ebay.... and that's with the shipping included. Not worth it if you are doing it for profit. Start a youtube channel roll hunting and join the hundreds of others and panhandle your viewers, it's more profitable!
I've collected Lincoln Wheat Cent RPMs for 30 years now. I search BU rolls for them. I also look for DDO's that show up on the date, since I'm looking there anyway. Last few years I've become interested in BIEs, so I also have been looking for DDOs that show up LIBERTY. How many hundreds of BIEs and DDO's did I pass up along the way with my very specific search methods? I don't generally even look at the reverse, so I miss all the DDR's. I just don't find them very interesting. Recently I saw a thread talking about how rare 1941-S Large S are. One guy said he paid $40 for a decent BU copy at a show. My heart dropped because I had just sold a couple of rolls of 41-S without even knowing the Large S was rare. How many did I give to the next guy? It's all part of the fun, and more knowledge makes you a better searcher, but you can't find them all.
