Got a box of Halves. Now what?

I got some halves too recently. My dad picked up two rolls, got nothing and I got 30 dollars unrolled fromt he bank. One 40% silver and a 1999 in terrible condition. Also had a question though. Sometimes the halves are fully smooth around the outside. Is this normal? Any reason why this occurs?

 

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The halves that are smooth on the "third side" have spent a considerable amount of time working in a casino. the rolling that happens to them in slot machines wears the edge down before the obverse and reverse are worn away. So while it is not "normal" it is very common.

 

Alrite thanks. Interesting fact. No use in keeping these then. I just notices some of them that were worn down were all sliver colored on the edge even though they weren't silver. Thanks.

 

Hi All,
Boy, I'd Love to go through the stuff after you're done searching to pull all the doubled dies out

There are knockouts for many years in the 70s as well as the 1964 dated coins and the 40% stuff.

I have yet to go through $500.00 worth without finding a few. These are not mechanically doubled, These are serious doubled dies worth bucks. As advice, don't save the Bicentennial ones (unless they are silver) thay arent worth anymore than 50 cents.

Have Fun,
Bill

 

Bill, how do you look for them? I tried once, but half of them looked like double dies to me. Do you use a magnifying glass kinda like the ones jewlers use? I sure know I'd need something powerful, because I tried looking for them with a not-so-powerful magnifying glass, and half of them looked doubled. Maybe it was just the shadow from bad lighting, I don't know.

 

Hi,
Yes, I use a jewelers loupe. its only an 8X loupe so these are pretty easy to spot. Go the gallery. There is a link at the top of this page. I set up a gallery of Doubled Die stuff. You can see what a 1974 D DDO Looks like as well as what to look for on a 1966 DDO. They are the "Pick Up Points", as we call them.
There are coins as mentioned in my other post with many being from the 1964, and the 40% silver issues that are excellent doubled die struck coins. There are also many from the early 1970s that are out there.
Look at the IN GOD WE TRUST Motto for splits on the serifs. There are some, I can think of a 1972 that is almost as doubled as the 1974 D pieces.
These can actually be seen with a 4x handheld lens from "wal-mart" that you can pick up for a few bucks.
As always, the tough thing is to get the difference between mechanically doubled stuff and the true die doubled coins. Like the 1974 D, Look for the splits at the serifs and the nice grooves on the lettering. The doubling is rounded on the good ones and flat on the mechanically doubled stuff.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
Have Fun,
Bill

 

ha! You won't believe this... After reading your post, I walked into our living room and picked up a half dollar that was on top of a couple half dollar rolls that I hadn't cashed in yet AND....it was a double die! I could barely see it with my naked eye, so I asked my dad if he had a loupe, he said he did and went and got it.

Its a 1974 D. the doubling is on the reverse. You can see it on alteast one letter in every word, but it is most clear on the "ICA" of 'America'.

what are the chances of that happening?!

Now I just gotta figure out this mechanical doubling thing.

 

Hi,
Hang on to the coin. It still may be mechanical doubling and not die doubling. If there is a way to post a scan or a picture, we can probably tell you for sure.
Mechanical doubling is obviously much more common and can be deceptive.
I hope you got a good one!!
Have Fun,
Bill

 

Not to many people I know of save those. I go to a bank and get 4 to 6 rolls every week or so, look though them for Walkers, spend the rest for the fun of watching people give me strange looks as they wonder what they are. One guy bought the entire 4 rolls from me because he thought they were rare or something. Naturally I had alread looked though all of them. I've got my Whitman Classic Album for them but the entire album is really not worth much except the proofs. My advice is bo out and spend them. I used to draw mustaches on Kennedy when I had nothing better to do.

 

Were all "S" Kennedy halves proofs? I have a 1971 S and 1989 S that I received in circulation, and while they look well struck, they don't really look like proofs.

 

Wiles has no listing for a '74-D DDR but it's still possible to make new discoveries.
This date had a large mintage and one could have "slipped through the cracks".

 

They call proof coins you find in circulation miss-handled proofs.

 

I've seen mishandled proofs before... usually recent ones are easy to spot because the field has picked up fingerprints but the details are still sharp. These don't quite look like those... there's not much wear, details are pretty sharp but not extremely so, and it doesn't seem like they ever had a mirrored field. But if San Francisco only minted proofs in 1971 and 1989, I guess they would have to be... it's just that mishandling wasn't as hard on these coins apparently as is usually the case. I suppose they could be Proof-55's or so... maybe I should post scans of them here.

As for the mintages... did San Francisco only mint proofs in 1971 and 1989? If so then these would have to be mishandled proofs. Found one of them in change and the other in a 50 cent slot machine in Biloxi, MS.

 

NM... jsut checked on PCGS's site... yep, these are apparently mishandled proofs. Looking closer at them I can see it... the details are pretty sharp still, though slot machines weren't very kind to them. Luckily I rescued them before they got recycled back into the machines, lol... I'll post scans of them next time I have access to a scanner, maybe you can grade them.

 

I found about 6 proofs in rolls this year. The S mints are all from proofs and every year they have proofs sets you can find S mint halfs. I even found a silver proof in rolls(holed and abused). People open proof sets and the half finds its way thru circulation.