Are shield pennies worth a look?

I've been studying UTube, and there are several people on there talking about valuable shield coins. What is your opinion: shield coins, yes or no?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

No. Shield Cents are only valuable in 67 or higher grades. And the few varieties that exist aren't that big of a deal
Youtube is not recommended around these parts. Lots of clickbait and over hype.

 

Not to mention tons of wrong and misleading information. Stay away from YouTube for coin collecting information.

 

Thanks for the heads up. My Red Book will be here soon, hopefully it will answer my questions. Does the book have pictures?

 

Like others mentioned, just stay away from YouTube in relation to valuable coins and errors.

For your question, it depends on what you are collecting:

• If you're error hunting, then every coin is worth looking at if you ask me.
• If you're just trying to find that 1 coin to immediately sell for big bucks, then probably not.
• If you're actually collecting and trying to find the best condition coin you can then I would say so.

The Red Book has lots of pictures of different coins. Usually a picture for each type/variation i.e. one for Indian Head, Memorial, etc..

 

Excellent. Well, I started this new hobby after finding some old coins my dad had. So, I started looking for pennies first, like you said, for the big bucks. Now, I'm interested in the history of the coins. I'm now trying to learn as much as I can about pennies. I'm keeping the super red copper ones, too, because they look so beautiful despite their ages. So, long story short, I'm in it for the high you get when you find a really fine coin.

 

Yes .
There are some very nice class IV doubling on the 2011, 2014 and 2015 .

 

The Red Book is the first book a new collector should buy. It's not going to help with Shield cent errors. It's more of a general look at all US coins but you will love it.

 

I think it will be impossible to go through the Red Book and not find at least one series that will grab your interest.

 

Excited to see it!

 

If you are interested in the history of the cent, it may be a fun challenge to assemble a type set of some of the more common U.S. cents over the years.

A 1858 Flying Eagle cent gifted to me by grandparents when I was a child was the highlight of my collection for many years and it inspired my interest in "old" coins.

 

That's cool. Hopefully, I can move to being that organized with my collecting

 

I see no reason why you couldn't start collecting shield cents if it gives satisfaction. The process of studying coins, accumulating knowledge , and the satisfaction of doing so is beneficial to the mind. Later if you want to pick up other coins, foreign or world coins, the same processes will be there for you to continue with them. Jim

 

You are so right. The shield coins really don't interest me. So I'm going to stick with what is of interest. I found a UK 1/2 new penny, 1971, with interesting history. So that one went into my save pile.

 

That's the best move you made to start collecting US coins! The red book is a good foundation for learning the series and you can build on your knowledge from there!

 

If there are humans involved with the minting, there will almost always be an error sometime. I just recently switched from Wheats to Memorials because there is a much better chance of finding varieties with mintages in the billions....plus I prefer the BN cents and have found all of the BN Wheats already. Sounds like I need a life..........

 

You're funny, coin searching is interesting, it's as simple as that. Just got my red book. These shield pennies in mint condition are actually worth something. So, I've tried to look for some exceptional ones to tuck away.

 

Any coin where the mintage is over a billion will never be valuable.

Ever.

For example - look at many of the common Roman coinage. They were minted *2000* years ago, and the common worn specimens can be bought for less than $5.

That's really not a great rate of return, if you calculate it out.

 

Well, that definitely puts things in perspective for me! I can't believe those ancient coins are so affordable!