OK, so here it is confessions of a newbie! I've been doing this coin thing for a couple of years now and quite honestly until like a year or two ago I thought error coins were worthless. i was thinking who would want some messed up coin. Anyways, in circulation I have seen the buffalo nickel from a few years back that had the mint error that looked like a spear going through it. I may have let a few of those go by thinking nothing of it. I have seen a penny or two in circulation from the last few years that was double died. Very obvious from looking at the text. How much money do you think those errors were worth that I let go?
I wouldn't dwell on the ones that got away. I would concentrate on the ones you see in the future. Study on what a error coin is and it's value and the use of proper terminology.
The 'speared buffalo' isn't worth much to me, ebay is a different story. any obvious doubled die is worth quite a bit, hundreds probably.
Jeff, I agree with rockdude to not dwell on the ones that got away! However, in the future, you might want to pull any finds from circulation and put them away until you can find out what you have and what they are worth. It is hard to give a value of a Variety coin without knowing first the Variety and second the condition of the coin. I can say that the Speared Buffalo would probably only bring a few dollars upwards to possibly $15 and the Doubled Die cents could range from a few dollars to possibly well into the hundreds or more, depending on the Variety. Frank
The text was clearly doubled and slightly off centered from each instance as a normal coin has the text only once. Am I using the correct terminology saying that I saw a doubled die?
Machine doubling is often mistaken for die doubling. A good explanation between the two (with photos) is in the back of the Cherrypicker's Guide.
I am convinced that I saw a doubled die lincoln cent as it looked very close to the 1955 doubled die cent with one exception. Instead of two rows of text on the same exact line the second line of text was slightly offcentered by being below and to the right of the first line. It was very clear to the naked eye that all the text on the front of the coin was doubled. There was obvious relief with the two lines of text so that is why I believe it was a double die. This is for a lincoln cent produced in the last few years. If I would have kept it on hand it would been a very high grade as it appeared to have just been introduced into circulation (I see tons of new coins in Vegas by the way so there could be more in circulation out here, who knows?). I may have cashed it in at a coinstar machine one day when I needed money after forgetting about it. I doubt I have it but I may go through my jar of pennies one day when I am bored. lol Like one other said, I will forget about the ones that got away but I will keep my eyes open for the ones that come to me in the future.
If I worried about all the error I may have let slip by before I started looking for errors, I would drive myself crazy. Oh wait, my wife says I am already crazy for looking at so many coins for so long Dave
Welcome to the Forum Jeff! As Hobo has said "machine doubling is often mistaken for double dies", but the best way to know for sure is to read up on double dies and other errors. With many types of errors out there you could have pass on a lot more then you think, but who's to tell if you did or not if you did not know what to look for. There are a lot of good books and sites out there that can help you understand what to look for in errors. Chrreypicker's Guide by Bill Fivez and The Error Coin Encyclopedia by Arniod Margolis are two very good books for errors. If you can not find these books you can always log into www.lincolncentresource.com, www.coinfacts.com, www.coppercoins.com or even here at cointalk for help. Good Luck and Good Hunting.
Based on my current rate, I think I will find at least 2 error coins in circulation within the next 4 years. Now that I know what to look for I won't I will hang on to them next time. In the meantime, I need to learn how to take good pics of coins.
