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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kevin Mader, post: 8207028, member: 106826&quot;]1. Are there marker listings only for errors?</p><p><br /></p><p>Markers are a means to confirm a variety coin and for which die stage a variety coin is found in.&nbsp; Surely, they can be used for a non-variety coin (a normal coin), perhaps to establish the die stage/transition point for the specimen.&nbsp; I really haven’t thought of it in that context before.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Is it really hard to find an example of what a regular strike would look like for a year? How do we differeniate between whats normal and what is not?</p><p><br /></p><p>Not hard at all.&nbsp; Each coin from a particular die starts out ‘normal’ and moves to a new ‘normal’ as the die wears.&nbsp; As you may have noticed at the sites we’ve been referring you to, coins are found at different stages during the life of a die.&nbsp; When you study a coin from an early die stage and compare it to another coin from the same early die stage, you’ll notice similarities and differences.&nbsp; What caused the difference?&nbsp; Was it a non-normal cause?&nbsp; If so, then maybe you have a variety or error coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Or am I wasting my time because I am looking too hard?</p><p><br /></p><p>We all look too hard at the start of this journey.&nbsp; In a few weeks, you’ll see another newbie like yourself asking the same questions.&nbsp; In our excitement to find something, we look to hard at things…many times under overmagnification and poor circumstances (e.g., lighting, equipment, etc.).&nbsp; You’ll learn to dial it back, but for now, you are about par for the course or even steeper on the learning curve.&nbsp; You, asking questions like this, means you are adjusting your filters.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Should I only be looking for the &quot;holy grails&quot; and toss everything else aside?</p><p><br /></p><p>If you are like many of us, we start with shorter lists, grow them to obscenely large lists, to dial them back to a reasonable risk.&nbsp; Some draw the line at the Red Book listings (akin to the holy grails, I suppose), but there are tons that aren’t listed by Red Book that are worth looking for.&nbsp; For instance, the Red Book listing for the 1995 P DDO is for the third most valuable DDO for the year (but the most readily available).&nbsp; There is another more moderate DDO for the date that is at or higher in value for 1995 P and the big one for the date is a 1995 D variant.&nbsp; If you only look for the ‘holy grails’, you’ll be missing a lot.&nbsp; However, digging down into the minor and very minor DDs will take longer and not return much on value…if value is your thing.&nbsp; Some of us like collecting lesser DDO/DDR specimens to fill out a date and for the interest in collecting…value be darned.&nbsp; So, creating a list and revising it often is my advice to you.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. How do I know what would be considered different if it&#039;s not a known error? Are finding new varieties even that important?</p><p><br /></p><p>If you stick with variety hunting long enough, you will eventually get an attribution to your name for a finding.&nbsp; Fun…but not necessarily that important.&nbsp; Clearly, if you find a discovery piece, you’ll have no references for it.&nbsp; That’s why it’s important to learn how coins are coined/produced and how varieties are created.&nbsp; Knowing what to look for will help you know if you have a variety, or a common coin.&nbsp; Also, make sure you understand the distinction between a Variety and an Error coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>6. With different die stages are LDS even sought after? Or ones that are way older with a lot of damage? Isn&#039;t it possible to accidentally pass up an error because of these 2 reasons?</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, many variety coins are missed because they may be confused with some other potential cause.&nbsp; For instance, I found a ‘really worn’ 1939 Jefferson nickel.&nbsp; Tossed it into my hoard of old Jeffersons for a rainy day.&nbsp; When the rainy day came and I started to look for a Henning nickel, something that I had heard about in discussion, I was shocked to find that I had one.&nbsp; Looked like a beat up old Jefferson.&nbsp; What it was though was a counterfeit nickel, which look worn on the day it was coined, that had seen actual circulation wear and kind of blended in with the rest.&nbsp; Know what to look for kept me from releasing the most valuable nickel find in my collection.&nbsp; And as another example, I’ve found a few 2004 Jefferson Nickel DDOs.&nbsp; I was able to attribute these to Stages B, C and D.&nbsp; The only DDO stage left is A.&nbsp; So having a complete set of die stages for a particular variety interests me.&nbsp; Maybe not every other variety collector, but certainly me.&nbsp; And a question: Is an early die stage DDO in MS65 condition worth more than a late die stage DDO of the same year in MS67?&nbsp; Or MS65 even?&nbsp; It depends on the buyer and the objective that they have in mind.</p><p><br /></p><p>Trust me on this one: you will pass on a collectible coin at some point.&nbsp; Each of us has a horror story about the one that got away.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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