Hello Again, More from what I thought stood a good chance of being a great box of pennies from the bank over Christmas. Please see the attached pictures. Thank You In Advance, Brandon.
Once again, MUCH appreciated @Spark1951. Do you think I should not look at older coins unless they are wheats, etc? Focus on bright and shiny? Thanks, Brandon
When you show a letter on a coin and put blue arrows on both sides of the letters where you see "doubling," it is virtually a 100% clue that you don't have a doubled die coin.
One thing that helped me was learning that on a doubled die coin the doubling should be at roughly the same distance from the face of the coin, the "height" if you will. If it's lower, it's machine doubling/die deterioration. There may be exceptions? I'm no expert.
Your interests will dictate what coins you focus on. Personally, I check all coins from circulation. My experience of 61 years of collecting tells me what to avoid. My interests have changed as well, I no longer save any U.S. coin minted after 2021, with a few exceptions, and I don’t save shield cents, nickels or dimes anymore. You will find yourself going through a similar metamorphosis, as your experience progresses as well. One thing you must keep in mind: Just because a coin looks brand-new does not make it a candidate for keeping. Modern die pairs strike a million coins each, with polishing clean-ups on top, before they are retired. Most business strike dies are overused. So, you commonly see “bright and shiny” coins that are rife with die deterioration or weak designs, with surface flaws and defects that have no value and, in my estimation, no business being in my stewardship. …imo…Spark
@Spark1951 you are a wealth of knowledge. I have seen some of my own metamorphosis. For example, when I began I was obsessed with Kennedy's and hated pennies. Now I LOVE pennies and they are my go-to when I visit my bank to search.
Pennies are fun to coin roll hunt because they are cheap and you get lots to go through. It's worth getting familiar with all the varieties that you may come across. I usually sort them into piles based on years that MAY have a variety, then I can go back and look at it more closely once the "junk" coins are put aside to go back to A DIFFERENT bank.
