So I got a ton of rolls from my bank today and I spent 4.5 hours sorting them by year and examining a few of them. I seriously have a horrible headache now, I think it's from all of the closeup viewing. Anyhoo my bank didn't have halves, so I guess I'll call up some banks next week to see if others do. Here's what I got: - 20 rolls of pennies. - 5 rolls of nickels. - 2 rolls of dimes. - 1 roll of quarters. Here are the results... PENNIES: For the pennies I got at least two pennies for every single year from 1960 to 2000. Most in normal shape for their age (not many scratches, damage.) I also got 7 wheats in there (oldest 1946), including a stunning 1958D that had more luster than half the 2003 pennies I had! DIMES: For the dimes I don't think I did as well for older items. I got nice dimes most from 1967-2005. The oldest dime was a 1965. NICKELS: I got some okay nickels, loads of 1964's and 1974's. Oldest as a 1940 (rats, two years away from a Buffalo I think!) I had quite a few nickels ranging from 1963-2006. QUARTERS: got some good quarters, ranged from 1965-2006, pretty basic quarters. All in all I was kind of disappointed I didn't get any mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, you know - stuff like that. But I suppose the chances of me getting a roll with stuff like that in it is a million to one. Hmmmph. So I guess what I want to know now are two things: I gave the year ranges for all of the coins I got out of the rolls. Are any of the dates for the pennies/dimes/nickels/quarters key dates that I should look into? What comes next? Do I keep all of the coins and bag them by year, do I take certain ones (like key dates coins.. which I'm not familiar with which dates for any of the types of coins)? I know it's my decision but I'm a newbie coin collector and I don't know what to do with the coins now. I would seriously appreciate ANY help for keydate/what-to-do-next type advice!
What I would do is get an album for each of the coin types and start filling in the holes. I have Dansco albums for everything I collect in circulated condition and an Intercept Shield for the Lincoln cent collection I'm working on in BU/Proof condition. You should be able to fill-in most of the holes from 1965 to 2006 in dimes and quarters searching rolls (minus proof only issues). Cents and nickels you'll also find older coins in rolls. As far as keys go, buy a Red Book and look at mintage figures and values to see which years/mint marks are more desirable. From there you should start reading as much as you can on the series that interests you most.
Hit the nail on the head in my opinion! You need to go get a Red Book, and that will tell you what dates to keep/look thtough further.
this is what I do: step 1: after pay day, I go to the bank and get 10 rolls of each ($175). I lay them out on something soft (like my bed or a blanket or whatever)... I seperate them into generations (ie 50s, 60s, etc) and then go through them pile by pile to find out what years I need and which coin is the nicest. step 2: I go back to the bank (where they have a coin machine) and dump the rest of the coints back into the machine. Doesn't end up costing me that much!
Before placing any coins, you might want to examine each coin for errors! There are lots of Doubled Die Varieties to look for as well as other types of errors (RPM's, OMM's, Struck Through Errors, Broadstrikes, etc.). Good luck and get an extra bottle of Moltrin out before you start! Frank
You may want to check out www.coinrollhunting.com where some guy has posted the results of looking through rolls- will give you an idea of how easy (or hard) it is to find a buffalo nickel, for example (he found 5 out of $2,198.00 in nickels). Also, on his inividual denomination pages (nickels, dimes, etc.) he lists many, many different things to look for that might be of value. Whether you want to look for all of them is another thing, but it's someplace to start.
Pre-1965 would be even better though. 90%!! Anyway, I agree with most of what the others said. You should get some albums for those coins, IMO.
You did fairly good on the pennies IMO (I usually get in the neighborhood of 15 wheaties in a box--$25). My suggestion on the pennies is to save all wheaties (should be fairly obvious). Maybe even get a 2x2 to toss some of the nicer pennies you get in (like the shiny 58). Aside from the wheaties, I tend to save any BU pre-82's and then I look through for any of the more common errors. Things like 84 double ear, 83 double die, 98-2000 wide AM, etc. You can find out about those sort of errors in the Redbook. Or go check coppercoins.com under the date guide. Problem is, the date guide lists a ton of errors so if you look for every error, you'll never get anywhere. Common wisdom is, skip searching for silver (ie 1964 and older) in quarters and dimes. They're hard to find in there. There is a good dime error you can search for also. I think it's 1982 no mintmark. And on the nickels, you should keep an eye out for war nickels. These are 1942-1945 and they'll have the mintmark over Monticello. They are something like 35% silver. Buffalo nickels will be pretty rare, but finding war nickels is pretty good. And then finally, if you can get them, the halves are good to search. Just keep any of the 1970 and olders. Obviously there are probably more varieties you could look for but 1970 and older is easy enough to search. Oh and this is all off the top of my head so it might not be 100% accurate.
I always had good success finding the Kennedy 1974D double die listed in the Red Book. I must have found a dozen. They sell on ebay from $10-$15. If you have a casino in the vicinity, like I do in Santa Fe, half dollars are $6 a dozen. These are picked over for silver but not for varieties. Don't waste saving all halves with the strike doubled letters as they are so common, but there are some nice double eyes and chins and faces, and I found one 1973 DDO (like the '74) which is much less common. If it's cool, keep it.
