Hello I am rather new to coin roll hunting and was looking for some advice from other members on how they hunt/what they hunt? Do you just separate the well know dates of errors and varieties and look for those or do you examine each coin looking for things such as RPM's? I have thought to separate coins by decade and going from there but wanted to hear your processes. Thanks, PCWorx
I think the most important thing is that you first have a good knowledge of true Varieties and Mint Errors. You don't need to separate anything since every year can have such issues. You just need to know what to look for.
I seperate them by date first,60s,70s,80s....ect...After I get a good pile I'll go thru and seperate them even further by exact date...for example, I'll put all of my 1972 P in one pile so I can examine them all at once...put all the 1983 in another pile to weigh and look for varietys. You honestly have to atleast know somewhat what to look for so that you can organize to your liking. Pennies can pile up fast,and it's easy to get ahead of yourself,just take your time and do some good research to determine what is most sought after and what isnt. I use a candy dish...lol,1$ well spent.
I no longer separate by date, etc. Because every time you handle a coin you can cause issues with it (especially if you are tossing them into a bin or such with others) and because once you know what you are looking for, your brain automatically goes to what to look for on particular dates, so there is no need to waste time sorting. For example if I am first looking at a LMC with the obverse side, I see the date and mm and I think of what is unique to that date. If I see the reverse side, I look at that and before turning it over, try to tell what date series it is from the reverse. That helps. That is how I spotted my 1999 WAM in CHR.... Saw the reverse and noticed it was wide am, thinking what dates should have them, but when it got turned over and the date did not correspond to what I expected from seeing the reverse, there was that error found!
I want a felt two inch wide by 48 inches long manual crank conveyor going under a nice big reading magnifier with large 20 inch screen and a chart on the wall of what to look for by year. Oh yeah.
U know,there is said to be a man...who has a machine....that separates coins by date and mint...allegedly,of corse. Tech is gonna take the hunt out of coin hunting. I'll be surprised if the next generation even has pennies to look thru tbh...Unless ...theres coin literature that shows you how to decipher zinc rot then it's not looking promising.
You can mostly fill your coin albums from rolls. Nickels especiallry. They did not change for decades, and are not greatly popular. I was able to almost completely fill my Dansco with rolls. Even a 50D! I did buy a war nickel set and a set of proofs. But, you can still find tons of cents, dimes and quarters in change. I recently found a bicentennial quarter in change. 43 years old. Also, its possible to buy recent coins in high grade sets for very reasonable prices. Because they were minted in such huge quantities, have little metal either. Nor do coins circulate much anymore. I save my change in a jar, because it has such low value its annoying to carry any useful amount. So, especially with cents, its not hard to find nice examples that are decades old. Last, some have metal value. Old cents are worth more than a cent for their copper. Despite their silver color, nickels are 75% copper. New cents are pot metal and essentially worthless. One day they will stop making them. But people will still collect them. If they ever demonetize cents, everyone and his dog will rush to sell. Which will depress the price. But, there are people out there making a living selling wheats and copper memorial cents. Not to mention, those zinc cents are notorious for problems. You throw back 2000 of them for $20 bucks, and your kids make a living selling them. Heck, because of their low actual metal value, you may be able to buy them in bulk for less than one cent each. Once its demonetized. I remember silver and copper coins. If I had invested $10,000 then, it would be worth 10 times that in metal value alone. Far more if sold numismatically. Hmm? I think I might go out and drop some money on change!
