Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Wide and Narrow AM on Modern One Cent of Same Year. Source: Close AM / Wide AM (lincolncentcollection.com) |
I've been talking a lot about 16th century coins lately, but am going to the other end of the spectrum today
After my dad died several years ago, I found a tin full of pennies he had accumulated. A lot of them were wheat cents. I decided to inspect them to see if I could find anything interesting or valuable. I got the book Striking It Rich Through Pocket Change:by Ken Porter and Dr. Brian Allen. As the title suggests, it isn't about old coins, but coins that you might commonly find in pocket change. That began my searching modern coins for potential erros and varieties.
Searching modern coins is a tedious process, and I didn't find a lot, although I did discover one previously undocumented error coin that is now registered on Wexler's Error Coins and Die Verities (https://doubleddie.com), as well as some other minor mint errors, mostly die cracks. They are worth a little, but nothing very exciting.
I found that books were not sufficient for a beginner such as myself. The online community was necessary to help distinguish between true error coins and coins that were somehow damaged after leaving the mint. Most people that think they have found a double die error actually are seeing machine doubling, which is worthless. See Double Dies vs. Machine Doubling | NGC (ngccoin.com).
I doubt that most detectorists will find searching coin rolls for valuable coins very exciting, but there is always the possibility of finding something good and you can do it on a day when you can't get out to the beach or whatever. I also hate thinking that a valuable coin passed through my hands simply because I was not informed enough to recognize the value. I'm sure some good ones have passed though my hands unnoticed.
What I got from all that is greater skill in inspecting coins and some understanding of the things that can go wrong when I die strikes a planchet to make a coin. I now understand a little more about die bounce, for example, after seeing it clearly on many modern coins. It doesn't matter wheather the coin is modern or old - both were made by punching a planchet with a die. One of course, was made by machine and the other by hand, but you still see many of the same things. Some were made by fresh sharp die and others by old worn die. Both will show strike-throughs and over-strikes. You can usually tell a new scratch from a gash caused by a piece splinter of metal on the planchet when the coin was struck. By inspecting modern coins for varieties and errors, you will learn to more effectively inspect old hand struck coins more effectively. It makes inspecting old coins more interesting even if you don't find much of value on your modern coins. Of course, good magnification and lighting is necessary too.
Here is a list of penny errors you might be able to find. Pennies are a good choice because you can get rolls of them very cheaply. I hate the zinc pennies though. They turn to crap. While I do not enjoy looking at the more modern cons, especially zinc pennies and all those state quarters, I do like to look at coins with some age on them, such as wheat cents, which show a lot of die chips on the reverse if nothing else. You'll want to look at older coins anyhow to determine their condition. And like I said, no matter how tedious it is, there is always the possibility of finding something worth a small premium.
Below is a list of some common error pennies with their values (Source: U.S. Error Coins List By Denomination | The U.S. Coins Guide (thefuntimesguide.com).| Penny Error Coin Value | |
|---|---|
| Floating Roof Lincoln Memorial Pennies | $1+ (officially, these are not categorized as errors or varieties but are worth mentioning) |
| Large Date vs. Small Date Pennies | $1+ |
| BIE Lincoln Pennies | $1+ |
| Silver Pennies | 10 cents to $200,000 |
| 1922 Plain Penny | $500+ |
| 1943 Copper Penny | $100,000+ |
| 1944 Steel Penny | $85,000+ |
| 1955 Doubled Die Penny | $1,100+ |
| 1955 Poor Man’s Doubled Die Penny | $1+ |
| 1958 Doubled Die Penny | $100,000+ |
| 1959-D Mule Penny | $50,000+ |
| 1964 SMS Penny | $5,000 |
| 1969 Doubled Die Penny | $25,000+ |
| 1972 Doubled Die Penny | $250+ |
| 1974 Aluminum Penny | $100,000+ |
| 1982-D Small Date Copper Penny | $10,000+ |
| 1983 Doubled Die Penny | $200+ |
| 1983-D Copper Penny | $15,000+ |
| 1984 Doubled Die Penny | $150+ |
| 1989-D Copper Penny | $3,500+ |
| 1990 No-S Proof Penny | $3,000+ |
| 1992 Close AM Pennies | $2,000+ |
| 1995 Doubled Die Penny | $30+ |
| 1999 Wide AM Penny | $150+ |
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Palladium declined sharply on Friday while gold, silver and platinum rose modestly. Only gold marked a weekly gain — a fifth straight, and it also scored another nine-month high.
Rising for a second consecutive session, gold for February delivery climbed $4.30, or 0.2%, to finish at $1,928.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was gold’s highest since it ended at $1,934.30 an ounce on April 22...
See Gold Logs Fifth Weekly Gain and 9-Month High | CoinNews
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The surf remains small on the Treasure Coast, but the tides today are supposed to be big. Hopefully I'll be able to do some bottle hunting.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net