Page 1 of 1

Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 10:53 am
by Cu Penny Hoarder
I have never heard/read of anyone finding any double die pennies while roll/box seaching.

Has anyone here ever found a double die? Not necessarily a 1955, but any others? I'm curious.

Thanks.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:21 am
by NHsorter
I have done plenty of looking for DD's, but no finding. I have always wondered how much it would cost to construct a machine that would automatically scan coins for key dates & errors. A feeder/hopper like the ryedale and a ramp like the ryedale would be the easy part. Then you would need a camera/sensor apparatus that is somehow calibrated to get a good photo of the coin as it is passing by. That is probably the trickiest part. Once you have an image of all the coins in the batch, it would probably not require too much software programming to have the computer analyze the images and compare them against a database of images with known errors.

To make this machine automatically scan,process, and reject a coin into a separate output would probably be too difficult (or too costly), and require too much processing power. But you could run a batch of $10 or $50 and have the computer make note of all the finds and if it is something worthwhile you could then just hand search that batch to pull out the treasure. It could be fantastic for some of these double die / double dated / wide AM / ect. coins that probably have passed through our hands, but we just don't have the time to squint our eyes at each coin when sorting through such bulk.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:03 pm
by willy13
I have been looking but have not found any DD. I was wondering if they are normally visable with the naked eye? I have to use a lupe to find wide am, I can sorta make it out with the naked eye, but not for sure.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:52 pm
by JobIII
Errors and varieties are not very hard to find when roll hunting.

I think anyone here looking through $25 boxes will find the following with only a little dedication:

'98 & '00 wide A-M - Maybe 1 in every 10 dollars of '98 & '00 searched
1972 ddo (minor types) - Not sure how common but they are fairly common
1995 ddo (maybe) - Maybe 1 in every $50 - $75 of 1995 cents searched
1984 ddo (less likely) - pretty rare 1 example found in $150 not sure...

die cuds, off-strikes, filled dies are also fairly common in both copper and zinc years.


I have had a lot of luck sorting by year then assembling them up on a table. 200 cents by 100 cents and then just go down the rows with the 5x glass. pull the rows as you look at them. assembly is easy if you have a yard stick. After a while the chore becomes the task of sorting them initially...

just thinking of this process makes my neck & back ache a little. :)

~JobIII

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:57 pm
by Cu Penny Hoarder
NHsorter wrote:I have done plenty of looking for DD's, but no finding. I have always wondered how much it would cost to construct a machine that would automatically scan coins for key dates & errors. A feeder/hopper like the ryedale and a ramp like the ryedale would be the easy part. Then you would need a camera/sensor apparatus that is somehow calibrated to get a good photo of the coin as it is passing by. That is probably the trickiest part. Once you have an image of all the coins in the batch, it would probably not require too much software programming to have the computer analyze the images and compare them against a database of images with known errors.

To make this machine automatically scan,process, and reject a coin into a separate output would probably be too difficult (or too costly), and require too much processing power. But you could run a batch of $10 or $50 and have the computer make note of all the finds and if it is something worthwhile you could then just hand search that batch to pull out the treasure. It could be fantastic for some of these double die / double dated / wide AM / ect. coins that probably have passed through our hands, but we just don't have the time to squint our eyes at each coin when sorting through such bulk.


Great ideas here. It would be totally awesome if a machine like this was available. I'd probably buy one. However, it would be cost prohibitive for 90% of the sorters/hoarders out there.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:01 pm
by NHsorter
Yeah, It likely be an expensive machine, but I think the payback could be quite good if it worked right and you fed it a lot. I have been thinking a lot about how great this would be, but I just don't have the time to attempt it.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:27 pm
by TheJonasCollegeFund
Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:I have never heard/read of anyone finding any double die pennies while roll/box seaching.

Has anyone here ever found a double die? Not necessarily a 1955, but any others? I'm curious.

Thanks.



One member here found a 1955 Double Die....the BIG ONE!(NOT the "POOR MAN'S" one EITHER!)

I found a cheap 1982 double die. (NOT MACHINE DOUBLING)

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:55 pm
by RichardPenny43
What are the value's on DD's? I'm just in it for the Cu, sounds like a waste of time.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 12:21 am
by ember
They vary from a few bucks on into the thousands.

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:32 am
by JobIII
RichardPenny43 wrote:What are the value's on DD's? I'm just in it for the Cu, sounds like a waste of time.


http://www.lincolncentresource.com
http://www.coppercoins.com

both of these sites give pretty detailed price guides for a variety of strike errors. Check these sites out. There are a lot of DD's in the copper years. Since you're already hoarding copper, once you finish it could be worth your time sorting out the numismatic cents from the general copper cents...

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 7:51 am
by JobIII
I bought a Carson zPix Digital Microscope with credit card points a couple years back. It wasn't faster than the 5x eye piece, but it was nice to run the device over the coins and just watch the monitor. I would set up 200 cents x 100 cents all the same date or same error type (eg, wide AM, doubled ear, etc.) then place a piece of sheet glass over the cents. The microscope could then lie flat focused to the proper focal length and all i needed to do was slide it across.

For one coin this works great and quickly saves pictures to your computer. The magnification is a little high, and the internal lighting was a little weak for quickly looking over multiple coins. I really liked it for showing off examples of error coins to friends. It clearly showed the '95, '84 DDO's and also the wide A-M coins.

http://www.opticsplanet.com/reviews/reviews-carson-digital-microscope-camera-epix.html
Image Image

~JobIII

Re: Finding double die pennies while searching

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 3:27 pm
by daviscfad
They are out there. I found a 1995 doubled die and have found some minor 1972 ddo