How Do I Stop This Madness????

[atticus]

I've been sorting now for a little over a month. I've progressed from a few dollars, to $10 a day, to buying my first box, to having a spare box on hand etc. Things are going well, I'm almost at $75 of clean Abe's. I've sorted out dirty abes, wheaties, canadians, 1982's and 1959's, and things were going well.

I've consciously avoided looking into error cents much or buying a book. The other day the missus presents me with the "Strike It Rich" book for some ungodly reason. Now I've got about $10 of zincs separated by decade that I want to go through because I can't bring myself to just toss them into the dump pile!!

Is this a wasted effort on my part you think? I know it's sort of a personal decision, but does anyone else do this, and if so, have you had ANY success at all? All I can think of is that if I even find one $25 cent at minimum, that's an entire box to add to my "investment". I've worked out a decent system to weed these out for later examination during my initial sort that doesn't slow me down too considerably. Also, I'm sort of okay with slowing my pace right now if there's a possibility of coming across something decent.

I realize I just sort of answered my own question, but does anyone else examine their coinage for errors?

Good talk everyone, good talk.

Atticus

[Rodebaugh]

In short............yes

I know of at least 5 active members that have found a $100+ zincoln in Circulation. I myself found found 3 in four months when I was handsorting $100/week.
So you gotta have a good referance, a good eye, and a little luck.

[drummer55]

I only look for the 92 close AM.

[Corsair]

Madness?



This...is...COIN SORTING!

Honestly, if you aren't doing the Ryedale thing, finding one good error could be better than a few day's worth of hand sorting. Worth it to me.

[everything]

Decide at what level you want to search for errors, also you can find a few and go ok, I got that variety!, or several of them, done. If you really do like lincoln's, trade that book back for one just on the lincoln cent itself. All the basic, etc. errors are here. http://www.lincolncentresource.com/
By getting these down you'll look for them while searching automatically. Here you'll find all? of the die varieties including pretty good photo's of everything, errors to. http://www.coppercoins.com/

For example I've got like two quarts of 1983 cents to go through when I went through the phase that every 1983 had to be checked for weight, if it's copper it's a big money error, otherwise the 1983 reverse has to be checked for doubling. So I learned to scrutinize the 83 while I'm flipping it to check it while sorting. Still, you really need a stereoscope for picking out some/many varieties.

You could expand your collection considerably, don't know if anyone gets into collecting die varieties into say into flip folders but I've considered it, being that it's one thing roll and box collectors won't have an edge on regarding value of collections of the LMC moving forward. And, it's a way to collect zincs as well.

[willy13]

When I first started I only sorted copper. Now I look for the major varieties/error, but it does slow down the copper sorting a lot. I dont bother looking for the minor varieties/errors because there are just so many of them and my copper sorting would slow even further. The most expensive cent I have found is a 1971 Doubled Die #1. It is probably worth just over $100.

[Night Hawk]

I set aside the 72's to look for the double die, the 70-S to check for the small date, and the 83's to look for the ever so rare transition error.

[penny pretty]

its a constant learning process. I started, and was about to quit looking for wide AMs when I found one.nowI gotta look at the 83s. Im running out of containers to put the "check later" stuff in! HERE is an idea for a patent. the pennywhore container collection! a set of labeled durable plastic bins(57 in all!) to put the cents to check out later, you know, the Smints, canadians,BU,AU,98,99,2000,2009extrathumb,foreign, the list goes on!

[henrysmedford]

its a constant learning process. I started, and was about to quit looking for wide AMs when I found one.nowI gotta look at the 83s. Im running out of containers to put the "check later" stuff in! HERE is an idea for a patent. the pennywhore container collection! a set of labeled durable plastic bins(57 in all!) to put the cents to check out later, you know, the Smints, canadians,BU,AU,98,99,2000,2009extrathumb,foreign, the list goes on!