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Hello!
My name is Thomas DeHart. I am a new CONECA member (N-7416). I am very new to the coin hobby, having just started paying attention to my pocket change about three months ago. I have since gone down the proverbial rabbit hole, and... Well... Here I am—a fully registered member of CONECA.
The only coinage I am interested in at the moment is Lincoln Cents. I know they are trendy; some might even say overrated, but the idea of finding pennies worth more than a penny was the fundamental allure of this hobby. The intrinsic value of a copper cent being 2.5x face is my idea of a good deal. The fact that there are collectible varieties and errors just sweetens the pot.
What I didn't expect, was that I would grow into a full-blown coin-a-holic. I have sorted around $100 worth of Lincoln cents into rolls/bags/containers by mint mark by date. Now I'm going through each mm/date and examining them for varieties/errors. The Zincolns that have neither variety nor error are going back to the bank. Copper coins and error/variety coins will be kept. My discoveries I intend to have graded and encased in ANACS holders. That is when this process transcends money-making, collecting, or science—an original discovery, in a one-of-one holder, acknowledging that discovery is art.
This art has had tremendous results. 11x 2021 spike head listings, and one 2019 spike heading listing, in the past 60 days. One of the spike head listings is also a LIBERTY die break error, and I am particularly proud of that one. I also found two 2020 internal die breaks, not as original discoveries but were exceptional finds nonetheless.
I want to say thank you to JC Stevens of cuds-on-coins.com for putting up with my barrage of submissions and always providing excellent feedback on how my photography can improve.
While I'm not under the illusion that spike head errors are especially rare or exciting to a well-learned error collector or specialist, what is interesting is the map that can be made from adequately listing these coins. I see people bragging on social media about finding new spike heads, but never see their names attached to an attribution. I'm unsure if they don't want to take the photos, deal with the feedback, or simply think they are too good to submit spike heads for attribution. But seeing a piece of the map without sharing that piece is nothing to brag about.
While spike heads are relatively easy to identify, the single-squeeze class 9 doubled dies are challenging. In large part, I joined CONECA in hopes that I could learn more about how to identify doubled die Shield Cents, how to verify the existence of doubling, and how to best go about attributing those that are discoveries. I hypothesize that with modern Shield Cents, doubled dies are pervasive, and the real skill is discerning whether the doubling is meaningful enough to be listed.
Anyways, this is where I'm at, thanks for reading! If you have any advice for a newbie on identifying doubling on Shield Cents, I'm all ears. I know class 9 and class 6 are present in the single-squeeze era we find ourselves in. Let me know if there are any other possible doubling classes on 2010+ Lincoln Cents!
Best,
Thomas
My name is Thomas DeHart. I am a new CONECA member (N-7416). I am very new to the coin hobby, having just started paying attention to my pocket change about three months ago. I have since gone down the proverbial rabbit hole, and... Well... Here I am—a fully registered member of CONECA.
The only coinage I am interested in at the moment is Lincoln Cents. I know they are trendy; some might even say overrated, but the idea of finding pennies worth more than a penny was the fundamental allure of this hobby. The intrinsic value of a copper cent being 2.5x face is my idea of a good deal. The fact that there are collectible varieties and errors just sweetens the pot.
What I didn't expect, was that I would grow into a full-blown coin-a-holic. I have sorted around $100 worth of Lincoln cents into rolls/bags/containers by mint mark by date. Now I'm going through each mm/date and examining them for varieties/errors. The Zincolns that have neither variety nor error are going back to the bank. Copper coins and error/variety coins will be kept. My discoveries I intend to have graded and encased in ANACS holders. That is when this process transcends money-making, collecting, or science—an original discovery, in a one-of-one holder, acknowledging that discovery is art.
This art has had tremendous results. 11x 2021 spike head listings, and one 2019 spike heading listing, in the past 60 days. One of the spike head listings is also a LIBERTY die break error, and I am particularly proud of that one. I also found two 2020 internal die breaks, not as original discoveries but were exceptional finds nonetheless.
I want to say thank you to JC Stevens of cuds-on-coins.com for putting up with my barrage of submissions and always providing excellent feedback on how my photography can improve.
While I'm not under the illusion that spike head errors are especially rare or exciting to a well-learned error collector or specialist, what is interesting is the map that can be made from adequately listing these coins. I see people bragging on social media about finding new spike heads, but never see their names attached to an attribution. I'm unsure if they don't want to take the photos, deal with the feedback, or simply think they are too good to submit spike heads for attribution. But seeing a piece of the map without sharing that piece is nothing to brag about.
While spike heads are relatively easy to identify, the single-squeeze class 9 doubled dies are challenging. In large part, I joined CONECA in hopes that I could learn more about how to identify doubled die Shield Cents, how to verify the existence of doubling, and how to best go about attributing those that are discoveries. I hypothesize that with modern Shield Cents, doubled dies are pervasive, and the real skill is discerning whether the doubling is meaningful enough to be listed.
Anyways, this is where I'm at, thanks for reading! If you have any advice for a newbie on identifying doubling on Shield Cents, I'm all ears. I know class 9 and class 6 are present in the single-squeeze era we find ourselves in. Let me know if there are any other possible doubling classes on 2010+ Lincoln Cents!
Best,
Thomas
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