New Member and Coin Noob

[CoinGirl]

Hi There! I'm a new paid member. I'm grateful for this cool community. I'm brand new to this world. It started only a few months ago. My 9 year old son saw a penny in the street and picked it up. I told him not to pick pennies up from the street and he said, "but mom, it could be really value, if it has an error on it, it could be worth a lot of money!" which I'd known somewhere in the back of my mind, but never thought too much about. So when we got home, he showed me some youtube videos of people with error coins. We had several coffee cans full of coins just sitting around and together he and I started sorting through them. I purchased the "Strike it Rich with Pocket Change" book and the 2024 official red book. But, like most 9 year olds, soccer season began and he lost interest in the coins. I meanwhile am the one who began becoming obsessed with it. I am still very, very, very, unskilled and confused by many different errors. I have some that might just be wear and tear, but would love to run them past people. I'm not always sure of what to look for and if I'm seeing a DD or not. So I have a lot to learn. But I'm having fun. Oh, one cool thing- I found 2 small date 1982 pennies weighing 3.1 gms each. Exciting finds!

[MintErrors]

Hi There! I'm a new paid member. I'm grateful for this cool community. I'm brand new to this world. It started only a few months ago. My 9 year old son saw a penny in the street and picked it up. I told him not to pick pennies up from the street and he said, "but mom, it could be really value, if it has an error on it, it could be worth a lot of money!" which I'd known somewhere in the back of my mind, but never thought too much about. So when we got home, he showed me some youtube videos of people with error coins. We had several coffee cans full of coins just sitting around and together he and I started sorting through them. I purchased the "Strike it Rich with Pocket Change" book and the 2024 official red book. But, like most 9 year olds, soccer season began and he lost interest in the coins. I meanwhile am the one who began becoming obsessed with it. I am still very, very, very, unskilled and confused by many different errors. I have some that might just be wear and tear, but would love to run them past people. I'm not always sure of what to look for and if I'm seeing a DD or not. So I have a lot to learn. But I'm having fun. Oh, one cool thing- I found 2 small date 1982 pennies weighing 3.1 gms each. Exciting finds!

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Welcome aboard, both of you. There are some good folks to help you here. It's a hobby that I find relaxing and some times - rewarding. There are some great sites out there to learn about varieties and error coins. It depends on whether you are focusing on a particular denomination of coin or not.

For varieties (repunched mint marks and doubled dies) I suggest looking over
http://varietyvista.com
Http://doubleddie.com
Http://coppercoins.com

The doubled die site has an educational theme to it. The "worthless doubling" section compares doubled dies to other forms of worthless doubling.

Spoiler alert: I try to tell people that the way to tell if the coin is a doubled die or not, especially on coins prior to 1996 is to look at the area you think is doubled. If it makes the coin letter or number wider, might have a cookie cutter style line through the letter or number, it may be a doubled die. It might have split serifs, that cookie cutter style line, splitting the ends of each inpression in two.

If the area you are looking at makes the top level of the coin thinner and it looks step like or shelf like then its a strong possibilty it may be worthless doubling.

There is a ton of reference material out there on the web. It just depends on what an individual needs and to what level they would like to learn.

I have a few articles in my signature which may help. I included those instead of having to answer the same questions over and over again.

The less than optimum news is that the US Mint has not let too many major errors escape the mint from 2003 to present. That means it can be slim pickings out there.There are plenty of relaxing moments in this Hobby, followed by some disappointments and frustrations. In time one will understand this in full and be more relaxed, knowing that if something is meant to be, it will happen.

But, opening a roll is like attempting to hit the jackpot on every coin you look at. It only takes one decent one to make your day.

Happy hunting.