The Search For The Perfect Coin.

I would think the odds of finding an MS70 in circulation are slim to none (Nobody has ever found one). Just by the way the coins are handled at the mint for circulation strikes would leave a mark somewhere on the coin, as it falls into the bin, that would preclude an MS70 grade.

To have any chance at a 69 or 70 you need to hand pick the coin from the die after it's struck to avoid contact dings/scratches.

Good luck on the challenge. Bad Thad has been at it a long time and may have some sound advice here. I'd say top two grades may be impossible from roll searching but lower grades are. Depends on many factors including coin collection dumps. But finding BU coins is a worthy challenge. The value along with a great look are worth it while searching for hole fillers, collectable specimens, and trading stock.

MS-70 coins have to come from somewhere... if they were impossible to find, we would have no examples of "circulation strike" (e.g. non-satin for the mid/late 2000s).

That said, the entire point of the grading system is that MS-70 is several standard deviations above, say MS-65, and a full deviation above 68 or 69. That's why MS-70 brings such an enormous premium.

Good luck. I don't think I have ever find a coin that would grade above 67 or 68, even when I struck a box of brand new coins.

This is an excellent project, for it will train your eyes, provided that it does not strain your eyes.

That being said, I do not see how a coin could fly off the presses at the mint, get bagged and rolled and have NO bag marks. Maybe you should have a sub goal and find the best example, which may be a 67 or 68. Or do a study and see how many of different grades come out of UNC rolls.

@oriole I did buy myself a 5x loupe so thatll help, and yeah it's gonna be extremely hard to find a perfect coin, I would keep any 68 or 69 but I don't know the difference

I may be a little fuzzy on the details, but if memory serves, the real catcher of the MS-70 grade is that it must be free of all contact marks, AND perfectly centered. That's why so many proof coins come back in PF 68 or 69... the dies weren't just perfectly aligned.

IMO, I think your best shot at finding anything in top condition that's less than a year old is to get cents and hope for a change jar dump. I have seen more than a few change jars that have gathered dust for decades, and the cents are by far the least likely to be dug back out.

I look forward to finiding one because anyone can have a modern uncirculated set but I want to have a perfect uncirculated set, even if it's only from the recent years

Ok maybe if it doesn't have the mint luster but as long as all the details are clear it's still a great coin.