How Long Did It Take You To Find Your First Lincoln Cent Error?

east coast VS west coast ...
aka
philly mint VS denver mint

for what ever reason, we on the east coast appreciate the philly mint minting more varieties.

my top two recommendations for new CRH:
1. understand what a doubled die is
2. search both sides of all coins thoroughly

I have not hunted many boxes but the first box had a 2000 Wide AM in it so I got very lucky. I think it just depends on where you live and what you are looking for.

It really all depends on "if" you know what to look for. Errors and varieties are two different things also. You will find way more varieties than errors. I have looked through 5+ million cents (so far). I find something in each roll more often than not. There have been times where I have been skunked by an entire box,but not very often. You need to familiarise yourself with what to look for before you go looking. Bookmark this site and read it every day a little at a time. http://www.error-ref.com/doubled-dies/
Good luck.
John1

I used to collect coins when I was younger, then again about 5 years ago, but don't remember any of those errors.

When I recently got back into coin collecting, I got 2 boxes ($50) of Lincoln cents, plus $50 of other change.

I made a membership on here August 9th. Found my first "error" on August 12th. http://goccf.com/t/380201

First DDO September 2nd, first DDR September 14th. Both are very minor, but I still say it counts.

I've found many other "minor errors" and some RPMs between August 9th and now, but it really depends what you're looking for. I was looking for absolutely anything and everything.

It also depends on how many coins you search through and getting lucky I suppose.

If I remember correctly, another person has been trying to find their first DDO for over 3 years.

Keep reading/learning and study the pictures at varietyvista or other sites and I'm sure you'll find something soon.

Looking for "any" error is just like taking a chance at rolling dice.... well, more like flipping a coin. For the "big errors", it's more like playing the lottery. Sometimes you get lucky, most of the time you don't.

I have been searching for almost 2 years (but not any large quantity) and I may have just found my first significant find, But I am not sure, so I just posted in this forum about it. 1968 D Doubling.

@atticguy I'm not sure 1. Why you're on the variety and error forum if you feel that way, and 2. If you actually understand what a variety or error coin is from your description. A variety is not struck any less well than any other coin, and, ideally would be found with as good a strike as possible from an early state die to make the variety more visible. Varieties are qualities of the dies themselves, and while some (e.g. doubled dies) could be described the way you did with the car analogy, many like close and Wide AM varieties, other obverse and reverse design varieties, mint mark styles, etc., are not defects in the die at all, but are just examples of a coin design from a given year that is different from other coins minted in the same year (like buying the one green car in a lot of red cars. They're all painted properly, but one is different and rare). As for errors, you talked about people posting beat up coins on here... you realize 99.9% of those beat up coins are not errors, right? Not really sure how to respond beyond that. An error does not look like beat up pocket change when it leaves the mint. It might be found in a beat up state, but the damage is not the error.

ijn1944 said it very well, and I agree.
John1

I agree with ijn1944 as well. Errors and varieties bring different images to my mind. (think dogs vs. wolves- both are canines).
To the op's question, I feel fortunate to have come across a dramatic doubled die within the first 3-4 months when I resumed collecting in 2013. Those rolls of wheats I was buying must have been somewhat unsearched to come across that 1917 DDO.

Another category of collecting is well struck early die state coins as mentioned by atticguy. I'm going to guess AG has been a collector a very long time, and goes back to a time when they were more readily available. His area of collecting is highly desirable and what most collectors "OOOO and Ahhh" over when they learn to appreciate high quality coins. But it takes patience and somewhat deep pockets to compete for those "perfect" examples since they will not fall into your hands after buying a cup of coffee. He probably won't find a high quality early die state coin for his collection looking through bricks from the bank either. But that's ok, because he is happy with his system and collection.

Errors and varieties can be found by most people with the patience and diligence to search everyday coins. Nobody likes to spend weeks looking at boxes of coins with nothing to show for it. To keep my mind occupied and spirits up in between error or variety finds, when I can the find time to search, I usually separate my copper cents from the Zincolns.