Coin Roll Hunting Procedure.. Whats Yours?

To open the rolls, I hit them on the edge of the table to break them, then push the coins out (I was worried about damaging the coins, but that hasn't been a problem). I then quickly scan through for date/MM, glancing at both sides to check for errors. If it's a keeper date I put in in a bowl on the side, and I also have a pile for other things- errors, foreign, proofs, 2009s, etc. I keep a magnifier handy so I can inspect dates that have varieties listed in the Red Book, as well as a few others like the 2005-D speared bison. I then scoop the coins up and dump them in a bag. The whole process takes about 40 seconds per roll.

You should post your finds in the nickel hunting thread. I would love to see what you've found.

My technique is closest to John's. I will tear off/unfold one end of the roll and push them out in a single file. I examine each coin looking for distinguishing features; doubling, trails, rotation, clashes, etc. under a lighted loop lamp and/or stereo microscope at 20x. I move quicker on some dates, slower on others relative to the number of attributed coins for a given date/mm that I'm looking for. I will try to get through 5 rolls an evening; perhaps 1-1.5 hours depending on how much I'm distracted by CCF or if I'm looking up a detail about a variety. I sort my coins according to a simple 8.5"x11" sheet of paper divided into sections. For example, the sheet I have for cents is divided into S mint, D mint, 2009, 1982, error/variety, AU/BU coppers, AU/BU zincs, foreign coinage. I then sort each section according to storage destination, place select items in flips/folded post-its, ID a few of the better variety/error coins, and put the rest into labeled storage for a rainy day cataloging event.

For a box of nickels, I generally keep less than 15 nickels.

For a box of cents, I generally keep around 100 specimens most of them being error/variety coins.