Errors And Varieties , New Wave Of Collecting ?

Why has chasing errors and varieties become the big thing? It's very simple. It is the only area where you may still have a chance of finding something "good" in pocket change or roll searching. You want to put together a date and mint set from roll searching? Well you can do Memorial and Shield cents, or clad dimes or quarters. Nickels are about the only place where you may have a shot at finding things before 1964, you not going to realistically put together a silver set out of change or roll searching. Those clad or cent sets you can pretty much have complete in a week, and when you are done they are worth face value. We "oldtimers" actually had a chance of finding old coins, key dates etc in change. Todays beginning collector does not. Most anything they want, even the common dates, they are going to have to buy at a premium.

But there is still the possibility of finding errors or varieties in rolls. 1972, 83, 84, and 95 doubled die cents do still show up. 1982 no mintmark dies are still possible. Chips, Cuds, and capped dies can still be found. You aren't going to get rich, you probably won't make money at all

All great points and posts!




For me; Coin collector, errors and silver are secondary.





As stated; it probably is mostly for the newbies.

However, thanks to this forum I've found real "legitimate" significant mint errors (and yes, ones you can "actually" see with your naked eye) in my existing collection I didn't even know I had!...

Not something you need a scanning electron microscope to see, like a minute die marker.

When I started coin collecting in the 1960's, it was by searching pocket change. My memories are that mostly you saw coins of the previous 10 years, but with perserverance, you could complete date sets going back 30 years. It was also possible to go back 50 years, but these were more difficult (and more worn).

Expressing this in terms of US nickels, you could complete date sets of Jefferson nickels, but Buffalo nickels could still be found occasionally and if you were lucky the occasional liberty head nickel. For me, it was these different designs that encouraged my interest in coin collecting, and kept date collecting from being boring.

What is available now for beginning collectors? 10 years back - Jefferson nickels, 30 years back - Jefferson nickels, 50 years back - Jefferson nickels, 80 years back - Jefferson nickels. Boring, boring, boring. If beginning collectors want to search for something different, there are only varieties.

My point is that today's collectors are different than us old time collectors because what is available to them is different than what was available to us.

I should add that I grew up in Canada, so my experience was a little different, but in essence the same.

Jan

It does not help that the focus on the normal coin series of old has been market-changed to focus on key dates in slabs while regulating the rest of the set to "junk silver."

The old way of collecting was treasuring each coin individually based upon mintage (availability plays into this as well) and MM. It used to be a special thing to find an S mint mark on a coin b/c there were relatively few made. Now I see things such as a Walker with an S mint mark being sold at just over melt price.

Coin stores used to have trays by date and MM of (let's say as an example) Mercury dimes. You would go in, ask to see the tray, and then pick up the 2 or three stacked 2X2s in that coin's slot. you would compare the individual coins/price to see which one appealed the most to you of those in hand. The history of the vast majority of coins is no longer noted/appreciated by most. We see this concept somewhat related where it seems so very many newbies come here wanting to know, "Should I send this in to be graded?" ie. "Can I quit my day job by slabbing/selling this high grade rare coin?" They see youtube and slabs on ebay and end up thinking this is what the coin hobby is all about.
No more, "Cool! I got an S 1945 dime in change today - how uncommon is this compared to a P or D?"

A "set" is commonly viewed now as...buy a slabbed key (and maybe a few semi keys) and get the rest from the designated melt melt pile. Sad.

I also am not into clad. I thought my interests were not about inherent value. Yet as time goes by I find myself less and less wanting to accumulate by date and MM anymore b/c clad is worth more the day I put it away than it will be after a few years. And only the slabbed high grade examples are ever going to be deemed as worth anything. So I guess my collecting is about putting away value for the future and my kids.

My only exception to not caring about clad are Ikes and Kennedy halves.

Zincolns carry no interest for me since they can rot. And, knowing what happens, somehow I would botch storing them safely.

So errors are a new "fun" for me. I can go back over my accumulation and find things I did not know were there. But...they have to be discernible without a microscope to be of interest to me.

Too old to see most of those very minor items and definitely too old to jump around if I did.

There is a lot of good feedback here.

I like @conder's comment best.

As for this thought:


I also started my US collection in the 1960s, and while I agree that most of what you saw was, say 10 to 20 years old, it was great that you could routinely find two types of nickels (and the occasional V), two types of dimes (and the occasional Barber), two types of quarters (OK, quarters are even better today), and two types of halves. I was filling albums back through the 1920s easily (filling up tubes with Lincolns from the 1930s), and for some types back into the teens. Regular 1909 P cents could be found in circulation at the rate of maybe 1 every year or two. The older dates were not found every day, but going through my dad's pocket change on a routine basis, turned up all kinds of stuff up to 50 years old.
So, indeed, today part of the problem may be that today's 50 year old coins are still the same type (blech).

I say is getting tougher and tougher to find TRUE error and varieties these days.

And the prices IMO don't reflect what is suppose to be worth, if it were what these sellers on ebay wanted to let go for, I'd be retired yesterday.