Improving The Efficiency Of My Penny Searching

Alright, I think you're winning me over. Although I don't think it's true that the coins are all that searched-over. People find the WAM varieties all the time, I find a Buffalo nickel in almost every box, there are tons and tons of wheat cents out there, people find silver dimes, Mercury dimes and even the occasional Barber. Those are all things that any roll searcher would pull out. No, probably there isn't a 1955 doubled die out there waiting for me, but there could be a 1995.

I sort first and like coop trash anything not nice. I'm not interested in finding/keeping something that was ground into the parking lot. My sort is date/mint and when I have a full tube I research then search allowing me to really focus on the date/mint in hand. I never search during the sort. This is mostly from lack of experience. I'm sure coop can jump from a 88 model to a 2006 with thinking but I need to learn the different obverses and reverses and can't do that jumping around.

This method does require some easy capture...

242 tubes. That is huge. But you are right. I look at the year/mint mark and go from there. The year and date tells me what to search for. When I say "what to search for" that doesn't mean that I search just certain years for known varieties. I may have a mental note of them, but I search those years with what types of doubling can happen. I'm methodical when searching doing it the same way for the year I'm looking for. Every once in a while my eye will detect someing and I'll go back to what seemed different. But searching goes fast. Anything too minor gets passed over as who would buy it. I have rolls of doubled die that I found years ago, but now realize that they are too minor for anyone to have interest in. I still have them because they are BU coins, but never finished the rest of the rolls because there were a lot in there. One of them had hub doubling on 1 letter and the other ones found had doubling on three letters. They are doubled dies, just minor ones.

I think what I'll do is get square tubes and just set up a brinks box or something at an angle so I can stack them in a grid for one decade at a time so I can work in a smaller space.

Coop, thanks for sharing your details! Seal, ICdouble, timsum, captain... lots of great ideas thanks!

Organization is my key "problem".
(1) First I sort by "key-date groups" (for example 1998, 1999, 2000 is one date group) , and watch for varieties or AUs as they go by. (Suspected Keepers... write a note and put coin in flip right away... or end up doing it over later ... wasted time)
(2) If I don't get too far behind in "final searching" and returning not-keep's to the bank, I don't feel so lost and overwhelmed. (Suspected Keepers... write a note and put coin in flip right away... or end up doing it over later ... wasted time)
(3) Put the "keepers" in flips right away, with proper ID tag or notes... otherwise there is the wasted time of re-inspecting the coin.

If you are buying the square tubes for long time storage, don't buy the soft tubes. They tend to add PVC to the coins inside. Just like the soft flips can ruin BU coins, the soft square tubes can mess the coins up as well. The harder square tubes work better for long time storage. The round hard clear plastic also work better for long time storage. The plastic tubes from the 1960's with the locking lids are the best. But you have to find these used. The problem with round tubes is keeping them organized. I have a few boxes that have the dividers that the tubes come in, but the newer boxes are held in place with a foam divider. Great for selling the coins, but tend to fall over after they are filled. The holder like the OP's is a good setup for ease of using the tubes. I have a lot of the sot square tubes that I won't use now that I know they mess up BU coins. But they would be OK for circulated coins for temporary storage. The problem with making something to hold square tubes would be making the holder. The round holes could be drilled, but not the square ones. Small boxes that hold them would also be better. a large box (100 ct tubes) gets very heavy when it full. Just a few ideas.

Soft tubes? Like how soft? Because plastics are all to a degree... um, plastic. I have some that I've been using for various things. They're fairly stiff, I think polypropylene but I'll have to check. IIRC they're Coin-Safe brand. For flips I use BoPET (AKA Mylar) SAFlips.

The idea with the square tubes is that I don't need to make a rack or anything for them, I can just find a way to prop up a box at an angle and stack them in it.