Question About 70's And 80's Lincoln Cent

Some people would be surprised at the wholesale price of many of the '80's era cents. There's a perception among most that they are all common and they really are limited to about $20 a roll but the roll price is set by typical rolls and typical rolls are often pretty sad. Nice chBU coins bring more.

My guess says the 1979 is AU-55 and the 1957-D is MS63/64 RB. But then again, I'm not a professional...

A 1983-P Washington quarter can be worth $1,200 or more if graded MS67. 1983 quarters are everywhere, but they aren't all worth $1200. Learn to grade coins and you can catch some bargains and not get ripped off with low grade coins.

Unless you cents look like the below, I don't recommend grading them, even then you could still lose money.

Every year since 1972 I've saved every Gem I've found in circulation. Some years that's only a couple coins and other years it's as many as twenty or thirty. It's most cents, nickels, and quarters because these are the rolls I search most. There are lots of dimes because dime Gems are more common.

Most of them are "gemmy" MS-64 or MS-65 but there should be lots of MS-66. There may be an MS-67 or two.

I also search BU rolls some years but only years where even MS-66 are scarce and this isn't really from "circulation".

Your point is well taken though. Your odds of finding a Gem are poor and usually when you do it will be from a brand new roll that had just been dumped in the till.

Forgive this member @My2cent, if I'm telling you something you already know. I hate it when I'm the recipient of that. Still, I read into your comments a possibility that my input may be unfamiliar.

An MS-64 coin grade means "As expected" from proper mint operations. That's why little dings cause little concern. Normal mint processes make dings almost unavoidable. That term "As expected covers a lot more territory than any of the other Mint State grades. It is, after all, what workers are expected by their bosses to deliver over and again.

MS-60 through MS-63 indicates less mint quality than expected. Maybe they tried to get too many coins from one set of dies. Maybe the strike wasn't up to expectations or the ding-count seems excessive, etc. MS-65 through MS-70 indicates coins that exceed expectation. Below MS-60, as you know, is a circulated coin which is graded on its wear and its life's abuses alone.


Kevin

Well @BadThad..., I don't believe I'm exactly in the condition of "missing the point" regarding conditional rarity, though I do plead guilty to stopping short of pointing out what, to me, seems obvious.

I began my post to @My2cent with a worry. I don'tknow him/her.I might be preaching to the choir and I stopped my preaching before adding that above normal coins are more scarce than normal or subnormal coins. And I also neglected to add that rarity impacts prices. This,I believe holds true for many things, living and non-living.

I'm not saying you have not advanced the discussion. You have done. You may be right to advise @My2cent to this greater degree. You're not quite right in your assessment of me this time.

Kevin