Another 1980-S Penny Error

there is just too many of them to collect,,i go with what appeals to my eyes....

That's exactly how you should collect; just keep the ones that appeal to you yourself.

I've still got over 50 boxes that I'm slowly going through, and at the rate I'm going it'll take me a couple of years or so. I search each roll, keeping out any coin that has a variety or error, then separate the rest into individual years and roll them up when I get 50. "One-off" errors are always fun to find - clipped coins, off-sets, planchet flaws or strike-throughs, that type of thing - but mainly what I'm looking for is any error, variety, or error variety coin that would be part of a series in a pressing - that is, one where there would be multiples of the exact same coin with that error produced, such as clashes, doubling, or even strongly rotated dies.

As far as one single comprehensive small cent list, I've never seen one, but I'm sure that there are several collectors out there (myself included) that are working toward one. Most errors that we see are fairly minor - die chips, tool marks, small die cracks (especially on the last 15 years or so), deteriorated dies, etc - but even so, there are thousands of different ones. Visible die wear causing some rather nice die progressions occur on many years as well, but one must take care not to assume that 2 coins coming from different stages in the life of a single pair of dies are from 2 completely different series of errors. A lot of homework is needed in a case like this, and it will likely be a few years yet before any real attempt at a comprehensive listing appears on the market. Saying that, there are many excellent websites and books that have been published that show a great number of varieties and errors, so that should give you a fair start.

Pennysaver, that would be a many years job for somebody with a lot of time. Identify all of the die pairings of every date of Canadian penny, then all the minor varieties, and put together a list of probably 3,000,000 different pennies that would "complete" the ultimate collection. The next step would be to get them all in high grade MS-63 or better..... Date 1979, Die pairing - #125 obverse, #85 reverse, die clash position 17, stage 6.......I'm exhausted thinking about it but it sure would be nice if someone did it.