I Gotta Be Doing Something Wrong

Look at some silver dollars and start to learn how to VAM them. You can do this with online photos via ebay and heritage auctions. You can learn about varieties on VAMworld. I have been collecting and looking at coins for a long time and have never found any real variety cents. They are difficult to see without really good loop and most guys use microscope to photograph the coins which makes it easy to identify them. The rare ones are very far and few between. You might have to go through $1,000 worth of pennies to find a $20 coin. some people are much more lucky with them than others. I have better luck looking for errors in cents, and key date wheat cents. My best find in a box of pennies was a 1914-D Wheat cent that I sold for $40 on ebay. My best find in Half Dollar rolls was a 1938-D half that I sold for $100, I found a few other common date silver halves but it was really lucky to find the 38-D walker. Morgan dollars are the easiest thing I have found to find rare varieties in. Learn how to VAM them and then start hitting the coin stores and auction sites. You will find something worth buying that could make you a few bucks quickly.

Are you searching bank rolls, obw, circulated? I found that the more threads I read and the more I looked the more I found.

Do you have a good loupe (microscope or magnifying lens) if the power is not high you might not be able to see the varieties easy.

Do you have good reference to check against?

Good book reference to have on hand: Cherry Pickers Guide & Strike it rich with pocket change
Coppercoins & Variety Vista are good for reference also

Things you find post here and people will help you with them.

I would look for re-punched mint-marks are the easiest to start with the DDO & DDR

Most Wheat Cents & Memorial Cents Denver or San Fransisco Mint marks rpms on date up to 1989D

Once you get familiar with different varieties for example Wide AM's and Close AM's if you look at every 2000-P odds are after a awhile you will find one but it could be today it could be 9 months from now.

If you have some 1970 and 1960 small date large date, or copper, zinc, large and small dates from 1982 odds are they are different varieties.

RDV's 1988 P&D-Mint transitional design coins

Keep you stash and when you get a better thing for magnification, take another look at your coins. You eye may not be trained yet to see what RPMs and Doubled die varieties? It take time to develop the eye. When I first started searching 1200 wheat cents, I found one 1956D-1MM-001. (The most obvious find.) I reported this one and then my instructor told me to look again. The second time through I found two more RPMs. It takes a while for the eye to recognize that you need to note differences, and so I continued to search a few more times. But the batch I had just the three RPMs. So I set them aside and search them again a few months later. When I was finally sure, then I sold them about a year later. So training the eye doesn't come quickly. I still save my rolls of OBW cents in case I need to search them again. But now I usually find what I'm looking for, Still save BU and AU coins for another search in case a new find comes up. The circulated, damaged, spotted distracting coins I send back to the bank.

But on your coins you may have got 150 coins that someone already searched through, or may people have already searched through already. So don't give up. Your eye may not have developed yet. So keep looking at them from time to time.

I made a excel sheet with all known (well not minor ones) Doubled Dies from 1960's or so to present. I have each year separated into Denver and Philly. I also created hyperlinks so you can click on each specific mint mark and year and it will go to Coppercoins.com to the best example of DD for that year and mm. I would email it to anyone who wants it.

Jack - found another 2000 WAM today so don't give up just yet. Sounds like the WAM is like the RDV006 for me; I keep flipping and finding RDV005. I'll find one though - they have to be out there.

Good luck folks!

When I got my first box of cents I went to the Lincoln Cent Resource website and made a bin for each major variety.

I set each one aside box after box.

After 40 boxes I found a 1980 minor doubling of the date and a 1971 DDO something.

No WAM's

Everyone else finds WAM's by the boatload.

All I set aside now are the coppers to sell and 1969S, 1970S, 1971, and 1972.

As far as getting advice from a local coin dealer, I can say with experience, a majority of typical local dealers have very little knowledge of varieties. Most could not tell you the difference in anerror from a variety. The best place for gathering knowledge on those is right here on the internet and reference books.

I felt the same way you do when I started roll searching three - four years ago. I agree with some others who say to buy the Cherry Pickers Guide (both volumes). I limit my coin searching to rolls of cents and halves. My finds of half dollar varieties number about 10 - 20: 7-1974-D DDO; numerous examples on NO INITIAL halves including a couple that are not listed; also a 1966 and 1967 DDO / DDR Stars.

Cent finds: where do I start!? 1910 S/s; 1972 DDO; 1983 DDR; 1998/1999/2000 Wide "AM's"...the '99 is the best of that group. Probably found 10 - 15 '98s and 20+ 2000's. Looking to sell many of those. Already sold the '72DDO and '83DDR. 2006 Doubled ear; 1961 D/d; 1960 Sm. Date; and maybe 25+ Indian heads including an '08-S (sold it). An '88 with reverse of the '89; and an '89 with the reverse of the '88--both called transitional errors.

I get a box of halves every two weeks and a box of cents about once every 8 - 10 days. I have a great magnifier (a 135mm camera lens from a broken camera), a great light, throw away surgical gloves (coins are sooooooooo filthy), tubes to hold my "finds" and of course the Cherry Pickers Guide although I know what I'm looking for.

For those not aware, besides the '92 Close AM, '93, '98, '99, '00 Wide AMs, there is also a '96 Wide AM out there. I have not found the '84 DDO (doubled ear); nor the '83 Copper cent (only one found thus far).

I think I'm the only member of my local coin club that is an active roll searcher and what they fail to realize is that I have a chance (albeit a small chance) of finding any particular error or variety; but if they're not looking, they have ZERO chance.

Don't give up and enjoy the relaxing alone time!