For The Roll Searching Type...

Thought I'd be a little generous and write this evening.

This post is for those who want to know which rolls to be getting in Lincoln cents for your best chance of finding exciting and possibly profitable doubled dies and repunched mintmarks. I am not going to do this list in chronological order, it is in the order I would choose to pick them (top ten lists!), given an endless supply and all I could ever search...(my vault )

The "you should find something in these" list, from most likely down...

1. 1970S. There are a number of doubled dies for this date, any roll searcher would be highly unlucky not to find something out of ten rolls from ten different sources.

2. 1960D. Preferably large date. These are loaded with repunched mintmarks. Only reason I would not personally prefer to choose these is because I have been through tens of thousands of rolls of this date, and am pretty burned out on them.

3. 1961D. Exactly the same as my previous post, except there are not as many and not as nice. Still you'd be a very unlucky cat not to find something in ten rolls.

4. 1964. A number of different doubled dies, both obverse and reverse. Some of the reverse doubled dies are outstanding, and there are a number of them that are pretty neat.

5. 1963. For years these were the cheapest of the memorial cents. In fact, as near back as five years ago, these were still under 60 cents a roll bid. Very common, very cheap, and has some of the neatest doubled dies in the series.

6. 1964D. Same as 1964 only not quite as nice on the doubled dies. Thing is, these have mintmarks, and some of them are doubled pretty nicely.

7. 1963D. Quite a number of minor doubled dies, and who could forget the famous 3/low3 doubled die that is now bringing over $20 apiece? A few nice RPMs make these fun to search through.

8. 1972D. Hit and miss for doubled dies and RPMs, but if you hit something, you've hit nicely. Most BU examples of the die varieties in this date generally bring $20 or better. The fun part is that most people skip these in favor of their P mint brothers...little do the people know there are still doubled dies to be found here!

9. 1959D. Only because I am doing the top ten rolls you'll likely find something in...not because I necessarily like them. Anyhow, there are a lot of RPMs, some of them are nice. A few hit and miss doubled dies make this one a one in 20 shot.

10. 1972. Not necessarily for the big doubled die (most of these have been weeded out), but for its nine sisters. With many rolls already culled out for anything of value, your chances are a bit slimmer than they used to be, but so many people glance for the big ones and leave the minor ones...and some of those are the scarcest of the crowd. Die #4 is especially elusive.


The "long shot list"...


1. 1983. A few decent doubled die obverses in this group have skipped many a collector flipping them over to look for the giant on the reverse. They are somewhat a long shot, but you can't find them if you don't look.

2. 1985D. Tough rolls to find in decent shape, but the RPMs this date seems to put out are excellent! Only problem is, you'd be into it by 50 rolls before you should expect to find anything.

3. 1987D. Another one like the 1985D.

4. 1989. A pretty decent number of class 6 doubled die obverses make this one interesting. It's D mint counterpart has some listed doubled die reverses, and all the reverses were made in the same die shop...do the math. There have to be some out there.

5. 1995D. I like this date, but the doubled dies are very elusive. You'd have to go through a lot of coins to find the biggies, but they are expensive and nice once you do.

6. 1968D. This date has a surprising number of doubled dies, and the monster on the reverse is what you're after. Of course don't toss them out before checking for the doubling in the motto and the RPMs. About a 1 in 50 chance of getting a hitter roll.

7. 1959. Here and there you'll find a nice doubled die, but they are really just here and there. Maybe 1 in 75 or so, and they're not worth a mountain of money either.

8. 1971. A couple of really nice doubled dies makes this one worth the effort on a really rainy day. One roll I purchased a few years ago yielded fourteen coins from three different doubled die obverses. Probably a 1 in 100 shot, but this time it paid off.

9. 1966. I never liked these because finding any of the known dies is so tough...but they have to be out there. I know of three doubled die obverses and a nice doubled die reverse. Worth a shot if you're desparate. 1 in 200 shot.

10. 1969S. Can't go to sleep at night without peeking at a roll once in a while hoping to hit the big jackpot...but realistically, I don't think I ever will. There are six different RPMs known to keep me company though.


And now for the "don't bother list"...

These are all together, mainly because they either have nothing at all worthwhile in them, or the chances of finding anything worthwhile is such a long shot the roll prices would eat you alive before you'd expect to find anything worth more than you're paying.

1961, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1969D, 1970, 1970D, 1973, 1973D, 1973S, 1974, 1974D, 1974S, 1975, 1975D, 1976, 1976D, 1977, 1977D, 1978, 1978D, 1979, 1979D, 1981, 1981D, 1985, 1986, 1986D, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1993D, 1996D, 1997D, 1998D, 1999D, 2000D, 2001, 2002, 2002D.

Now...my list only goes up to five years ago because I still think the sky is the limit on coins up to five years old. Heck, we're still finding real good stuff in coins 25 years old! We can't possibly expect to have already found everything there is in the past five years. Word to the wise, though...don't waste a lot of time or money buying rolls from the past five years at a premium. There's not been a heck of a lot found.

As for all the dates not listed in any of these lists...here's the key. They're not special, so they're not on my hot list. They don't have anything huge for the date that makes them a special long shot...but they do have something in them, which keeps them off the "don't bother" list. A couple of "for instances"...

for instance...1967...has a decnet doubled die reverse to look for. When I get them as a throw-in, I look through them. Never know what you might find. But they aren't special, and really aren't worth jumping out to save.

for instance...1992D...sure, there's the 'fewer than half a dozen known' Wide AM reverse. Chances of getting struck by lightning twice on the same clear day are better than snagging a few of these in a roll, but they are out there.