What's Your System For Finding Coin Errors, Etc

Yes, just modern coins.
I figured I would have them by dates, so when I learn of a particular error or variety, I can at least with ease, go through those and then either hold onto it or put them back in the economy.

Well right now, I have pennies, nickels, dimes and qrts.
There are so many sites, with errors and varieties, I would just work one at a time. For example, Wisconsin state error qtrs, etc.

The ones who find the new varieties are the ones who look at everything.

http://lincolncentresource.com/
500 or so coins and found nada. I have been through 1.3+ million . Keep the faith they are out there, Good luck to you.
John1

If you look in what is called the Red Book by Whitman Publishing, 2015 edition, pages 421 and up there is a lot of photos and explanations about errors. The person that has the web site called coppercoins.com has two books out on just Lincoln Cents with many pages showing many errors and photos of them. Naturally also there are numerous other web sites for error coins.
by the way
Myself, I don't look for them anymore. I did at one time and eventually ended up with several boxes of error coins. Then one day I said to myself, SELF, what are you doing? Didn't know so stopped saving errors.

This isn't a "tip," it's the fundamental reality, the foundation upon which all of numismatics rests.

I've concentrated on a single series (2 cent pieces) for so long, I guess I've just figured out what I'm looking for at coin shows, auction sites and in photos on ebay or similar sights. Other series I employ basic knowledge I've learned through taking classes at ANA Summer Seminars or by reading and studying various books and websites.

Bill Fivaz & JT Stanton were both teaching the basics of variety collecting at Summer seminars when I first started to attend them in the early/mid 1980's "The Cherrypicker Guide" was in it's 2nd edition as I recall, and not very many people were actively looking for varieties back then. In fact one of the breakout sessions we had a couple of times, was "Is collecting by die varieties the future of coin collecting?" Bill Fivaz was really one of the first to bring this style of collecting to the forefront of the hobby, quickly followed by Rick Snow and Brian Wagner with the Fly-In club (Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents), die variety collecting really took off with the push by Jeff Oxman and Michael Fey and their joint publication the "TOP 100 VAMs."

Come to think about it I was lucky enough to have taken courses with each one of the guys mentioned above at their earliest classes at Summer Seminars, usually right before their first books had been published, guess I was lucky in being ahead of the curve!

One thing they all teach is learn as much about how a coin made from blank strips of metal through the finished product. Learning each step of the minting process will help you to better understand how varieties are created, and after looking at so many coins, who knows you may even find undiscovered treasures out there.

When sitting down and looking at coins, I use a magnifying lamp on a swing arm, (when it's a large amount of coins), it's probably 5x (you can find these cheap, $25.00 or so, at most office supply stores), My trusty B&L 7x APO Triplet loupe is my most used tool, then I have a 30x Panasonic handheld pocket microscope (great for double dies) a fairly decent stereo microscope (1.2-30x) and my Camera set-up with macro lenses, and a bellows. Sometimes as I've gotten older, I can see stuff on a big 30" monitor better than I can through optics, my eyes aren't as good as they used to be 20 years ago.

Books, books and more books! I did a quick count and come up with about 50 different books on die varieties of various coin series I use regularly, books that are on my bookshelf nearby at all times, for reference. They cover only 8 types of US coin series. One can never have enough good reference books to check against.

Half Cents: Cohen, Manley, Breen, Heim
Large Cents: Noyes, Sheldon, Breen, Grellman, Wright, Neiswinter, Boka, Adams, Newcomb
Flying Eagle & Indian Head cents: Snow, Flynn
Two Cent: Leone, Flynn
Three Cent: Flynn
Dimes: Ahwash, Flynn
Half Dollars: Overton, Parsley
Silver Dollars: Harrison, Flynn, Roberts, Oxman, Fey, Van Allen & Mallis, Bowers, Hartnett, Kimpton,

General: Fivaz, Stanton, Bressett, Yeoman, Breen, Bowers, Thurman, Flynn, Adams, Crosby

And don't discount old auction catalogs for the great quality of photos and collections of certain series that have sold, some are landmark sales I use all the time, especially for my Half Cent and Large Cent studies/research of die varieties.

Plus quite a few websites are bookmarked, I also keep files folders full of certain articles I come across in magazines, newsletters, online print outs, etc.