How Rare Are Doubled Die Pennies (Not Necessarily Major, But Non-Trivial)

I don't know actual numbers, but they aren't common. If you're in a metro area where there are likely other roll hunters there's the confounding effect that the cents may have been searched before. My best luck has been getting smaller amounts from rural banks where they ask, "What do you want all these pennies for anyhow, eh?"

It really is a numbers game. You might want to familiarize yourself with some of the lesser knowns or recent issues (I know, I don't like Zincolns, either) as well as RPMs.

I've had the most success looking through ebay .

I live right out of DC and find a ton of "Bar" cents, which are Class IX DDRs. Usually at least half a roll to a whole roll per box.

If you have a LCS near you I suggest looking for Wheat cent bags. I find multiple class VI doubled dies and some nicer CPG listed doubled dies usually. RPMs are usually not too difficult to find in the wheat bags as well.

-CH27

Edit: messed up my Roman numerals-thanks TB

I appreciate your question Sam, as I have been wondering about a corollary of this, which is what constitutes non-trivial? I get that at some point it's a personal call as to what you collect, but nonetheless I do wonder what "the community" would agree is non-trivial, or in other words, what's really collectible? As far as finding no penny varieties, that does seem like some bad luck. With no disrespect intended, it could be also that some eye training could help. I know that for me I used to find a whole lot of nothing, but now as I've become more familiar with what doubled dies look like and in particular how they arise, I'm finding more, albeit minor ones most of the time. In retrospect, I think I initially learned to look for what I thought a doubled die should look like -- think 1955 1c DDO-001. However, I think learning to recognize only the visual tends to produce a kind of exclusion bias -- if we don't see what we're looking for, it becomes irrelevant. These days I look for deviation from normal, not a certain image of what a doubled die ought to look like. I'm less looking for an certain image, but an understanding of what produced the image I'm seeing. This may not be the best way or anything, but it's certainly helped me see more. It does also seem to me that the single-squeeze era has produced considerably more varieties, but the vast majority of those are less striking than those of the preceding era, including a heap of what I gather many here would consider too minor to care about. I have certainly been hit with condescension more than once for sharing finds like that.

Thanks Tropical! All a ton of great information. Am I correct in surmising that "bar" cents are the ones with DDR varieties that affect the columns of the Lincoln memorial? If so, these seem to occur much more frequently in single-squeeze coins and also are around the center of the coin, which made me think they're probably caused by the same process that produces the State Quarter errors I've seen. Is doubling on the devices less common than in other places on the coin?

In my experience Coin Roll Hunting, they are pretty common, especially the minor Doubled Die varieties. I collect minor and major varieties. It also depends if you live in a big town, or not. Sometimes, there's a lot of searchers, while sometimes, there are little to none. I live in a small town with not really any hunters, so I have great luck most of the time. It also depends how good you are detecting the Doubled Dies and errors. The more knowledge you have, the better prepared you'll be to find stuff.