Efficient Coin Hunting For A Dansco 7070 (Or Similar) Set

Depending on what grades you're looking for you can completely exclude raw coins. Except for a VERY select few types I almost exclusively sort by grade, granted I'm an exception not the rule

I understand that many collectors limit themselves to LCS and some auction sites. But that may imply you could be waiting a very long time for that special coin you are looking for.




But that almost sounds like you disregard eye appeal?

I understand the idea of starting with the tougher coins first, but in my "budget slowly ramping up" situation this would mean "waiting for years until I find a sufficiently mangled example". Instead I'm doing that anyway, but I'm also getting some of the less expensive types while I wait for the tough ones.
(IIRC, Classic Head cents actually aren't that rare or expensive in grades below Good; it's the higher grades that are a problem. I've seen a few in the $10 range on Meshok and [if they're still there] might take the plunge some day. OTOH, the other types you mentioned are very expensive in any grade.)

I suppose maybe I should instead have saved for years (probably more like months, but it depends on the type) to be able to afford that one extremely expensive non-mangled coin (again, assuming I manage to find one) all at once. This is certainly what I would have recommended, but I'm probably too impulsive for this to work, and I suspect so are most other people.

I'm not looking forward to the types where it's considered useful to buy slabbed; my 7070 has no place to insert a slab, and I'm not confident in my ability to open one. Chances are I'd probably end up putting at least one fake into the 7070 and not knowing.

My 7070 has been in progress since 1993. It was immediately filled with over twenty coins that I already had. From there it was filled with buys from a local coin shop or the local coins shows.

There was no rhyme or reason. I had a list, I had a budget; I just bought what I could afford when I found it. In the first ten years I added over twenty more coins. In the next ten years I added twelve. In the last seven I have added another twelve.

The most recent purchase (seated dollar, no motto) was from the coin show a year ago (just before the lock-down). The purchase previous to that (the Trade dollar) was from a CCF member.

Coins shows are no go for me until this crap ends, so I have been looking on ebay for that last Seated dollar (motto). I have not bit yet. I really hope I can buy that one at the fall coin show this year.

When I did my 7070, I made a list of all the coins I needed and researched prices in various grade ranges that I was interested. I'd usually target a grade and then include price targets one summary grade below and one above. So if I said I wanted a VF coin for a particular slot, I'd also figure out pricing for F and XF / EF in addition to VF. That way I could kind of compare in between prices, whether I'd go a grade higher or lower if I got a great deal, etc.

Once the list was set, I'd usually target 2-3 coins at a time just so that the choices weren't so overwhelming. I would use saved searches on ebay, go to coin shows, local shops, etc. and go (quickly) through thousands of coins for every one I bought. One way I would narrow searches was to look for specific dates or date ranges. Still, sometimes, it would be months before I found something; other times, it could be pretty quick. Occasionally I'd make a mistake and buy a coin that was not quite what I wanted, stick it in a 2x2 and keep looking if I couldn't or didn't want to return it.

I had a budget so that also slowed me down some. Occasionally, I'd come across a really great coin outside of what I was currently looking for and just pull the trigger and buy it. That's how I got my Seated Liberty dollar with Motto for example.

A lot of the coins in the 7070 are pretty easy to obtain, mostly the more modern stuff so that was mostly just going and buying something since there were so many choices. For example, a Walking Liberty half. There's tons of those in nice grades out there for cheap prices. Others are harder and I spent months looking.

Good luck with your 7070, had a blast putting mine together!

But to the point I am making, what you describe ("go through thousands of coins") is not very efficient.

Here is my search for a 1859 cent. As you can see, I have to dig through 1,052 results.