Culling Coins Searching For Varieties And Errors.

When it comes to searching , three things are important:
1. Learn to know what to look for. Have good book or on-line visual references.
2. Train your eye to able to spot those coins more efficiently. Commit important images to your visual memory.
3. Take whatever measures you can to avoid eye strain.

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When it comes to your collection,
cull all those varieties and errors that are not considered valuable, and for which you already have lots of examples.

Quite often, the degree of error is a matter of severity
or the variety is a matter of rarity.
Set the height of your own bar, to decide on which coins you can cull, on this basis.

It may also be a worthwhile exercise to separate the 'stars' of your collection into a separate and much smaller sub collection, - a sort of culling at the top.
These more valuable coins would then be much easier to find, especially if your collection is very large, or if most of your coins are stored in bulk.

One thing I use to determine to even search a coin: If it looks bad, I ask myself, "Would I buy this coin?" If not, I don't even look at the coin any further. Toss it back into circulation.

I am familiar with what to look for. I start by separating the coins by year. When a tube gets full, it goes in a wrapper and marked for that year. At this time I am not paying much attention to the coins condition, just the year.
When all have been tubed and rolled I select a year to search and will separate into P,D,S mint.
Before I begin searching I reference that year from Copper Coins, Weller, VV to familiarize myself with the varieties listed and start looking browsing for any noticeable errors in the process.
I guess my question more involves when is a coin not even worth keeping before I even start a closer examination. Of course I reject roadkill types right off the top. But how about the stained, spotted, rotted examples. Often an example may be pretty decent except for one ugly spot when you flip it over. Most minor varieties carry low premiums in average circulated condition to begin with. So should I only be concerned with searching the best condition coins of the lot and discarding the rest? At what point does condition determine a closer look?

That seems to be a good reason of thought. If it is minor, it better look good. Major stuff different. Got it.
Thanks all. Your advice will probably half my time now.