Lincoln Cents - 1909 To 1940 - How To Complete

Your story sounds alot like my start in collecting. I would recommend you first buy at least two books (red book; Lange's cent book)because knowledge is key for Lincoln collecting. Decide what grade of coins you want for your collection overall.

Do you have a coin shop in the area? Get to know them! Check for coin shows in your area.

Area coin clubs are great and most like to trade with each other. Post lots to CCF (at least 50 times) and start using the trade and wanted to buy area.

Hope this helps -- Terrell

Hi Terrell -

Thanks for your response! The Lincoln cents will be kind of a "side deal", so grade is variable - AG/VG/F is probably as high as I would go as most of my energy is going into building out my Dansco 7070. I do have Bressett's ANA Grading Standards reference.

There is a local coin shop - I have purchased a few things there - that's probably a good place to check out. I don't know if they'd let me go through their bin of wheats...guess I could ask. And coin shows are also a good idea although somewhat few and far between (there's really only one good annual one near me).

I am really looking for a place to spend a few bucks and walk away with 10-15 pennies. There's a lot of slots I should be able to fill for $0.25 to $1 per coin based on Numismedia prices.

Thanks again!
Ken

Hi SWUSC -

Boy, I sure don't see 1 out of 300 wheats around here at least. I collect all my change, go through it and roll it up and take it to the bank. I might run across 2-3 wheats a year out of probably thousands of pennies. And most of those are 1950's wheats - I think I've only seen 1 pre-1940 wheat that I got out of circulation in the past couple of years.

I always look though!

Ken

Not sure just how fast you want to fill that collection but what you may want to try is a coin show. Just go to Google and type in coin shows and your state. There are also listings of coin shows on the PCGS web site and also on CoinWorld web sites. Some on line dealers also advertise coin shows. At most fairly large coin shows you should be able to fill an entire collection in one visit pending the grade and your available cash. At one coin show I attend I've seen entire collections for sale of many coins. Make a list and go to one. And remember if you do go to a coin show, there is usually no sales tax, no shipping and handling charges, no postage, no insurances, etc. If you find one like the ones around me the coffee is really poor.

The best thing to do is to spend some time at your local coin store and get to know everyone that works there, this is how I have done it. For the last 2-3 years I have tried to go in at least once a month (weekly if I can) and just do a lot of small talk and always buy something, no matter how small. They will eventually get to know you by sight and that you are starting out in collecting and will soon start giving you advice and information to help you out. If your kid is getting involved, take him/her with you and do the same thing, depending on the dealer they may help you out even more knowing your kids are also getting into collecting. Since I have been doing this they know me and try to find things for me and unlike most customers, I am allowed to go through certain coins in the back that have not been sorted out yet for cheaper than what is on display. They also know that I will not take advantage of them and that any coin worth value is set aside for them and 99% of the time they will still give it to me because of the relationship I have with them.

The other great advice is to get your 50 posts and go the buy/sell area and see what you can find. There is always someone selling off extras from their collection at better prices that most coin shops and this board is really good at helping you out.

And last; but not least, do as much roll searching as possible for the newer coins you need. Since you are new I do not imagine you have read everything on this site yet so go to your local bank and buy rolls from them. If you are trying to get coins from your daily change, it will never happen, but every once in awhile you can luck out with rolled coins from a bank now and then.

Thanks everyone for their ideas!

I think I will do a little of all that is suggested. One thing I have not attended is a larger coin show. I'll have to put that on my list.

Best regards,
Ken

I have a similar story. I have a whitman album and went through my dad's saved wheaties. I filled as many holes I could with waht he had.

I recently bought a $25.00 box of coins from the bank, and went through them to find more blanks. There were several wheats in there, but mostly more common wheat dates.

I have more to do but I do not know how much more another $25.00 box of pennies will help.

It may be time to hit up the dealer, but the question for me is what grade coin should I buy, some of the older coins I have are pretty low grade (in my uneducated opinion). My dealer seems to be a pretty fair guy, but I'd hate to walk across the street and ask him that question and be steered for the highest grade coin he thinks I can afford. While I want to fill in the gaps, I want to album to be uniform... I guess that is always the problem and what causes people to upgrade...

ugggh, another project started and never finished!

Personally I think the Lincolns are a terrible set for a newbie, especially a youngster to start with. Sure you can roll search and get the memorials without too much trouble, although the circulation S mints may be a small challenge, but then what? The obvious desire would then be to try and go back and chase the rest of the Lincolns and he then finds it impossible to do from circulation or even roll searching. Sure they can go to a dealer and get the 41 - 58 cents pretty easily but then they are stuck. Sure they can buy a bunch of the common 09 - 40 cents but they will quickly realize that they will never be able to complete the set.

A much better starting collection are the Jefferson nickels. Back to 1960 are pretty easy from circulation and roll searching will allow you to eventually get most of the entire series for face value. And if they do have to buy coins they can't find they are ALL affordable (Unless you insist on MS-65 or full step coins) Roosevelt dimes are a good choice, except the clads will be too easy and all of the pre clad coins will have to be purchased, but at least the pre-clads are cheap and they are silver.