Haha So I Have A Lot Of Post Coming, Sally Ride Quarter With Multiple Errors (2022)

Some help here:

1. If you want to catch a rainbow trout, you need to know what a rainbow trout is.

The same with coins.

Save Yourself time, effort, and disappointment...don't learn the coin hobby backwards.

Looking for random anomalies on coins and hoping they match up to something collectable will take you a lot more time, wasted effort, and disappointment repeatedly finding out you have nothing but post mint damage or useless Machine Doubling, Die Deterioration, etc.

Spend some initial time at places like error-ref.com, doubleddie.com, varietyvista.com, conecaonline.org, coppercoins.com etc. to find what actual and collectable coin errors look like.

A good way to start is, for instance, separate a bunch of pennies by date. Go to varietyvista.com and, date by date, use the reference there to see what errors are known for that specific coin/mint mark. Look for those specific errors/varieties using the pictures provided. After doing this for awhile you will KNOW what an actual error looks like and not have to waste time on face value and damaged coins.

2. The following graphic shows a trap that so many people don't know when starting in the hobby:




Small die cracks, die chips, details Struck Through Grease (minor missing letters/details etc.), will, over and over, bring you disappointment being told they are common and not of interest to the hobby.

Another couple of things to look up is Machine Doubling and Die Deterioration Doubling...very common...not collected mint errors.

Very glad I could help!

And, good for you on finding that wounded Eagle! Was it you posting this on another forum as well?

Anyway, there are two more things you probably will want to know.

First is what I call the " ebay cutesy name fad."

There are a lot of shysters out there who know there are a lot of people looking for more money who know nothign about coins except they have heard coin errors can be worth a lot. So the shysters sucker people with a "L@@K - SUPER DUPER ULTRA-RARE COIN ERROR L@@K!" and give the coin a "cutesy" name like the "floating roof Lincoln cents," or the "Drooling George" die chip that have been on ebay. Unfortunately these make a big splash, and when the unfortunate buyer goes to sell it in the future, they end up finding they have a face value coin only.

Second is something I hope will not discourage you from this hobby.
Despite youtube clickbait titles (remember, the people who get the most views also make the most money from youtube), it is definitely not simple to make a lot of profit looking for rare coins in circulation. The wounded eagle you found right away was great, but hopefully it does not make you think this is going to happen often.

If finding valuable coins in circulation were as easy as the internet makes it seem, then there are a lot of us older collectors who would have been on easy street decades ago.

A real life example from my own experience follows. I went through 189,000 half dollars over a period of a year and a half.

The rarest and most expensive coin I found was a 1977-D doubled die half. Current ebay sold auctions: 13.00 spent, so the seller makes about 11.50 after the fees.

I found other DDOs and varieties, that, if I sold them, would bring in maybe 75.00-100.00 for all of them total. That would mean ~.032¢ per hour profit.

But since I was after it for the fun of the hunt...I enjoyed every minute of it.

Also...if you do find something really good, it wil likely bring more of a premium is sent into a grading company to be slabbed. However, if it's not worth ~150.00 to start with, the general consensus on this forum has been you will not make enough profit to make it worth the cost of the services for slabbing.

And just one more thing...read the essay linked in my signature for an eye opening look at grading companies despite marketing hype. You will have a better idea of how/if to use these businesses wisely.

Lrnin2coin
You have been given good advice by Earle42.
You have to learn the difference between a true error and damage.
The mint produces coins at a high speed and quantity takes priority over quality. If you increase
the size of a coin large enough, you could probably find minor imperfections on nearly all off them.
Any major error you should be able to see without magnification. Even the grading companies only use
a 5X magnification so anything over that is insignificant.
Suggest two things, learn how coins are minted by any of the numerous sites available
and learn what a true error is from a site such as error-ref.com
True errors are not common so you will probably have to search thousands of coins to find one.
Also learn the difference between a Variety and an Error, they are completely different.

to the CCF. Mods, is there any way that for every new post in this category the first 2 responses are Earle42's posts. These posts can probably answer 95% of the questions asked here. https://www.WasteYourTime.com is killer,and true.

Hate to tell you, but coin roll hunting is not the way to make cash fast. I make more money from my below-minimum-wage PhD research stipend than I do as a pretty avid coin roll hunter lol (in fact, it isn't even close). You will occasionally find a coin worth some money, but it's not consistent or enough to justify the time expended 99.9% of the time. It's a hobby to do for fun like knitting or fly fishing, not a good way to earn a living.