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 Replies: 14 / Views: 2,832 |
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Valued Member
United States
121 Posts |
Im new at this and have what I believe is a good group question. Are all the error coins gone? For one are there still some 1942/41 Mercury dimes still out there to be found or are they accounted for? Or what about the 1937 Three leg Buffalo? And the many other mint error coins. I know that other collectors have them but whats the odds of finding one in a coin roll? Do they know the exact number of them that got out from the mint? Thanks guys and have a great night or day whatever your case may be. LOL |
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Moderator
 United States
14463 Posts |
IMHO these days, the errors may be less common in rolls since there are so many roll searchers. With many collectors putting coins in circulation, there may be some. But I would guess there are errors within collections that are unknown. I haven't really checked my coins for errors/varieties. So, I may have some, or not  Edited by Fuzzy317
06/20/2011 11:25 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3592 Posts |
They do not know how many of a particular error exists, so anything is possible.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2797 Posts |
Both of the varieties mentioned (42/1 and 3-legged) are considered modern. It is possible that a current octagenarian put one away in a jar back in the day, not knowing what they had. They will pass soon and their heirs may just dump that jar in a Coinstar machine. It's rare, but it does happen.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Nothing is "all gone," nor will it ever be.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
New errors and varieties are being made all the time too, like all those 2009 cent doubled dies.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3345 Posts |
I found an error 1982 No P dime, and they were discovered a few years after their production (I think). So there are obviously more out there. Other than that, the older errors are just very rare because they have had more time to get famous. I agree with Seated Nut.  |
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Valued Member
 United States
121 Posts |
thank for all the info. guys. thats one of the many things that I really like about this hobby, the hunt. and the fact that there are more out there to be found drives my interest more. I may search for a long time and not find anything but at least I get to enjoy the search and learn the history.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I am one that doesn't like to cary around pocket change and I also do not collect Modern coins so everything that comes into my possession goes into a jar that about every other month I cash in at the bank, no matter what is in there. I just cashed in $85.00 worth of change yesterday
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Valued Member
United States
149 Posts |
I don't usually make blanket statements, but you will never find a 3 legged Buffalo nickel or a 42/41 Merc dime in your change. There all in collectors hands now. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
People find "regular" Mercury dimes and Buffalo nickels in change all the time. The 1942 Mercury in my avatar was one I got in change at a party store or something. And it was only a couple years ago, and I've found a '43 and '39 just the past couple weeks while roll searching, certainly there are many more '42 Mercury dimes and '37-D Buffalo nickels in circulation. A few of those might be the rare varieties. I think the population of people who would recognize a '42/41 and know to pull it, but would just go ahead and spend a regular '42 is probably zero. The three-legged is famous even among people who don't know coins, so they might check for that if they happened to get a Buffalo nickel in change. But would that same person still spend a four-legged Buffalo? No, they'd probably go "wow, I've never seen one of these before" and stick it in a drawer. The reason why roll hunters can find these is because so many people never even look at change they get. As long as it has roughly the right number of quarters, they probably don't even check if it's the right amount. They just throw it in a jar and take it to the bank or a Coinstar when the jar gets full. Even the bank tellers I talk to have no idea what a Mercury dime is. You also have widows and such paying their mortgages with their husband's coin hoards, so old collections are getting back into circulation. You always hear stories about lucky roll hunters that get solid rolls of Mercury dimes or Walker haves or something else amazing. |
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Valued Member
273 Posts |
There will always be new "unsearched" stuff added to the money stream. Get this: Whenever my wife hands me her change after shopping, the percentage of the "right kind" of coins seems higher than what I find in roll searching. ... The other day she reached into the bottom of her purse... . "hey look, I found a nickel!" ... a silver War Nickel OF COURSE!! (How many rolls would I have to go through to find a single War Nickel?) ... ANY IDEAS? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
I still find IHC repunched dates in dealer's stock. I also seem to recall the rarest IHC variety, the Snow-1 1888/7, wasn't discovered until the 60s. So there may be more of those lurking about in old collections. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
I got through a local dealers silver scrap stock all the time, with the understanding that anything really nice I pull out for him. You would not believe the amount of Mercs he gets. In the last year I have pulled a 41/42 Merc. A g4 16d, a BUNCH of 21 and 21d's. And so many BU Mercs and Rosies that he does not even put them in his $5 bin anymore. He has also gotten in at least one BU OBW roll of 43P Mercs. I have been able to build a complete set of Mercs just from his scrap pile. With about 45% being BU. If you look at my posting of a really nice clashed 1919 you can see they are still out there. In some ways it is a great time to be a collector.
On the down side I am out in Cal. visiting my parents and the local dealer here was counting his silver to sell to a scrapper. When I mentioned that I was a little suprised to seem him do that; he was confused. I said that I had remembered that he was against melting coins. HE said it was illegal to melt coins and that the company he was selling to was reselling in bulk quanities. When I showed him a couple of articles about scrapping silver coins he called his contact and was told,"why yes, of course we melt them". You should have seen the look on his face. I thought he was going to cry.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4618 Posts |
Quote:
Nothing is "all gone," nor will it ever be. I guess you haven't seen the hair on my head, but neither have I for about 25 years. I'm a firm believer that rare variety coins are still out there just waiting to be found. Most of the time when someone inherits a collection of coins, chances are 50/50 they don't know anything about what they are looking at. Some don't care what they are and sell them to the first person who offers them a few bucks, or they think that a 1921 Morgan is worth a few hundred dollars only to find out that it's only worth the silver it took to mint it. Disappointed they sell them at garage sales, flea markets and Craig's List or search the web for someone who buys coins. My suggesttion is that you find a way to make it know that you're "that guy who buys old coins" in one way or another. You can get a domain name, set up a simple web page and offer to buy coins. I have 3 right now. I just looked and "www.SellMeYourCoin.com", "www.IWantYourCoins.com", "www.1894Morgans.com" or "www.IBuyCCMorgans.com" can be had for $12 per year. I also checked and found that "www.1942over41Dime.com", "www.3LegBuffalo.com" and "www.3LeggedBuffalo.com" are availible too.  Once you have the domain name, you can buy an email package and have email to match your .com name. Have a couple of hundred business cards printed up and put them here and there. It only cost a few dollars a month to build a page and with PayPal you can buy and sell with credit cards. Think up a few names, go to a site like https://www.GoDaddy.com and type in a name. The search is free and in a few minutes you could have the perfect .com name. Then who knows who'll find you just by searching the web. ANA ID: 3203813 - CONECA ID: N-5637 Clean a coin that may be worth collecting? Please DON'T! When in doubt, leave it dirty!! 
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Replies: 14 / Views: 2,832 |
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Posted 06/21/2011 05:48 am
