Improving The Efficiency Of My Penny Searching

I do not use a list. I look at each coin with a 9X loop. If there is anything that looks odd, I will re-examine with a 30X loop, sometimes a 60X scope. By taking my first glance with the 9X loop I feel like I do not miss much, and if I do not see anything I move on to the next coin. You truly do not want to rush through searching. Take your time, have fun, and maybe discover something new.

If you looking for speed, just don't buy any rolls and return the ones you have to the bank. Learn what to look for for each type of doubled die. See what can happen and look for this on each coin. I look at year first and see where I need to go. That was how I made a new discovery on a 2002-D Lincoln Cent reverse. I saw the doubled dies on the 2004 cents and added that to my searches for all single squeeze die coins. Then I found my coin. There has been only one other one that I know of so far.
doubling on EPU:



http://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/...ie_state=mds

Well if you want to narrow your search with the dates you have provided I would suggest looking for the 1983 LMC DDO, 1984 LMC DDO, 1992 CAM, 1992-D CAM, 1998 WAM. 1999 WAM, and the 2000 WAM. All of these you should be able to see without a loop. I think the concept you are not grasping is that a majority of the varieties, like 99.99% of them are not so easily spotted. Close and careful examination is what yields results. Most varieties are not worth more than a buck or two. I just enjoy the hunt. I post pics on here all the time with things I can not explain. Most of the time they are nothing, but on occasion, I do find something worthwhile. I am afraid if you are narrowing your search criteria you will actually be turned off from variety searching altogether. Because the narrower your search parameters, the fewer coins you will find.

If you want a particular date that carries a ton of varieties look at all the 2009 LP1 and LP2 Philadelphia mint cents. There are literally hundreds of reverse die varieties. Go to coppercoins.com and type in any date and just look at what varieties that come up for that date. Then decide for yourself which would be more worthwhile for you.

I may just be trying to do too much, I'm roll hunting four different denominations, trying to search pennies for varieties, trying to do the Buffalo nickel set thing, I want to collect every coin I see, trying to make time to read and do all my other hobbies... Maybe I should try to narrow my focus, like just do nickels really seriously for a while since they've been giving me so much love.

Alright, I think you're winning me over. Although I don't think it's true that the coins are all that searched-over. People find the WAM varieties all the time, I find a Buffalo nickel in almost every box, there are tons and tons of wheat cents out there, people find silver dimes, Mercury dimes and even the occasional Barber. Those are all things that any roll searcher would pull out. No, probably there isn't a 1955 doubled die out there waiting for me, but there could be a 1995.

I sort first and like coop trash anything not nice. I'm not interested in finding/keeping something that was ground into the parking lot. My sort is date/mint and when I have a full tube I research then search allowing me to really focus on the date/mint in hand. I never search during the sort. This is mostly from lack of experience. I'm sure coop can jump from a 88 model to a 2006 with thinking but I need to learn the different obverses and reverses and can't do that jumping around.

This method does require some easy capture...

242 tubes. That is huge. But you are right. I look at the year/mint mark and go from there. The year and date tells me what to search for. When I say "what to search for" that doesn't mean that I search just certain years for known varieties. I may have a mental note of them, but I search those years with what types of doubling can happen. I'm methodical when searching doing it the same way for the year I'm looking for. Every once in a while my eye will detect someing and I'll go back to what seemed different. But searching goes fast. Anything too minor gets passed over as who would buy it. I have rolls of doubled die that I found years ago, but now realize that they are too minor for anyone to have interest in. I still have them because they are BU coins, but never finished the rest of the rolls because there were a lot in there. One of them had hub doubling on 1 letter and the other ones found had doubling on three letters. They are doubled dies, just minor ones.