Legendary safecracker Jimmy Valentine is often quoted as responding to the question of why he only hit banks is “because that’s where the money is”. Actually, Jesse James, the very first open-air bank robber, said it first, and there’s good evidence that it was originally said by Asclepius in a drunken stupor. But all of them make my point accurately — go where the money is. I’ll explain:
You’re running through a bank box. The more you know, the faster, easier and smoother it will go, and you won’t be putting every single coin through the closeup loupe exam.
The reason you won’t look at every single coin is because there are only a very few dates that MIGHT carry a mint-error, and a lot more dates and mint-marks that just plain don’t.
Well, fact is, none are presently known, but that doesn’t mean that today or tomorrow someone won’t come along and flash the latest discovery.
Heck, if you’re feeling that lucky, why not just buy a lottery ticket and be done with it?
When you’re hunting for mint-errors, you need to look where the errors are most likely to be.
May I anticipate your next question?
The errors in current circulation US cents are most likely to be found in the following dates, right? That’d be the obvious question. The answer is a lot more complex, because there are coin targets and coin targets. The result of a search can be very different, depending upon the target coins selected by the hunter…that ‘d be you.
Look, you don’t want to hold a 1979-D up for close examination if there’s no hope of finding a double there because no one ever has…yet. You want to be the first? You’re crazy. First of all, you’d have to convince many others, most of whom are so anal they’d drive a psychiatrist sane, that you’ve found a new variant.
Most of the folks you’d be talking to would consider YOU the variant.
Then you’d have to find a market for your wonderful new find, and establish a market value — which takes place over several dozen sales, generally, with a new variation coin that isn’t awfully rare.
Then again, if Dumb Luck is your constant companion, who am I to say?
I made the search packs so that you could search the most likely dates where doubles and other mint errors occur.
Instead of shipping you a roll of 50 of the same thing whatever it is, I ship you about 50 or so of one single type of coin from 50 different sources, giving you true odds of finding an error coin somewhere in there.
It’s my hope that you do. If it weren’t against my principles, I’d deliberately plant one in there for you to find, because nothing will convince you more than finding an error coin that coinology is indeed more than just another pretty Zen Face.
It’s a way of life.
Send for your “XF or Better” search packs today; only $5 a roll. Name your dates or choose from the following:
1972 // 1982 // 1983 // 1984 // 1992 // 1994 // 1995 // 1999 // 2000 // 2011-D
Or search your own from bank boxes — you’ll need an East Coast box for most of the above search targets. The 1972 has 9 different known mint errors; several are currently on eBay at $2500-$3500 with bids and offers.
I have several GEM BU examples of the very first mint error found in the 2011-D penny — the initials “VDB” have been double-stamped. Haven’t come up with a price for them yet, nobody knows what they’ll be worth once collectors become aware of it. Strangenesses in the initials of coin designers are always very sought-after variations.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby