Amy & Leslie Ann Inner Radiance Beauty Orb Demo at Sam’s, 2012
Hot & Sexy Double Dates — that’s what I have for you right around the corner down this dark alley… Actually, I do have hot & sexy double dates, in the form of little voile treasure bags full of a variety of Lincoln Pennies, all of which are common double-die and RPM dates; are you interested?
If not, it’s because you’re still ignorant of the values and virtues of coinology. What I’m offering is a service; actually, the fact is, I’m offering a dating service. Sounds terribly sexy, doesn’t it? But it’s about coins, their dates and mint-marks.
With stunning double dates and Repunched mint-marks and doubled ears and counter-clashes and you-name-it, I got it. Well, actually, not the thing itself; the date that’s been voted “most likely” to have the doubles somewhere around them.
Will you find a double in there? Not if I can help it, you won’t. But I can’t help it, and I’ll tell you why I’m helpless.
I haven’t the time to search them.
I’ll explain in detail. Normally, I raw-sort the pennies into piles of AU or better 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The “s” in this case stands for multiplicity, meaning the decade. Had I meant “1970 San Francisco Mint”, I’d have notated it “1970-S”, see?
When I pick out a coin, it’s because it’s got class; what those of us who went tree-planting called “beauty”, back in the day.
OK, so I can readily see that the coin is good; now what do I do with it?
If it’s very, very good, I can spot it right off, and it goes immediately without further damage or exposure to atmosphere into a little cardboard “flip”. I put all the info on it right then and there. These days, I’m adding a date-found line so you can do the math on how long the coin’s been in circulation, and still looks like it just popped out of the mill.
Of course, it’s not just mint-state coins I’m after, but it helps if they’re in great condition, which we call “grade”. You’ll be learning more about grade as you go.
Normally, unless something odd strikes me about that coin, I won’t put it under the 10x Kassoy diamond triplex color-corrected $69 pro loupe I use for closeup exam.
I just haven’t the time, and I surely don’t need or want the money.
I’m just plain unmotivated to look.
So I drop the coin into the appropriate box, for example, “1983” or “1970-S”. I’m dropping a lot of 1970-S coins in that box, so you’ll have a good chance to find some small dates in my droppings… argh, I don’t like how that sounds, but I can’t think of a better way to put it.
How many coins do you get to look through? Generally, I’ll put about half a roll into a voile (organza, some say) treasure bag, and that’s plenty to look at under a loupe. You can order a whole roll if you’re feeling lucky. If you want more, get a bank box and run ’em yourself. You’ll need an East Coast bank box, though. One bag of 25 coins is $5, one buck for the bag and four bucks donation to the Cause. A voile treasure pouch of 50 coins is predictably $10.
Keep in mind that none of these coins is guaranteed to be worth more than a penny. I have no idea whether or not you’re getting any doubles or RPMs or double ears or whatever. It’s up to you to look.
If you want to see the ones I’ve found, look on my eBay Emporium. But those don’t come by the roll and half-roll. You should use this only as a means of training yourself to see the coin.
If you want certain specific double dates, notably the Philadelphia Mint coins like the 1983 and the 1972 no mint-mark coins, you’ll have to search for them in East Coast Philadelphia Mint bank boxes — if you live anywhere East of the Mississippi, that should do it, but you may be cursed with only Denver and San Francisco coins, as are we. But…if it’s mint-marks you’re after, you’ll want to search West Coast bank boxes, and that’s my strongest suit. It’s why I have over 1,000 very nice 1970-S coins in my reserve storage bins.
It’d be great to have a coin shipping service that bought and shipped coins from various choice spots, not just East Coast and West Coast, but how about some small town coins? That’s a hotbed of great dates, especially around Christmas time, when everyone raids the old pickle jars full of pennies.
Only a few days ago, I found a 1909-S VDB and a 1909-S in a standard in-circulation bank box. I have no explanation for it, but a few days earlier, I found a 1931-S and a 1924-D that rocked and socked. I’m not selling them — they’re trophies, and they belong on my wall along with that 8 point buck I’m planning to put up there if I happen to find one in my living room or garage.
Please don’t send me one for Christmas. It was a humorous line intended to spice up the commentary.
So ordinarily, I’ll use the simple setup for my coin hunts; this setup in my total layout works for album collection, but nothing else. If I want to search for valuable coins, I have to isolate the hot double dates, and here’s how I do it:
I set up a group of handmade boxes, labeled thusly:
**Wheaties** **Rainbow** **Offset** **1960/D** **1970-S** **1982/D**
What this means is that in the first box to the left will go all Lincoln cents dated prior to 1959. In the second box from the left will be deposited all rainbows and other oddballs. In the third box from the left will go all the off-sets and off-centers and other pressing oddities including clips and ghosting. In the fourth box from the left, I’ll put any 1960 and 1960-D pennies I might find, if they meet my grade requirements unless they’re small date, ie; AU or better for any large date 1960. In the next box will go any and all 1970-S pennies regardless of grade, and I’ll use all of them in a variety of applications. In the last, rightmost, box, will go any and all AU+ 1982 and 1982-D pennies large date or small, but the nicer small date ’82s will get immediately WEIGHED, flipped and ID’d with the copper or zinc notation on the lower right of the flip, according to convention.
If I want to dig a little deeper, meaning that I have more knowledge, I add a few more boxes to the mix and to my already split multiple attentions:
**1983** **1984/D* **1992** **1995** **1999**
What I’m looking for there are those elusive reverse doubles, inverted reverses, wide and narrow AMs, and other oddities common to those dates.
If I’m very experienced and can handle the extra load on my attention, I’ll put in:
**1997** **1998** **2000** **2009/B** **2010** for the additional but very hard-to-spot reverse doubles and oddball “proof-type” AMs.
I’m working on an invocational version of this setup that I use on my own layout, and as soon as I have it worked out so it’s inexpensive, not too labor-consuming, and works well in an attractive high-aesthetic environment, I’ll let you know how much it costs and when it’ll be available.
Part of the trick in making these add-on boxes effective and helpful in your hunt, is to know exactly what it is you’re after.
If you don’t yet know, coinology table training is available right now, and I’m planning a training center to handle the demand. The training is also available on DVD. You can order by phone, I have no idea what the ordering info might be. Ask for “Novice Treasure Hunt #1”.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby