New Feature: Index Of Articles

This little blog has come into it's own in the past couple years.  Currently it receives thousands of pageviews each month with no end in sight.

To improve browsing and make it easier for readers to find articles of interest, I have added a page:

Index of Articles

You'll find it on the right side of the screen at the top of the Jump To list.

Passing the Baton

If I could teach one thing, it would be Self-Reliance.

If someone knows where to hunt for information and what questions need to be asked, they stand to be able to improve their knowledge on their own.

Historically, knowledge and wisdom (the Craft) came from self study. There were books and periodicals available, coins to be seen at shows, other collectors to talk to. When the show ended, the sun went down, and the lights went out, that was about it for the day. With the advent of the internet and, lately, advancements in digital photography, the world of knowledge has opened grand vistas never known before in the hobby.


Back in the day I could borrow every book about coins from the local library and haul them home in a backpack, and that was a 2 mile hike, uphill, through deep snow.
Today, there is so much information freely available that it is impossible to take it all in over the course of your lifetime. In fact, the amount of information is growing faster than it can be assimilated. 
When I answer questions I strive to include a link to further reading so the folks can delve deeper on their own. In a group of this size a tactic has developed: Find out who to ask...tag them in a post.

I'll have to step up my game and teach other people to follow suit.
The challenge, then, is to urge people to answer questions from all these new collectors, and include a link with that reply. Not only do the new people get answers to their questions, those who offer the answer become more able to teach self-reliance....Here's what you got, and here's a link to more information.

Ken's Guide to Coin Rarity

Common - I've heard of it or you have one
Scarce -I've seen it
Rare - I might be able to buy one
One of a Kind - I have one
Unique - I have one and its for sale


Update...Now on Video

You folks stay groovy!

Experience

I been doing this so long, I can taste a coin and tell you what grade it is.

This one is XF.

"Variety" vs "Error"

"Variety" and "Error" are different terms with different meanings. An ERROR is an event during the minting process. The coin produced will be unique, although similar coins can be produced by a similar event. Example: an off center coin, 1943 copper cent, brockage A Die Variety is the result of a change or difference in the die. ALL coins produced by that die will exhibit the same feature. Because the die is in heavy use, some modest changes will appear over time. Example: Doubled Die, Repunched Mintmark, cud A Design Variety is the result in a change in the design. ALL coins produced by a die with a design change will exhibit the same feature. Example: 2000 Wide AM Cent. It is possible for any die to produce an error. The result would be a coin that is an error AND variety. Example: Off center 2000 Wide Am The terms used can get rather technical but reference significant differences in what is going on. I see "cud" being often employed incorrectly when "die chip" would be appropriate. It can be a subtle misuse of term, but if you want to kick up your game to the next level, learn the terms.

Finding a 1969-S Doubled Die 1C

The following was sent in by Megan Green and is published here as a Guest Blog article.  Mrs Green recently discovered a 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse, FS-101.  This is her story...   

Hello,

    My name is Megan Green.  I am 27 years old, married and have two beautiful children. My son is 4 years old and my daughter is 3. I started coin searching almost two years ago. When my son was born, he was diagnosed with a very rare heart defect called Diverticulum of the Left Ventricle which required me to stay at home with him to attend his medical needs and care. I’ve always been a hard worker as I’ve worked since I 

was 11 years old so it was quite difficult to make the transition but little did I know I was going to be doing more work than I ever have in my entire life. With all the work it takes to raise a medically inclined child, I still needed something to keep my mind stimulated to feel I was doing something productive. I needed a hobby to keep myself entertained during my mommy time.

   When it was time to have some mommy alone time, I’d get on YouTube and watch different videos such as photography, music, education and news. I one day came across a news reporting video about the 1970 Washington Quarter that had been stamped with a Canadian Quarter and was sold for $35,000. I was dumbfounded as to how someone would pay that much for a quarter. A thought came to my mind about trying out this new hobby and I felt if I could help out financially for my family and enjoy doing it at the same time, it’s a win-win situation. I sat there almost two hours scrolling through different coin videos which soon had me hooked!

    When my son was first born we lived in Texas. There is a golf course there called Northcliffe Golf Club. My husband and I had worked there for a few years just before I had my son. The owner, being the full hearted thoughtful person that he is, put together a golf tournament/ banquet to help raise money for my son's medical expenses. He also had a donation jug for my son which was filled with coins and it was also given to us after the tournament. I had no idea about the coin world yet, so like anyone who wouldn’t, I kept those coins in a big tin bucket and put them up. My husband and I continued to throw our change in anytime we had change with the intentions to fill it to the top before we cashed it in. After I had watched those YouTube videos I remembered we had that tin full of coins and super excited to go through them to invest what little I had learned in that short time span. That is how it all started.

I first separated them into piles of denominations. As I went through the piles, I’d listen to YouTube videos on different coin varieties. That’s when I really started to follow Coin Opp. Dustin Morgan is a very genuine person and his enthusiasm kept me excited. He has so much knowledge about coins and explains everything so well. Every time I’d hear of a new error I’d go through the same piles I had separated over and over and put them to the side. There was no stopping me at that point. I was so pleased to finish that tin of coins! I then learned about picking up coin rolls from the bank and I obsessed about finding any MS coins or error coins. Soon I became overwhelmed trying to search all denominations at once so I decided to stick with pennies for the time being.

    While coin searching, I would collect all wheat cents even though some may not have errors I still find them to be unique, all 1959’s thru 1973’s for different die varieties and doubling, any 1982 D small Dates for 3.1 grams in weight, 1983’s 1989’s and 1990’s also transitional pennies accidentally produced during those years, 1984’s for doubling on Lincoln’s ear, 1988’s produced with the wrong FG, all 1992’s to search for close AM, 1994’s and 1995’s for doubling, 1998 1999 and 2000’s for the wide AM and doubling, and last but not least the 2009’s for doubling. I have only incorporated about 4 Indian head pennies in my time of searching and of course, a lot of Canadian cents.

    In July, I slowed down my coin searching because I wasn’t having much luck finding good coins and felt defeated. I gradually started back mid October picking up a box twice a week. It was good to get back into the coin zone as I had missed everything about it! The break, I think, was needed and gave me the excitement back. After three weeks I was up to 3-5 boxes per week. I bank with Chase bank and try not to exhaust one bank at a time so I bounce from one branch to another. There is a bank teller whose name is Brett and he is always so helpful getting me coins. I picked up 3 boxes from him on Nov 28th. When I collect more than one box I tend to open all of them at once. While searching I’ll keep in mind which box came from which bank in hopes that if I find good coins they’ll have more when I go to pick up more. Especially when they give me the customer rolled pennies. In this case, having them all from the same bank, I still skipped around because I wanted to know if there was really any difference in the boxes. I always question how they are rerolled when the bank sends them into the reserve.

   That night I had gone through my first box with only finding a small amount of errors. I was about 3/4’s through the second box when I found the1969s DDO! I honestly never thought I’d every really find one but I am always very excited to find a 1969s while searching and will immediately grab my microscope to check for any doubling. I have found about 45 1969’s without doubling and had a few I felt were in question but when I saw this one I knew it was the famous one that everyone talks about. There’s no mistaking it and the ones I had in question weren’t anything to compare! I actually thought I had some lent or something on my contacts at first. It was late at night and I kept rubbing my eyes to make sure this was really what I was seeing! I used my USB LCD digital microscope (Celestron) with a screen at the top to see the image view and there it sat, more beautiful than anything I had ever seen before! I kept laughing in disbelief while saying out, “Are you kidding me?!?!” I jumped up and ran my coin and microscope into the bedroom where my husband and the kids were sleeping. The light from the microscope lit up the room which woke everyone up but I was too excited to care. I shoved the microscope with the coin in husband’s face and said, “BABE, I FINALLY FOUND IT!!!” As he’s reviewing the screen he looks up at me and says, “What is it?” I didn’t realized I had it zoomed in on the letter D in the word GOD. I zoomed it out and he just smiled real big and replied, “What are you going to do next?” I started to say, “Probably cry..” as I was actually starting to cry with excitement. My enthusiasm was through the roof!

    I tried to call my mom first because she gets excited about my coins and is always giving me change to go threw. She was asleep of course so I left her a message that she probably couldn’t understand from my crying and hype about this coin. I then texted my Papa who has been a very proud supporter of my coin searching and sent him photos of my find. He was elated for me! The next day I did some research to verify that this was the real deal and everything I could find appeared to be. I reached out to Dustin with Coin Opp to get a confirmation and he responded with as much enthusiasm as I have had. His words were, “Well a huge congratulations. You have hit the jackpot of Lincoln cents!” I of course cried again because I knew that if he was telling me this, then it was confirmed to be the true rare 1969’s Doubled Die.

Thank you,
Megan Green 

---
Further Reading

• Closeup photo of the coin is available on the PCGS website.
• Coin World article regarding this piece.

Guest Blogging

Looking around the web, there are not many coin blogs.  I have a few listed in the Directory, but they do not include pseudoblogs hosted by several large coin and coin-related-product companies.  I'm talking about regular people, doing their thing, writing stuff about coins.

You'll read in this blog and hear me talk about the hobby being a journey of personal development (see Axiom #7).  I'd like to explore offering the opportunity for people to do some writing.  This would be in the form of a Guest Blog: Pick a topic, write an article, add links and photos, send it to my email and I'll give it a look.
If it's good enough, I'll add it to this blog, listing you as the author.  It's your work, you get full credit.

This will be your own original work.  Articles, writing, or images published elsewhere will not be considered.  The only other limit is that the subject should be related to coins, coin collecting, or perhaps include the word "coin".  After that, you are on your own. I suggest you offer insight.  Get deep down into the subject, explore aspects other people have not.  Grab their attention.  Give the reader something to think about.

Perhaps the idea of starting a blog is seen as being a big step for you right now.  There are few places to submit examples of your writing to get practice or to get noticed.  There's a lot of work involved in maintaining a blog.  As a Guest Blogger, you can work at your own pace, try out this writing thing, see if it grows on you.  When you are ready, starting your own blog will be much easier.