Have you ever knowingly spent $100 on a candy bar or $50 on a soft drink?
As ludicrous as the concept sounds, there is no doubt that you have unintentionally done this numerous times without ever knowing it. The fact is, billions of coins pass through the public’s hands every day and of these coins, a small but significant percentage contain variations in design or errors that make them different than the rest. Many of these varieties are the target of avid collectors who are often willing to pay significant premiums to acquire them. Searching your pocket change can be fun and profitable! It can be done alone or as a leisurely pastime with the entire family.
In many ways, searching your pocket change for hidden treasures is like accepting lotto tickets in lieu of your change at the local grocer – except that you can never really “lose” by checking your change. You certainly wouldn’t accept lotto tickets without scrutinizing them to see if you’re a winner – so why bypass the possibility of a quick windfall by failing to search your pocket change?
The next Lincoln cent you look at could be worth $50,000! Just two examples of error Lincoln cents that could be lurking in your pocket change right now are the 1969-S and the 1970-S “doubled dies.” Both coins were struck from imperfectly prepared dies resulting in a strongly doubled date and lettering on all the coins produced from those individual dies.
Because tens of thousands of dies are required to produce our nation’s coinage for just one year, and because errant dies are often detected and removed from service early, it can be extremely difficult to locate any of the coins produced from an imperfect die. Both of the coins mentioned above appear to be from dies whose flaws were detected early, resulting in very short runs.
While we freely acknowledge that you may never find a coin worth this much, it is a fact that thousands of other coins are circulating that are worth anywhere from $5 to $500 or more and that are easier to find than you might at first think. Finding them just takes a bit of knowledge as to where to look and a few basic tools.
In many ways, searching your pocket change for hidden treasures is like accepting lotto tickets in lieu of your change at the local grocer—except that you can never really “lose” by checking your change.
Coin collecting, known as numismatics, is one of the oldest hobbies known to man. In the early days it was considered the “hobby of the rich,” and even rulers of ancient kingdoms are known to have collected coins. However, the collecting of Mint errors and varieties is a relatively new dimension of numismatics that has firmly established itself within the hobby in the last several decades. The U.S. Mint’s 50 States quarter program, the introduction of a new dollar coin and recent media attention to several “rare errors” has spurred a welcomed increase in public awareness of what can be found in circulating coinage, although much of it has also led to misconceptions as to what is collectible and valuable and what is not.
The purpose of this book is to dispel the myths and assist you in discovering, marketing and researching rare coins that you can find in your pocket change. While its focus is on the more valuable items that can be found, readers should be aware that thousands of other less valuable varieties and errors (that fall into the $2 to $10 range) can be found in pocket change, and that many others of great rarity and value can be found on older, obsolete coinage generally found by searching dealers’ stocks at coin shops or shows.
If we have whet your appetite sufficiently to have stirred an interest in the “lesser items” or the obsolete coinage, we encourage you to investigate some of the more specialized publications that are listed later in this book.