Cherry Picker's Journal

Murphy

Last week I had minor surgery on my back and would not be able to lean back in my fav chair to watch TV or relax at the computer, at least not leaning back. So I decided to go to the bank and get some pennies to search through. I could do that setting up straight at the dining room table. Ok, so the first time I've tried cherrypicking in several years, no luck then, but good luck now. My first $25 box and I find 3 2000 Wide AM's. I figure these things are easy to find and next day I go back to the bank and get another box. I find another 2000 AM. After several more days and more $25 boxes of pennies I have 6 - 2000 AM's and 2 - 1998 AM's. None are in particularly great shape, but one will go MS-65 or better. I'm not experienced at grading but that's my guess, MS 65-66. Haven't found any in a couple days though. The action has slowed down all of a sudden.
Besides finding those, I have also found about one roll of dimes mixed in with pennies and also a couple rolls of wheaties, some of which are in the teens, 20's and 30's. No spectacular finds though. I saw some very nice looking coins that I was praying that when I turn them over I'd find a double die or D over S or Wide AM! Suffered through a lot of disappointments there, lol. I get excited at finding a Wide AM, even in bad condition. I live to find one in MS 66-67 shape or maybe a good double die. Guess it's like prospecting for gold nuggets.
I read something about a 2004 penny ddr and so I got a box of 2004's to search through. I went through a couple rolls and didn't find anything at all. They all looked basically alike. I'm ready to throw that box back in my closet to set for a few years or maybe to pull out and look at when I want to see something bright and shiny. I did find one 2004 that might grade MS-68. I really don't know much about cherrypickin, except that it's fun if ya got the time. And luggin those heavy boxes keeps the arms built up.
Have ya ever heard that saying, "Before you meet your handsome prince, you have to kiss a lot of toads"? I suspect it's like that with cherrypickin too. Ya have to look through a lot of coins before ya find a really good one. But I think they're out there. And I'm gonna keep looking for that MS-68 DD or Wide AM.

richbeat

You're toast now. You've caught the cherrypickin' bug. The most important point you made is that yes, varieties, errors, etc. are out there but it takes a lot of looking to find them. Patience is a must. But that's the fun of it for me. I would think that it's similar to metal detecting.

Murphy

What's some of your best finds Rich? or anybody else who wants to talk about them.

richbeat

All kinds of common stuff and junk silver. The only things of any real value that I've found are eight 1983 DDR cents when I lived in north Florida back in the early '80s. I have no idea of their value. I think they would grade somewhere in the AU range since I found them in cent rolls right after they were released. Off the top of my head here are some other things I've found:


1979 (don't remember the mint mark) SBA missing the reverse clad layer.

A handful of 1981 SBA's including one circulated proof.

1970D and 1970S Kennedy halves

Bunches of unstruck cent planchets and a couple of blanks

Off center dime and off center cent, both dateless

A triple clip Jefferson nickel, can't remember the date

A dozen or so Morgan and Peace dollars, all well circulated common dates

A 1996W dime that looks like it has been gold plated

A bunch of cent and nickel cuds of various dates

1930D RPM cent

A number of proof coins that were placed into circulation, most recently a 1963 proof dime

Lots of war nickels, all well circulated

'38, '38D, '38S, '39, '39D, '39S and '50D Jefferson nickels

A possible AU 1923S cent

That's off the top of my head. I have a ton of wheat cents that I hope to SOMEDAY go through and search for RPM's, etc. I confess that I have an advantage in finding a lot of this stuff, having worked in various banks for most of my 27 years of employment.

Murphy

Oh you found some nice stuff alright. I keep forgetting to ask at the bank if they have any Silver Dollars!

Hey, I forgot about this one thing I found last night. It is a 1984 cent that has the imprint of the reverse on the front. That's right, the Lincoln Memorial is stamped on the front over top of Lincoln's bust. I think it's called a Brockage? And the front is sorta concave. The coin is fairly dull brown with some purple and maybe AU-55 shape. Not too bad looking, but definitely not BU! Any idea what it might be worth?

richbeat

That's one I don't have. It could be a brockage, or it could also be a post mint alteration where someone pressed two coins against each other. It's hard to say without seeing a photo. A brockage like you describe is sometimes referred to as "Lincoln in jail." The 2004 red book lists such brockages at $35. I don't know how accurate that value is--I wouldn't take it too seriously. For some reason, the 2005 red book has the usual error section, but does not list the values. I don't know if the values were accidentally left out or not.

coppercoins

The "jailhouse Lincolns" are from die clashes, not brockages. It's where the two dies slam together without a planchet between them and they transfer their designs to one another. The key to determining their authenticity is that the higher relief areas of the coin (like the bust, letters, etc) will be unaffected by the clash, while the fields will be.

As for cherrypicking - I've been doing it for over 25 years now and I cannot stress enough buying books and reading through them before getting into the coins. There's a lot of good information out there that if you skip, you will be less informed and could easily be skipping goodies.

Murphy

25 years...you're probably not much younger than I am. (53) What's some of the good coins you have found over the years? As far as my "jailhouse" Lincoln, it's just as you describe, the jailhouse design is only in the fields and not on Lincoln. Thanks for your explaination of that. I didn't know.

Last summer I was visiting my uncle Bob in Lexington, Kentucky and he mentioned that he was in the doghouse with Aunt Jean, because he had rolled up her Indian Head pennies and turned them in at the bank for cash. Said he did it just to get them out of the way. I asked him if he knew the value of them and he said he didn't think they were worth anything, but confessed that he never looked up the value of them. Hehe. I guess stuff like that happens occasionally...but not at my house!

gonzer

1969 S DDO in Fine back in '73. Don't get me started again!

coppercoins

<< <i>25 years...you're probably not much younger than I am. (53) What's some of the good coins you have found over the years? >>



Actually I've been collecting and hunting through change for 25 years, I didn't really specialize in the Lincoln cent until about 1985, about 19 years ago. I am actually only in my mid-30s. I have been through hundreds of bags worth of coins and have found numerous die varieties (not errors) along with a number of errors.

Finds? Too numerous to count. I have found every OMM in the Lincoln cent series except 1944D-1OM-001 (D/S north), and that includes 1911D-1OM-001 (D/S South), the earliest known OMM in copper. I have found over 1,250 different RPMs and over 400 different doubled dies. Back when I wanted to get some answers on how to identify my coins I found that information on them was rather sparse unless you sent the coins in for attribution and paid between 2.50 and 5.00 per coin for identification. Given that I had over a thousand coins that I couldn't ID, I gave up on that idea and decided to devise a new die variety cataloging system and publish the information myself and make it freely accessible to the world. In 1999 I published "coppercoins.com" and am still working on it today (and will be for years to come).

Earlier this year I published my first book on the subject, "Looking Through Lincoln Cents," to help others answer the question of what they should be looking for when they dig through their coins. So far my venture into purveying information about the Lincoln cent has succeeded. I am scheduled for a book signing at the Pittsburg ANA this week, I have four national distributors carrying the book, and have sold over 700 copies. I am also working on my second and third books, plus a complete attribution guide to Lincoln cent die varieties that will contain over 2,500 pages when complete (in four years).

I have a bucket full of "BIE" errors, CUDs, clipped planchet coins, die clashes, multiple struck coins, misaligned die strikes, broken die strikes, and other "stuff" that I don't collect except for accumulating them in a bucket. I don't like nor collect errors. I accumulate them because they are very inexpensive when I find them in bags, rolls, and pocket change, and I know they are worth something to someone.

As for my best advice to new die variety hunters...don't get stuck on buying books then only looking for what's published in the books. Buy the books and learn what the stuff looks like, then look at everything that crosses your path. Not only will you find a lot of the stuff that is published, but there's a pretty good chance you could find some stuff that has not yet been discovered or published, and you could have your name in the limelight for doing so. Not only that, but you will tune your eye to look for anything odd, and not just what's known to be valuable. If you stick to looking only for CPG listed valuable die varieties, your luck will be very sparse, as you will find only one or two listed coins for every 5,000 searched, and you will likely skip hundreds of nice, scarce die varieties that would keep you excited and interested.

Murphy

Woah! I just bought your book. How soon can I expect delivery? lol

coppercoins

Are you going to the ANA in Pittsburg? If so we can meet up and I'll sign it in person for you as early as Wednesday. If not, it will be in the mail tomorrow or Tuesday and you'll get it in one to two weeks.

Murphy

Not going to Pittsburgh. Unless it's drop-ship, you could sign it!

richbeat

Thanks Charles, you are correct. I got the two mixed up and didn't realize it.

astrorat

<< <i>1969 S DDO in Fine back in '73. Don't get me started again! >>



Really? I thought there was only 1 or 2 known. I don't have my reference in front of me so I cannot check on it.

Lane

seanq

Before I was married I had a lot more time to cherrypick from raw rolls. In circulation I found a couple of 1972 DDOs (Die #3, not the big one), a couple of 1963-D DDOs, and an UNC 1960-D/D RPM#1. I also found a bunch of 1995 DDOs, the original discovery coin was found one town north of me. From purchased BU rolls I've found many minor DDOs and RPMs, including four BU 1956-D/D RPM-018, one of which wound up in John Wexler's 'Coin World' column.



<< <i>I have a bucket full of "BIE" errors, CUDs, clipped planchet coins, die clashes, multiple struck coins, misaligned die strikes, broken die strikes, and other "stuff" that I don't collect except for accumulating them in a bucket. I don't like nor collect errors. I accumulate them because they are very inexpensive when I find them in bags, rolls, and pocket change, and I know they are worth something to someone. >>



Chuck - If you ever decide to get rid of all that "stuff", especially the clips, you have my contact information.


Sean Reynolds