Who here is into error coins?

NumisOxide · February 22, 2006 1:24PM

I'm going to take a break from seated halves for a while. I seem to be getting interested in error coins. What are some books that you think are worthwile to check out?

Roosevelt dime errors seem pretty neat to me. I think that's where I want to collect in. I placed an order today with Fred Weinberg. I bought a couple of different Roosevelt dime errors from him.

How do you collect your coin errors? I would like to hear some different ways that you guys and gals collect. Thanks.

TwoSides2aCoin · February 22, 2006 1:41PM

I'm a doubled die kinda guy. Mostly Lincolns, but there are a few overdate nickel and dime varieties that are intriquing. The 1943 P Doubled Eye and 1943/2 War Nickels..... The 1942/41 overdate Mercury in both mintmarks.... A few Washington errors. The list goes on, but they are all great little additions to a collection and always fun to search for, but often times at moon money in high grades.

seanq · February 22, 2006 1:52PM

Welcome to the sickness! Fred Weinberg is an excellent place to start, not only is he one of the foremost error coin dealers around, and has a nice selection of errors from beginner items to high-end rarities, he also literally "wrote the book" on the subject. The Error Coin Encyclopedia, written by Fred and Arnie Margolis, is an excellent primer text to get you started. Also good is Alan Herbert's Official Price Guide to U.S. Mint Errors.

If you decide to wade into the murly waters of eBay, instead of sticking with better known dealers, read and learn as much as you can first. The eBay Error Coin category is overrun with crap, probably half of the stuff offered there is damaged goods, extremely minor and barely collectible, or flat-out fake. My PM is always on if you have questions about any particular coin.

As far as how to collect, you can collect different error types within one series, or one particular error type across all series, or just stuff that you think looks cool, there's no right way to do it. Here are the main collections I have in progress: Lincoln Cent incomplete planchets (clips) by date/mintmark, a U.S. type set of clips, off-center clad dimes by date/mintmark, and clips on foreign coins, tokens, or whatever.

If you like Roosies in particular, you can try to find different error types (the books will be great for explaining just how many there are) all in that series. I know someone who did that with Jefferson nickels and his error collection is breathtaking. If you decide to do a date set, consider finding one error of any type for every date. Off-center or clipped date sets are possible but can get prohibitively expensive if you go back and include the silver issues (especially true for off-centers, not so much for clips).

Whatever you do, make sure to have fun doing it.

Sean Reynolds

NumisOxide · February 22, 2006 2:09PM

Thanks Sean for the great info and advice. Right now, I'm going to stick to only buying from the well known dealers or if I do buy from Ebay, it will have to be PCGS, NGC, ANACS graded coins. I've already printed out my CONECA member application. I'm 17, so I only have to the pay the YN membership fee. So thats cool.

NumisOxide · February 23, 2006 12:47AM

Any other error collectors? I know I've seen a couple here on the board. Tell us how you like to collect your error coins.

Gandyjai · February 23, 2006 1:04AM

I'm trying to put together a complete set of MS Ike Dollar Errors & Peg-Legs in as high of grade as I can.
I am almost finished!

I started it out on the PCGS Registry, but....
Since no one recognizes Ike Peg-Leg varieties (yet,...hint, hint) I had to transfer it over to the
NGC Signature Set Registry under Mint Errors.....You can kind of customize your set to include whatever you want.

***I sure wish PCGS had something like that!***Hint, Hint!

Errors are NEAT and fun to collect! You might be better off buying them already slabbed as $40 a pop is pretty
steep for a lot of errors....especially in dimes. Most of your errors would probably cost less that getting them
slabbed.

I have bought several of my errors from Fred as well, and he is a great guy to work with. You got off to a great
start by getting them from him!

Good Luck with your errors and enjoy the heck out of them.

Happy Hunting!
Brian

I LOVE

IKES!

1921obsession · February 23, 2006 1:06AM

As I learned more about the field, I steadily went through a narrowing of focus caused by the sheer overwhelming amount of knowledge required to be a successful collector of errors. At this point, I'm concentrating on a specific date of a specific coin, and still finding that the 20+ hours per week I devote to research to be insufficient.

So, the advice I would give is to specialize, as narrowly as you can. Knowledge is the admitted key to power, and the more knowledge you own, the less you're dependant on someone else's (TPG's) potentially-mistaken evaluation. The real opportunity of Ebay is as a venue for those who are unaware of what they're selling, and the real rewards for you come from snagging a previously-unattributed coin.

carl · February 23, 2006 1:18AM

I'm kind of an error collector. I never really wanted to be one but just can't figure out what to do with them when I find them. I've never bought an error coin. I find them in change. Occationally I hit the banks for a bag of $50 worth of pennies and spend a few cold winter nights looking for errors. I started to put each error coin in 2x2 holders and then into the boxes the 2x2's came in and sorted by denomination. Now up to about 8 boxes full of the things. Error coins are bicoming very popular now at coin shows. At one show there is a guy that sells nothing but error coins. There are so many out there because most people in the past thought of them as garbage. Lots of friends of mine have told me how they thought they were so lucky that a really bad offset coin still worked in vending machines.
One of the nice things about an error collector is many of them are so easy to spot. It's not as bad as even trying to see faded mint marks or dates. I love the ones with missing numbers or dates. I used to watch for slight offsets but they are so common I switched to more extensive errors like DD's, RPM's, etc. Doubling on the rims is also to common and after a few hundred of those they get boring.
If you want to spend the money on a great book that lists all kind of errors, check out Looking Through Lincolns by that coppercoins guy. I've got his book and it really list lots of errors.

errormaven · February 23, 2006 3:05AM

<< The Error Coin Encyclopedia (4th edition), written by Fred and Arnie Margolis, is an excellent primer text to get you started. Also good is Alan Herbert's Official Price Guide to U.S. Mint Errors (6th edition). >>

Another good overview is provided by James Wiles's "Minting Varieties and Errors". It's an ANA "short course" companion and is available on the ANA website (www.money.org).

There are helpful on-line error groups such as the one I host, the Error Coin Information Exchange (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/errorcoininformationexchange/). Visit the message board, photo gallery, links section, and files section. Download my 17-page error/variety checklist. Visit Mint Error News (www.minterrornews.com) for dowloadable back issues. Visit Ken Potter's website for helpful articles.

As far as eBay goes, you can get a lot of nice bargains there. But you have to know what you're doing, or seek out someone who does.

-- Mike Diamond

LALASD4 · February 23, 2006 4:04AM

I guess you should start with simple errors, like off centers or off metals until you have absorb some information. I just find there are infinite number (I am sure there is a finite #) of different kind and different combination of errors out there. Why not find one of every kind. I have been at it for years and I still find something new once in a while.

I just selected a series to work on by date and mint mark and after working on it for years, I am only about 70% done.

rottnrog · February 23, 2006 5:01AM

You might want to try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/errorworld1/ it is the BEST error coin club on the internet!!!!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/errorworld1/

jdsinva · February 23, 2006 5:07AM

<< I'm a doubled die kinda guy. >>

Amazing, not one slam. . .er. . .constructive criticism for describing the double die as an error.

Murphy · February 23, 2006 5:18AM

I have been collecting Lincoln errors and varieties for a couple years now. They're fun. You can perty much hunt and collect whichever ones you want to. There are enough of them. At present I'm hunting the Monster Wavy Steps and not finding them, so I keep other wavy steps that I do find, plus other types that I find; like the "Under-The-Ear" Die Clash for years 2003, 2004, 2005 and now 2006 already! I find a few Lincolns that aren't completely coated with copper. The zinc has a nice blue color on new uncoated pennies. In circulation they turn a light gray. I wouldn't really want to collect all the errors and varieties, there are just too many of them, so I specialize in a few.

I keep my best ones in the back of an #8100 Dansco Album with that penny collection. I have two extra pages just for errors and varieties.
That could be something you might want to think about doing with your dimes. Most of the coins I find make their way into a big jar with a wide mouth. I also put some in a 2x2 and keep in a box. I have had some graded by PCGS and sold on eBay.

The reason I chose pennies is that there seems to be a lot more varieties of pennies than anything else. And pennies are so easy to find rolls of. They are cheap - I get them for 50¢ per roll where I shop for pennies: at the bank.

I also collect Kennedy Halves. There are a lot of Kennedy doubled dies you can collect - a lot! I have a few of them in the back of my Dansco Kennedy Album on an extra page. I can usually buy a blank page for most Dansco ALbums at any of the local coin shops around here. They shouldn't be too hard for you to find where you're at providing you are close to a coin shop or can order supplies online.

Carl offered some good advice in that a good reference book can be helpful. I have Chuck Daughtrey's(Coppercoin) book, Looking Through Lincoln Cents as well as The Cherrypicker's Guide and The Kennedy Half Dollar Book by James Wiles. These keep me quite busy and besides my type collection, I don't need much else to keep my collecting heart satisfied.

I go through enough boxes of pennies that sometimes I can afford to sell off extra rolls Sundays on ebay. I have already searched some of the rolls in a box and can tell prospective bidders exactly what I have found and the quality of the coins that I have found in those rolls. Therefor they should find a similar makeup of cents in their rolls. I've recently sold 10-roll lots for as much as $30. There are quite a few of us out there who like looking through cents and some can't find these rolls locally so they buy from eBay. I sold some to a nice guy who bought them to put back for his grandchild to go through when he grows up. Maybe someday my grandchildren and his will communicate with each other on the internet and maybe trade errors and varieties. I have traded a few here and there myself.

Good luck.

NumisOxide · February 23, 2006 5:28AM

Thanks for the helpful links and for sharing your knowledge on errors.

I just bought the Official Price Guide to Mint Errors by Author: Alan Herbert from Brent-krueger to get me started.

DNADave · February 23, 2006 7:33AM

<< Thanks for the helpful links and for sharing your knowledge on errors.

I just bought the Official Price Guide to Mint Errors by Author: Alan Herbert from Brent-krueger to get me started.

>>

I have that. IMHO thats about the most worthless "price guide" I've ever seen.

OffMetal · February 23, 2006 7:47AM

Oh heavens not me.

My screen name is about an error coin, my icon is an error coin, my sig says "I

error coins" j/k

I think that Alan Herbert's book is the best for starters. It describes how the error occurs pretty well.

If you want to buy errors on ebay, it's best to look both in the error section, and out of the error section.

A few tips: Always remember that if a coin has a reversed image of a "second strike", then it is very likely that it is a fake. Offmetals on a larger planchet (ie dime on a cent planchet) are not possible on U.S. coins.

And finally, I think that errors are fun because all of them are unique. Whether if it's an off-centered memorial cent, or a capped-die two cent piece, they are always unique. You will never find another.

gonzer · February 23, 2006 7:50AM

Started collecting errors in 1972 and gave 'em up 10 years later, then started again. Hands down, Fred is THE man (I remember him as a mere 'lad'). Knowledgable and genuine and trustworthy are characteristics not commonly found together, Fred Weinberg's got 'em. Years ago 'Lonesome' John Devine was the go-to guy, a very special man who sadly seems to have slipped into oblivion. Fred, do you know what became of John?

LALASD4 · February 23, 2006 7:57AM

Hi Offmetal, your icon does not look like an off metal, you need one of this.

OffMetal · February 23, 2006 8:09AM

<< Hi Offmetal, your icon does not look like an off metal, you need one of this.

>>

Ex-Fred Weinberg

I'll have to find an icon

LALASD4 · February 23, 2006 8:15AM

You have permission to use this one.

It will be EX-me in a couple of months.

OffMetal · February 23, 2006 8:17AM

Thanks

I'll have to upload it next month

Were you the one who won it from Mr. Weinberg a few months back?
I remembered it carried a hefty pricetag
Although I may be wrong

Ben

rottnrog · February 23, 2006 8:19AM

How about this one??

Sure wish I had the mated cent!!!!!!!!

OffMetal · February 23, 2006 8:22AM

<< How about this one??

Sure wish I had the mated cent!!!!!!!!

>>

Wow!! Beautiful!!

A flip-over double strucked double denomination with a uniface 2nd strike

LALASD4 · February 23, 2006 8:29AM

LALASD4 · February 23, 2006 8:30AM

How about this washer? not mine.

OffMetal · February 23, 2006 8:33AM

<< How about this washer? not mine.

>>

Interesting

I guess Jefferson was feeling empty-minded that strike

CoinOnTheCob · February 23, 2006 8:42AM

If I get any more of these, I’ll only get them if they include the date.

bushmaster8 · February 23, 2006 10:37AM

You will find a good Roosevelt variety resource at richardsrooseveltreview.com

mozeppa · February 23, 2006 11:20AM

ooo, ooo, ooo, mr. cotteur...i'am

seanq · February 23, 2006 12:20PM

<< Started collecting errors in 1972 and gave 'em up 10 years later, then started again. Hands down, Fred is THE man (I remember him as a mere 'lad'). Knowledgable and genuine and trustworthy are characteristics not commonly found together, Fred Weinberg's got 'em. Years ago 'Lonesome' John Devine was the go-to guy, a very special man who sadly seems to have slipped into oblivion. Fred, do you know what became of John? >>

Lonesome John made a surprise appearance at a recent ANA convention, I saw a picture of him next to Fred in the CONECA club magazine ErrorScope. I believe he's retired and touring the country in an RV with his wife.

Your question reminded me of another great (and reliable) source of error coins, Jim's Coins, which was formerly known as Len's Coin & Stamp. Len Roosmalen is semi-retired, Jim Essense now owns his business and continues to run a bimonthly error coin auction. Before Len ran his own auctions, he was the club auctioneer for CONECA. You would probably have a hard time finding a high-end error coin that John or Len hadn't handled at some point over the last 30 years.

Sean Reynolds

Byers · February 23, 2006 1:05PM

Here are some links to error coins, information, pricing, articles etc

Who here is into error coins?

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