Tag Archives: 1969-floating-roof

How to Collect Coins

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This post is about how to be a coin collector. It may be one of the most important articles you will read, if you follow all of these steps. Also, memorize this mantra: The value of the hobby is the hobby.

Stop Searching Minor Errors

A prime example is the 1969-D floating roof cent or get-rich-quick ones that have long been discovered, such as:

Only fools will buy the ridiculous 1969-D floating roof cent below. That is not a mint error. The floating roof mirage only means the U.S. Mint continued to strike coins with a worn die. But hucksters on eBay will sell you one for hundreds of dollars.

Here’s an example of a face value cent:

Here is a hyped value example on eBay. No one will buy this coin for that astronomical price; but newbies will look for one (they aren’t difficult to find) and then believe they have struck it rich.

Buy the Red Book

The Red Book’s official name in A Guide Book of United States Coins. It not only contains all the denominations, errors, varieties, histories, and so much more–it also explains the hobby in much greater detail than this post. See my video about the Red Book:

Choose a Precious Metal

These are coins made of gold, silver, palladium and platinum, all available as bullion from the U.S. Mint:

Yes, these coins can be expensive, especially gold and platinum; but silver is reasonable with spot prices typically rising over time. These are investments that you might collect and leave as legacy for your heirs.

Choose a Denomination

Here are the most popular coins to collect:

  • Morgan Dollar (1878-1904/1921): 90% silver and 10% copper. Large coin reminiscent of American culture and history, weighing 26.73 grams.
  • Franklin Half Dollar (1948-63): 90% silver and 10% copper. An easy series to collect with affordable key dates, challenging hobbyists to replace coins with ever higher uncirculated ones.
  • Washington Quarter (1932-64): 90% silver and 10% copper. Like the Franklin Half Dollar, a relatively easy series to collect with only one affordable key date (1955), all still available across the Sheldon grading spectrum. Moreover, this denomination has an additional designation, full bell lines, knowledge of which can bring substantial values.
  • American Silver Eagle: (1986-): 99.9% silver. Among the most beautiful of designs by Adolph A. Weinman, portraying the the Liberty Goddess on the obverse originally used on Walking Liberty Half Dollars (1916-1947).

Browse the Red Book for a series that speaks to you, looking at first for easy ones to assemble, such as the Kennedy Half dollar (1964-) and then more challenging ones, such as the Mercury Dime (1916-45).

This Mercury Dime series has expensive key dates and desirable varieties and errors. For instance, the 1916-D has a mintage of a mere 264,000. Even lower mint state examples command values above $1000. And then there are these valuable errors, 1942 over 41 and 1942 over 41-D, and regular/micro mint mark varieties in the 1945-S example, also depicted below:

Collect Year, Mint Mark and Varieties Sets

After you choose a denomination, or several, start collecting by year (year date set). For instance, it is relatively easy to collect every year of the Mercury dime, substituting the easily found 1916 dime for the rare 1916-D dime. If you are more ambitious, try for the entire set (all years, mint marks). Then go for the entire set with major varieties (1942/1 error, 1945-S/micro S).

The beauty here is that once you have a set, or nearly one, you can begin replacing lower grade examples with higher ones, selling the lower ones to finance the higher ones. That is the joy of collecting.

Key Date Sets

These key dates are among the most difficult to collect because prices, such as the aforementioned 1916-D Mercury Dime, are so expensive. But over time you can amass a collection of the most desirable key dates and varieties, such as these:

  • Indian Head Cent: 1877, 1888/7
  • Lincoln Cent: 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922-D Missing D Strong Reverse, 1955 Doubled Die Obverse
  • Two-Cent: 1864 Small Motto, 1867 Doubled Die Obverse
  • Three-Cent Silver: 1855
  • Three-Cent Copper Nickel: 1883, 1884, 1885
  • Shield Nickel: 1880, 1883/2
  • Liberty Head Nickel: 1885, 1886, 1912-S
  • Buffalo Nickel: 1914/3, 1916 Doubled Die Obverse, 1918/7-D, 1926-S, 1935 Doubled Die Reverse, 1937-D 3 Legs.
  • Mercury Dime: 1916-D, 1919-D, 1919-S, 1942/1, 1942/41-D
  • Roosevelt Dime 1968-S No S, 1975-S No S
  • Barber Quarter Dollar: 1896-S, 1901-S1913-S
  • Standing Liberty Quarter: 1916, 1918/7-S, 1927-S
  • Washington Quarter Dollar: 1932-D, 1932-S, 1937 Doubled Die Obverse, 1950-D/S
  • Morgan Dollar: 1889-CC, 1893-S, 1895-S, 1903-O (not to mention VAMs, varieties and major errors).
  • Peace Dollar: 1928, 1934-S (not to mention VAMs and varieties.

You can strive for key dates across one denomination or one of the dates from each of the above series. In any case, these will always be in demand and you can collect ever higher grades, creating a substantial investment.

Know Numismatic Terms

If you are planning a trip abroad to a country with a different language, you buy a tour guide book, use AI for translations, or just memorize the operative phrases before you travel. You need to do the same with coin collecting.

How many of these numismatic terms do you know?

If you do not know terms, please consult this illustrated glossary so that you not only know the definitions but also can identify them because of photos.

Other Features

There is so much more to the hobby than what I have suggested here. You have to learn how to grade, understanding the Sheldon scale (beyond the scope of this article). Also, many coins are condition rarities, common in lower grades and rare in higher ones, such as the 1884-S Morgan Dollar. Some coins have destinations that increase value, such as full bell lines, full bands, full steps, etc.

See this post for more examples.

You also might want to visit these popular Proxiblog articles:

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You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.

Dubiously Illusive 1969-S DDO

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It’s theoretically possible to find one of these ultra error rarities in pocket change. It’s also theoretically possible for you to buy the winning Powerball ticket at the corner store that gave you the pocket change.

In any case, you should know the die markers for this illusive ultra rarity, the 1969-S DDO.

Thirty years ago, a New York hobbyist discovered one while searching through an uncirculated roll. Some 14 years later, another collector bought two 1969-S rolls from a coin dealer and found one double die in each roll. Another hobbyist found one in 2010.

Since then, PCGS has since graded 31 such coveted coins.

If you are dead-set at searching for this rarity, your best bet would be unsearched mint state rolls of the year, date and mint mark. Keep in mind that those rolls also are scarce and typically already have been looked at and re-rolled.

Nevertheless, you should know what the diagnostics look like before posting that you found this ultimate cent rarity, which sells for tens of thousands of dollars, (compliments of PCGS CoinFacts):

The story about this famous coin includes a major counterfeiting ring. Roy Gray and Morton Goodman produced fake 1969 double dies as well as other rare coins before the genuine one was discovered. As Jamie Hernandez writes on the PCGS website, Gray and Goodman began manufacturing this dubious double die, trying to get them sold:

“Gray contacted a collector by the name of Robert Teitelbaum and asked him to market the illegal coins. One of the first fake cents sold for $100. Later, Teitelbaum sold 2900 of the fake 1969 Doubled Die Obverse cents to Sam Jowdy for $92,000 (slightly more than $30 each). Gray asked Teitelbaum to place 85 fake 1969 doubled die cents into circulation in Washington. Instead, Teitelbaum turned over the 85 coins to the Secret Service.”

Gray and Goodman each received a two-year federal prison sentence.

You can buy modern replicas, counterfeits and low-value machine doubled examples via social media. Here’s an example selling for less than $3 on Etsy:

These also often turn up on eBay at fantastic prices, banking on your not knowing numismatics. Sometimes sellers just pretend to have one for sale, as in the example below:

This person bought an Etsy DDO and posted it on Facebook Coin Groups. All you need to do is compare diagnostics with the replica v. the authentic version.

Before you claim to have found this famous double die, read what error expert John A. Wexler has to say about all those machine doubled cents being passed off as the genuine coin:

Collectors also need to be aware that numerous 1969-S Lincoln cents have been found that show the common form of doubling known as mechanical doubling.  These frequently confuse collectors into thinking that they have the major doubled die variety.  Mechanical doubling is characterized by flat, shelf-like secondary images that usually affect the date and mint mark.  When both the date and the mint mark show the same type of doubling, you can be relatively sure that you do not have the major doubled die variety.  

Wexler’s Coins and Errors

Wexler also gives great diagnostics that you should also check:

I highly recommend visiting his site any time you believe to have found a double die or mint error. Wexler also regularly updates new finds. Click here for that.

Finally, the so-called “floating roof” 1969-S DDR was caused by allowing a worn die pair to continue production after vigorous die polishing at the mint. They typically sell for less than $10 as an oddity due to the creative name. Yet some sellers offer these coins for thousands on eBay, sparking new collectors to search for this faux error coin. Here’s an example:

If you like posts like this, subscribe so you can be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has thousands of followers on Facebook Coin Groups, YouTube and social media. To get the latest discussion and commentary, be sure to friend us by clicking here.

You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.