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With regard to die varieties, errors, collectible and non-collectible anomalies, and other things coin related, I want all of the novice collectors here to read and understand what I am about to write. It is important, and it comes from the heart.
I started collecting Lincoln cents in 1975 at the age of seven. I wouldn't find out about die varieties and errors for another ten years, but had a great time filling folders with coins and bugging my dad to let me go through his change. I collected nickels, dimes, and quarters to some degree, but cents were my coin of choice, and Lincoln cents were - for the most part - very inexpensive and easy to find.
When I first found out about "errors and varieties" it was through a book published by John Wexler, then a couple of other books about errors and oddities - one by the late Frank Spadone, and the other by the late Arnold Margolis. I was naive enough to believe that "doubled dies" only came on small change, could really only afford cents, and it just 'stuck' with me to specialize in them.
My first doubled die find was a listing in the new Red Book in 1982 where I found that there were 1939 nickels with premium value because of doubling on MONTICELLO. I popped mine out of the folder to look at the back, and - behold - it was one of these doubled dies.
I went on collecting Lincoln cents looking at them much more closely than before, pulling out anything that looked 'doubled' - because that's what you're supposed to look for, right? I also pulled out die cracks and anything else that didn't look "right". Ten or so years I collected like this, without any real direction.
In 1996 I discovered ebay, and in 1997 I discovered HTML - and off I went with my first PC trying to find the website about doubled dies. Oddly enough I discovered that there was no website for doubled dies and repunched mintmarks on the Lincoln cent, so I decided to create it myself. By then I had weeded out the thousands and thousands of coins I had collected over the years with 'doubling' because with the eBay purchase of a few doubled dies from the late Frank Baumann, the epiphany hit me that the dies held the flaw, and the scratches and other flaws on the dies made "markers" - and that every coin minted by each individual die were virtually identical to each other. I found this fascinating.
In 1996 I purchased John's Authoritative Reference, and that's when the concept hit me that not everything known was listed in the books. There was a 1970S proof doubled die listed with a die number in the 20s, but there were not 20 listings in the book. I actually found his email address and asked him about that, and he said there were hundreds of known dies that were not listed in any reference.
I set out to change that, and did.
My message to you:
I collected without direction for years. I saved machine doubling, small die chips, cracks, and other "oddities". I didn't know a machine doubled coin from a doubled die for probably the first ten years I collected them. I didn't know the terminology any more than some of the first-year collectors reading this message. In most senses, I am JUST LIKE YOU.
I learned. I put my head down, went through the coins carefully, and taught myself what I needed to know with the help of a couple of reference books and a couple of chat rooms. I decided that it was not 'fair' to the world for attributers to collect money to 'list' stuff and keep the listings mostly private. This only perpetuates continued attribution fees infinitum. I decided that making EVERYTHING public was the only way to go, thus my site was born.
I am a person of continued unrelenting drive. When I want something done, I find the right resources, and if nobody is willing to help, I go at it alone. Fortunately, I have made connections and friends with some of the most knowledgeable people in the market over the years, and through the help of other collectors, I have been able to provide a website everyone can use to learn the hobby. It's not perfect, but it's the best I could do at the time I wrote it with the resources I had.
So...when I say something is not what a person thinks it is, I'm not on a high-horse. I'm speaking from damn near 30 years of concentrated effort to learn the subject. From years and years of learning programming JUST to bring the site to reality. From years and years of actually talking with some of the most noted experts in the field to LEARN how to be the best I could be at what I do.
Please do not take me to be crass, heartless, mean, or uncaring. I do care. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I am not especially a 'people' person, and am not sure I can change that...and not really sure I want to. But I do want all of you to know that I care deeply about YOUR education in coins, and am doing all I can to make that education easier on YOU. That's how I care about you. That's what I want YOU to remember when I give you a short, cold answer. I do this all the time. I can't have 'feeling' about every coin posted here. I shoot straight and an completely unbiased.
Thank you all for listening.
I started collecting Lincoln cents in 1975 at the age of seven. I wouldn't find out about die varieties and errors for another ten years, but had a great time filling folders with coins and bugging my dad to let me go through his change. I collected nickels, dimes, and quarters to some degree, but cents were my coin of choice, and Lincoln cents were - for the most part - very inexpensive and easy to find.
When I first found out about "errors and varieties" it was through a book published by John Wexler, then a couple of other books about errors and oddities - one by the late Frank Spadone, and the other by the late Arnold Margolis. I was naive enough to believe that "doubled dies" only came on small change, could really only afford cents, and it just 'stuck' with me to specialize in them.
My first doubled die find was a listing in the new Red Book in 1982 where I found that there were 1939 nickels with premium value because of doubling on MONTICELLO. I popped mine out of the folder to look at the back, and - behold - it was one of these doubled dies.
I went on collecting Lincoln cents looking at them much more closely than before, pulling out anything that looked 'doubled' - because that's what you're supposed to look for, right? I also pulled out die cracks and anything else that didn't look "right". Ten or so years I collected like this, without any real direction.
In 1996 I discovered ebay, and in 1997 I discovered HTML - and off I went with my first PC trying to find the website about doubled dies. Oddly enough I discovered that there was no website for doubled dies and repunched mintmarks on the Lincoln cent, so I decided to create it myself. By then I had weeded out the thousands and thousands of coins I had collected over the years with 'doubling' because with the eBay purchase of a few doubled dies from the late Frank Baumann, the epiphany hit me that the dies held the flaw, and the scratches and other flaws on the dies made "markers" - and that every coin minted by each individual die were virtually identical to each other. I found this fascinating.
In 1996 I purchased John's Authoritative Reference, and that's when the concept hit me that not everything known was listed in the books. There was a 1970S proof doubled die listed with a die number in the 20s, but there were not 20 listings in the book. I actually found his email address and asked him about that, and he said there were hundreds of known dies that were not listed in any reference.
I set out to change that, and did.
My message to you:
I collected without direction for years. I saved machine doubling, small die chips, cracks, and other "oddities". I didn't know a machine doubled coin from a doubled die for probably the first ten years I collected them. I didn't know the terminology any more than some of the first-year collectors reading this message. In most senses, I am JUST LIKE YOU.
I learned. I put my head down, went through the coins carefully, and taught myself what I needed to know with the help of a couple of reference books and a couple of chat rooms. I decided that it was not 'fair' to the world for attributers to collect money to 'list' stuff and keep the listings mostly private. This only perpetuates continued attribution fees infinitum. I decided that making EVERYTHING public was the only way to go, thus my site was born.
I am a person of continued unrelenting drive. When I want something done, I find the right resources, and if nobody is willing to help, I go at it alone. Fortunately, I have made connections and friends with some of the most knowledgeable people in the market over the years, and through the help of other collectors, I have been able to provide a website everyone can use to learn the hobby. It's not perfect, but it's the best I could do at the time I wrote it with the resources I had.
So...when I say something is not what a person thinks it is, I'm not on a high-horse. I'm speaking from damn near 30 years of concentrated effort to learn the subject. From years and years of learning programming JUST to bring the site to reality. From years and years of actually talking with some of the most noted experts in the field to LEARN how to be the best I could be at what I do.
Please do not take me to be crass, heartless, mean, or uncaring. I do care. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I am not especially a 'people' person, and am not sure I can change that...and not really sure I want to. But I do want all of you to know that I care deeply about YOUR education in coins, and am doing all I can to make that education easier on YOU. That's how I care about you. That's what I want YOU to remember when I give you a short, cold answer. I do this all the time. I can't have 'feeling' about every coin posted here. I shoot straight and an completely unbiased.
Thank you all for listening.
Rollem
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