Mohawk

I know. I'm certain you and Roger will be back to dinosaur fighting again soon enough. The boards just wouldn't be right without it, I have to say

It was hard for me to learn the 1970-S Small Date as well.....but after years of practice and a good amount of success attributing and selling them, I can tell that one pretty easily. If you want to post it up, Mike, I'd be glad to let you know what I think. I actually have some comparison pieces currently as well.....I'm getting them ready to go off to NGC.

Indeed it is!! It sounds like you've found a good shop....if I were in Massachusetts, I'd be asking you if they had any ancients for sale. We used to do stuff like that for kids at the shop I worked at as well....we'd give them any gold plated State Quarters that came in, along with Kennedy Halves, Sac Dollars and even low grade Indian Cents, Liberty Nickels and Buffalo Nickels. It was amazing to see their eyes light up....you can't beat that experience. The kids are honestly one of the things I miss the most about that job....they were great!

I never thought I'd see the day. This is like a Marabou Stork and a Shoebill in Africa just meeting up, looking at each other and deciding to roost together instead of doing what they usually do:

The 2x2's aren't totally worthless Andrew. I have my entire Faustina collection in them....but they do wear out and need replacing from time to time. They're actually a great and economical way to house coins. I have a big bag of them in a variety of sizes......cent sized for denarii, half dollar sized for asses and dupondii and dollar sized for sestertii. I also keep a few of the quarter sized ones around for the occasional provincial. For someone with as varied tastes as you have, I'd buy some of every size available. They're cheap and then you'll be prepared for whatever catches your eye

This is all true. Collectors outside of the U.S. worry more about actual completion than grades in most instances, in my experience. I can say with ancients, most of us simply want a pretty coin and don't care much about the actual grades involved. I know I'm focused on eye appeal and completion (to extent of which such a thing can be reasonably determined with what I collect) rather than competition. The competitive Registry type of collecting seems to be mostly an American phenomenon and it will likely remain so. The Registries have been around for a long time now and I think if they were going to catch on elsewhere, they would have by now.

Very nice addition, J.P. Your local coin shop has some nice stuff. I'm jealous.....coin shops seem to be dying out in my neck of the woods......damned COVID!

That's not a bad plan at all. Sticking with slabs while you learn about the hobby is a great way to avoid some potentially costly mistakes. A good loupe is also an essential tool in this hobby. I'd make acquiring one a priority.

You're hitting it out of the park with War Nickels lately, J.P. Very nice!

Now you've got me stumped on that one, Andrew. I know of no way to get an accurate weight of a coin in a 2x2. I've always had to take them out of the holder to get an accurate weight. Someone else may have a way of doing so, but I'm not sure. I guess we'll have to see...... ~Tom

Oh man.....it exploded like that?!!! I wish you had taken video of it.......and I hope you find the coin!

I see nothing indicating a doubled die on either coin. You may have some machine doubling, which is very common on Lincoln Cents of this era and which adds no value to a coin. The one coin may have a slight misaligned die, but not enough of one to add value. These are both spenders.

I believe it was the master die, Oldhoopster. But I could be wrong about that. I haven't thought of this particular issue in a long time.

That is just a regular 1980-D Lincoln Cent with heavy post-minting damage and corrosion. It's just a spender.

Indeed you do. You also have a perfectly normal 1977-D Lincoln Cent worth a cent.

I'm just seeing a normal coin with damage. I see no errors of any kind on that coin.

And that's exactly why the 1999 WAM is worth so much....it's eluding almost everyone.

Agreed with the above. That's just corrosion. It's nothing special. Corrosion is very common on zinc Lincoln Cents and sometimes it can look strange.

Agreed on all counts. There is no way in this world that coin would ever approach anything like an MS67, let alone MS69.

I'm with Coinbuf on all counts......though the pictures are quite bad, I see nothing that would indicate an RPM on the OPs coin

The latest version of Malwarebytes I downloaded is pretty good. It kept what was good about the previous one and just added onto it. However, that's about the only time I can think of where the new version didn't have me tearing my hair out.

Another excellent and fascinating entry, Don!!! That Custom Set you're working on is really going to be something....great numismatic items and excellent, well researched write ups!! You can't ask for more than that!! I have to admit to being jealous of the amount of contemporary information that is available for what you collect. You actually can find sources that cite primary sources from the time. With what I do, that is certainly not the case, which results in the fact that I'll never know if my collection is actually complete or not. It has to be extremely rewarding and enjoyable to be able to go back to the time the coins and medals were actually created with your research. You know what people were saying about your coins and medals at the time. I do not and I likely never will, but such is the life of the Roman numismatist. So, how is the new set coming along, anyway? How much more work do you need to do on it? ~Tom

That's a nice find!!! I've found a few W's. I found the 2019 War in the Pacific and the Wilderness of No Return and the 2020 Weir Farm and Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller. The War in the Pacific one has a special meaning to me as well and I actually like the design of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, so those are keepers for those reasons. Not sure what will happen with the other two, if anything. They were fun to find in my weekly laundry money, that's for sure!!

And it never should, Andrew. That one would be a permanent fixture in mine as well!! It's a beaut!