Thompson2

53 minutes ago, kbbpll said:

We could all mail him stuff if you IM people your address. I know I have lots of modern Euros, Canadian, Thai, Australian etc laying around.

Yup... I'd pitch in.. I've got a couple of Whitman folders with pennies (and some nickels, I think).  Nothing super valuable, but old and pretty cool.. 

Oh - and I could probably be convinced to throw in a Kennedy half for fun... 

1 minute ago, KarenHolcomb said:

Mostly people just send them to me. Js.

True story!

Did any turn out to be keepers? 

So I've been through all 200-ish of these under a small microscope and unsurprisingly found nothing of interest.  I need to attempt to "grade" some I found that had really nice luster to see if maybe those are potential MS60+ to put in flips and set aside from the rest...  That'll be less straight forward, to say the least... 

An update on this (and on the sorting thread too, I guess).  I was able to get my hands on a USB microscope and go through the stacks.  It made it pretty easy to see that, sadly but unsurprisingly, there was nothing of import.  I really only focused on mint marks and "We Trust" and didn't spend a bunch of time on each one.  I figured if it was that hard to see it wasn't worth anything extra.

I had some technical difficulties with the camera so i don't have any images to share.  If I sort that out, I'll post a couple here for reference.

39 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

Get me a big ol' stone tablet n' some cuttin' tools. This needs to be available for posterity. 

You should start a GoFundMe for that.  I'd kick in a buck or two, as long as I got pics of the work in progress... video would be preferred though.

It certainly can't be a dropped letter since the odds of 2 (or likely more since this seems to be a recognized variant) is pretty much nil.  Chipped die maybe?  

What are the odds they call it a “1 in the neck” because that’s just what it looks like and not what it actually is?  Wouldn’t be the first time something was called something misleading *cough* close AM *cough*

You really need to highlight where you think you see something on the coin.  I see nothing that looks doubling.. not even MD...

2 hours ago, KarenHolcomb said:

Also, yes, if you have a discovery Coin with a letter you can send it to ANACS and get a Discovery Slab, for what all good it would do a person.

Well, I suppose if you're collecting and searching for errors for the approval and recognition of this crowd or for the money, I suppose that makes sense... but if you're doing for the fun and for you, it's still awesome!

4 hours ago, VKurtB said:

I once shot (photographically) a Kennedy (half dollar) in Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Then I took a second shot (of it) from the grassy knoll.

Buh dum tsss.... 

Nice to see your lighter side!  I like it!

3 hours ago, VKurtB said:

Maybe you could suggest it is a (really badly) impaired 1936 proof. It has nice wheat lines under the massive corrosion. 

I think you might be right!  I'm 100% sure I could get the now-banned troll to back that up!  

Good to "see" you again, sir!

19 minutes ago, Greenstang said:

Welcome to the Forum

If the outline you have drawn is what you think is a 1943, then you are mistaken. The 3 in a 1943 is lower and the bottom of  the tail is flush with with the bottom of the 9.

Like this:

or this

Pretty sure it would have to be in the EXACT same spot to be the same error.  Defects in dies don't move around...

That looks like it's just a nasty scratch.. 

Pretty sure he's asking about this crack in the rim... 

2 hours ago, Conder101 said:

Because you really can't determine from pictures whether a coin is a MS or a high end AU.  The difference is very slight wear on the high points and the way to see that is to tip the coin back and forth letting the light play across the high points and watch for a color change.  You can't do that with a picture or a computer image.

I can totally understand that angle and that'd make sense except that funtimes is just a text description of what to look for... maybe the difference is too slight to really even describe and just has to be seen?

That's really cool.  I'll be following this thread to see what the outcome is.

Ramsay stack maybe?  although it looks like the edges of the 3 are well aligned in this case?

18 hours ago, RWB said:

RE: "A question on my theory - are coins from the same die bagged together or does the output of multiple does get mixed at the mint?"

1964 halves struck by several presses were normally mixed before bagging. The contents of any specific bag would depend on the number of presses in operation and total good pieces manufactured. Back when silver dollars were flowing out of the Treasury, it was common to find coins from 2 or 3 die pairs in the same bag of 1,000 pieces.

Makes sense.  Thanks for the insight on that.  

17 hours ago, Just Bob said:

This is very true. Some of them have miniscule doubling that shows up only on the reverse stars, and then only under strong magnification. Although they actually are doubled dies, they are so insignificant as to be worth almost no premium, except to a die-hard variety collector.

Look for splits on the serifs of the letters, like on the coin pictured below:

 

Good to kow the hard-to-spot ones are not much of a premium.  I won't feel too bad if I miss one (if it's even there).  The serifs look like a pretty easy tell.  I'll focus on those.  

I'll post results when I'm done (or maybe more questions, if they come up).

Thanks!

19 hours ago, RWB said:

As "Just Bob" suggested, use one ordinary light, and slowly rotate the coin. Any doubling - mechanical or die - will become apparent. Don't expect to find any doubled die coins - they are unusual and not nearly as common (or valuable) as social media hacks claim.

I’ll give that a shot. I just don’t have a loupe or magnifying glass on a stand.  May have to improvise a bit.  Lol

And I know that the odds of finding a DD are pretty slim, but I’d rather do the hunt and pull any out of the general population.  I’m pretty sure that several of the rolls that I’ve got were from the same delivery to the bank, so if there’s one they’re may be multiples (again, I’m aware it’s a super long shot, but it’s just my time I’m investing at this point). A question on my theory - are coins from the same die bagged together or does the output of multiple dies get mixed at the mint?

Yeah, the luster is hard to capture. It’s really nice on this one, but it either washes out or looks much duller than it really is. I need to see if I can get decent short videos to better capture it. The surface marks are also a bit of a pain to get to look the same as in hand. 
 

Any thoughts on this coin and the likelihood it’s a DD?  I’m guessing it’s super low.  On my phone, the thumbnail of the second shot just looks like highlights and shadows.  
 

It really doesn’t help that some of the attributed DDs on the Kennedys is super  subtle.  Like this one 

I've started looking through this stack of 1964 Kennedy halves to ID any that are higher grades and whether there are are DDO / DDR / RPMs in the mix and I've run into some questions on the lighting.. 

I have a ring light that I can put directly around the lens to get very vertical light to the coin.  I also have a translucent plastic box that lets we get diffuse light from almost any angle.  Probably unsurprisingly, I've found that I get very different results depending upon where I locate the light.  On this first coin (1964 P), if the light is centered on the lens, it looks pretty normal.  If I move it so that it's more to the right of the coin, I can totally convince myself it's a DD.

So my question is this - is there a right / wrong angle to light a coin when trying to ID DD's?  I have about 100 coins to go through, and adjusting light individually for every one is going to be super time consuming, so I'd like to settle on 1 setup so I can go through them a bit more quickly.  

To help visualize what I'm seeing, this is the exact same coin with the light in the two positions.  

With the light centered around the lens

With the light off to the right (still diffused)

7 minutes ago, Just Bob said:

https://www.coincommunity.com/us_coin_grading/half-dollar-kennedy.asp

 

https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/how_to_grade_half_dollars/

 

 

Thanks!.  CoinCommunity has decent info.  funtimesguide only goes up to AU55 for some weird reason...doesn't make much sense to stop there for the Kennedys.. 

But it should get me started and I'll poke around for additional sources.  

Follow on question to this - where can I find a description of the grades for these?  I know about Photograde, but I'm looking for text to supplement that so I'm looking for the right things.  I found a couple (so far) that seem like they're low to mid 60's grade which elevates them beyond bullion, but I don't know for sure.... and I don't want to flood the forum with pics of these.  I've only been through 1 partial roll and found 2 that may be worth saving and there are are about 8 more rolls to search.

2 hours ago, Hinkle said:

Yeah it's still the same. I changed the batteries and all the other coins are right on. Man this is bad. Now I have to take this one back.  Thank you 

Well, at least you have the option of taking it back... hopefully your shop is good about stuff like that... 

And lastly, this super awesome 1936 (probably) wheat.  Based on the other posts I'm seeing these days, it's probably the very rare DDO (no... I'm not serious...  there are some major trolls floating around right now).

Again, not worth anything, except the interesting backstory.