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$.03 melt value in Canadian dollars. You can't even spend these in Canada anymore.

I see a "woodie" effect on the reverse and nothing else. That could be a result of being re-plated - lots of the steel cents were reprocessed. If it was double-struck, it would be very distinct. Without better evidence I think you're suffering from Pareidolia, the brain's tendency to make up known letters and objects out of random patterns.

Every one I look at on Heritage archives has it. 1977 too. A free account on Heritage is your friend.

I understand and agree with everything you say, but to me it's a roll of the dice. Double Eagles get people's attention. In my case, it's documentation of a third Barber dime reverse type (1900-1901), and two new transition varieties resulting from that. Well, the two original reverse types have been known since 1980 (McCloskey, "thin" and "thick" ribbons), and published in 1991 by Lawrence, including some of the transition varieties of those two types in San Francisco. "Series specialists", as NGC calls them, have been aware of these since then, but it's never really bubbled up, and even the stuff known since 1991 is inaccurate on various sites, including NGC. With the third reverse, there are now transition anomalies from 1899 through 1905. At the time, I kind of thought that it was a big deal. How many new types pop up after 120 years? I contacted Coin World, no interest. I contacted Numismatist (twice), no response at all. James Wiles was very enthusiastic (and quite nice), but they've decided to put these things in the camp of the various "specialty clubs", which I completely understand. Wiles cc'd Bill Fivaz, and then it was this close to getting a section in the new edition of Cherry Pickers. Then it was yanked. Then it sounded like it was back in, more hours from me (preparing images, etc), then that turned out to be miscommunication. After that, you kind of give up. I know I sound like I'm complaining. It seems to be just the way it goes. I'm not interested in fame or fortune. It's difficult, once you've really dug into something, to see inaccurate information, and not be able to do anything about it. I'm sure this is not an uncommon experience among people with a lot more knowledge than I have (Roger comes to mind). Karen, is there a link to this WRPM-040? I can't find it anywhere.

I wonder if there's any family history with these that might have value to you. I notice a couple German pfennigs from the 1950s - I have a bunch of those because my father was stationed in Germany during the Korean War.

I vaguely recall a thread somewhere about a coin stamped with R (I think) indicating it was to be removed from circulation. Probably doesn't help you. I recall that it was a silver coin.

There's a place or two that buys these by the pound. You'd probably spend more in shipping that you'd get back. You could go visit all the countries and spend (most of) them, but that might cost more. I like the boy scout idea. I've got piles of this stuff myself from my own travels, and a large part of my inherited collection is stuff my grandfather accumulated in the 1940s - all also nearly worthless. I wonder what ultimately happens to these piles - lots of people have them.

Do pattern and trial pieces count? They were never "issued", and NGC has graded lots of them.

Very interesting. Have you considered publishing this as an article somewhere? I remembered your thread on getting some of these encapsulated, here:

But you still have to talk somebody into it, and that "somebody" needs the time or incentive to bother with it (i.e. "collector demand"). People get tired of beating a dead horse. Look at the "Type II/II" 1901-O dime that I mentioned above, in VarietyPlus. The pictured coin is not a Type II obverse nor is it a Type II reverse. Knowledge doesn't bubble up very well in this hobby.

Those are interesting examples. I know nothing about either, but it seems to me both are in the "show off" category. For wine, you have to drink it to impress, don't you? Every bottle of the latest impressive wine someone drinks, means one less bottle on the market, hence the price goes up. Maybe I'm completely off here, but what's the point of having an expensive bottle of wine other than to drink it? With fine art, each piece is unique, and there will never be another one. The drive to "impress" goes up, the more wealthy people there are, but the supply (for dead artists anyway), is fixed. Coins - some things in common with wine and art, but not much. Each coin is different, but not unique (except for very few examples). Coins don't get "consumed", unless they get melted. Of course the "show off" factor exists in coins too, but I don't perceive it on the same level. You walk into someone's house, greeted by a Monet. You sit down for dinner, the $1000 wine comes out. And then... your host whips out their coin collection?

I'm not a member either. I don't know where they get their data. They just seem to update it more than the TPG price guides, for "widgets" anyway. They have your 1800 10c MS62 at $25940 with a big down arrow from $29,060. @VKurtB those aren't mesas, they're escarpments.

I'll toss Numismedia into the mix. They show $375 "old price" for that 1880-O widget with an up arrow to $419 "current price". When buying, I check Numismedia, NGC, PCGS, then mostly Heritage archives, then evaluate how often I've seen the same coin come up, how current offerings compare (uglier coins at higher grades, prettier coins at lower grades but more expensive, etc), and then toss in "how bad do I really want it". I don't want to be a "victim" either, but I consider all my coin purchases, with rare exceptions, to be from disposable income. This removes my anxiety over it. If I had to sell for less, I'll write it off as enjoyment value. $16-26k for that dime is well outside my disposable income criteria, so it would have to fall into "wise investment" criteria, and coins are definitely not that for me. The $23,700 dime you posted is "ex-Hansen", so price might be influenced by the cachet of the provenance.

I'm not understanding this correctly. For a very popular variety like 1942/41 dimes, the NGC census shows 1,947 total, and clicking "D" for "details" shows 937 attributed in various details grades. So "details" coins do, or did, get into the census. However, I have seen at least one example, a 1901-O dime on ebay designated "Type II/II" AU Details, which does not appear in the census. Perhaps there was some inconsistency in the past or something.

Hard to judge anything from these images. The coin is already rotated counter clockwise in the holder in the obverse image, and the reverse image shows no context from which to judge a rotation. Generally I don't think rotations less than 30 degrees get any attention. What doubled die variety do you think it is? There are a dozen of them on Wexler. Once you've found the variety, or one that's close, what evidence can you find that the variety has any "premium value"? I guess my response falls into the "teach a man to fish" category. These are the questions that anyone who responds on value would have to answer.

And perhaps some "influence". For example, there are 34 Barber dime varieties listed here (really, 32 are actual varieties), but only 9 of these show in their population report, from a total of 29 coins. Seemingly not a lot of "demand" for the other 23 varieties listed, but there they are. I don't know the history though, maybe NGC wanted to emulate ANACS, pulled all these from Cherrypickers, listed them, and nobody showed up. Discovery is not overrated, it's just under-recognized. Honestly, my "discoveries" were the only things that got me buying coins again, so we shouldn't denigrate it too much.:)

Also, from personal experience, even when published they may not list it - you did say "someday". I was told there has to be collector demand, which is kind of a Catch-22 but it's their playground. ANACS will attribute "discovery coin" if accompanied by documentation from Wexler, Wiles, perhaps others, according to an email I got from them a while back, which I previously thought would be cool, but now I'm not sure if I'd bother. (I've got three or four of them). I don't know if NGC does a "discovery coin" holder or what their rules would be. @KarenHolcomb needs to get it confirmed first of course. I kind of lost enthusiasm for the whole "discovery" thing after basically getting a "who cares" from everybody.

Karen, the 1958-D seems very similar to RPM-005 but not quite. I'd send your images to Mr. Wiles and see what he thinks. http://www.varietyvista.com/02a LC RPMs Vol 1/1958DRPM005.htm

I know, we're good, I just wanted to get back on track. The emoji person is off their meds. My 2019-P and your 2012 have a similar "spiky head" thing - I just thought it was interesting. I rarely look closely at pocket change anymore but I think mine was my first 2019 coin and I happened to notice the spikes. On the 1958-D RPM, have you tried James Wiles at CONECA / VarietyVista for opinion?

@Greg Bradford Flagging a post would get moderator attention more than a comment, I think. Things are pretty loose around here though. "Ignore" works for me. I think we're dealing with a 14 year old, not to insult 14 year olds in general. @KarenHolcomb Didn't want to hijack your post. On your 2012-P dime, it's interesting because I have my own 2019-D "spiky head". I think it's die scratches.

It's clearly 1945.

Took me a while to find it too. Hover over their user name on one of their posts and click "Ignore user". Sadly, their topics still show up "unread" when they reply to themselves over and over and over again like a raging lunatic, but you can use "mark site read" for that.

Karen, on the 1958-D, I recommend you search high and low for another example. More than one is the best evidence, and it takes a lot of work. There are 1150 examples on Heritage archives and 1200 on ebay, for example. The rotation of the MM seems unusual and would help to quickly skip over irrelevant coins. If it really is an RPM, there's probably around a million coins out there from the same die, but that means a 1 in 800 shot at finding another one. @VKurtB, the "ignore" feature is your friend. Our resident troll has had at least three different identities in the last few months, no one can figure out what the heck he's blathering about, and his only purpose on here seems to be to irritate everyone and get "views". There's 14 posts of inanity on this thread alone that I peacefully didn't have to see.

If you're talking about the vertical lines at the inside of the 5th and 8th columns, it's on every memorial cent. It's the walls at the opening where the statue sits.

Since it's not a US Mint set, they could put whatever they want in there. The half is 40% silver so that's a bonus.