l.cutler

I've tried several times but in my job, I do a lot of crawling under buildings, vehicles, things like that and I always end up losing them! I know a guy though that still carries the Morgan dollar that his father carried through Europe in WWII and after. All you can see is a faint outline of Liberty's head, otherwise you would think it is a blank slug.

If you are looking for a single book covering the different coinages, believe it or not, the best single volume is still The Early Coins of America by Sylvester Sage Crosby. Originally written in the 1870's most the information is still relevant. Later research has changed some of the thinking but most of the history of the mints and the people involved is still valid. There are inexpensive modern reprints, the photographic plates in the reprints are pretty poor but the written text is all there. The Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American coins is a good starter book on the different series, it doesn't go into great detail, but the basic info is there. The separate books on the different series in the C4 link posted are fantastic, and are based on all the latest research, they are expensive however.

I would never be able to say a coin is genuine just from pictures, but I don't see any red flags. Definitely some damage, but still has eye appeal.

I agree 100%. I have never even looked at etsy so I just spent a little time there checking out coins. Wow! everything is either terribly overpriced or outright fake. Tons of key date Morgan Dollars for under $20, yep, right. Absolutely stay away from Etsy.

Quite likely scenario. Where is this for sale?

Looks like his head took a hard enough hit to bulge out the reverse.

Coins can definitely be struck through debris, but that would look nothing like this.

That is totally different! Laminations are from a flaw in the planchet, a layer of metal separates and lifts. Your coin is just mangled, notice how it is bent out of shape? Study up on sites like error-ref.com, varietyvista.com, doubleddie.com, and you'll soon be seeing the difference.

No, absolutely not. All of that is post mint damage. There is just no way anything like that can happen during the minting process.

Welcome to the forum. All of the anomalies you mention are from split plating. The thin copper plating splits when the coin is struck exposing the zinc core. This is not considered an error, just the result of the use of copper coated zinc for coinage.

I have only one as a type coin. It would be interesting to get into the varieties, probably a fertile area to pick some rarer ones.

Welcome to the forum. Picture is very blurry, and you will need to explain what you see as an error. It looks like there is damage to the coin, but better pictures will help.

It really depends on what you consider a collector. I think what I would call "true collectors", it would be a much higher percentage reading the books. I have dozens that I use regularly, some are actually falling apart. I doubt any of the "I watched a you tube video what is this worth" do or will read any numismatic books. You can't even convince them to buy a redbook, they just keep coming back to the forums with "what about this one".

Well he keeps checking in here but won’t reply or post the pictures, read what you want into that!

Spot of contaminant, and the start of corrosion.

It's large, once you note the differences they are super easy to identify. I always look at the shape of the 2 and the distance of the 2 from the rim.

Tumbling planchets to clean them up?

Haunting the coin forums, studying the coins I already have, researching coins I would like to get.

Not sure what you feel is odd about it. It is the normal mint mark for a 1964 Half dollar minted in Denver.

I've got quite an assortment of Colonial and state coinage and have collected them for years. Someday I have to get smart enough to post pictures! I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have though!

I'm not seeing anything either, you really need to point out what you feel is an error.

It's been exposed to some kind of acid, it affects the inner copper core more than the outer copper nickel layers.

I really like the large cents, but haven't really delved into varieties too much on them, but I know there are good references out there for them. The Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins is a good basic one to cover pre Federal coins. For specifically Connecticut Coppers I use The Identification and classification of Connecticut coppers by Randall P. Clark, an amazing book.

OK, got it Hoghead515, it is a 33.31-gg.2. That is a little better variety, it is a high R5, R5 is 31-75 estimated examples, and high R5 would be closer to the 31 end of that range. A lot of the Connecticut varieties are in the R5 range, when you start getting into the R6's they get a little pricier. Nice coin, I like it!

Those pictures should do it, I’ll look into it later today when I get home, easier to see on a computer screen! That’s actually a pretty nice one, should be fairly easy to Id.