Sandon

1888 proof copper nickel three cent piece in old green label PCGS holder as PR 65:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. This is an extremely crude or ludicrous fake that looks nothing like any class of 1804 dated novodel dollar. For one thing, the genuine pieces have crushed lettered edges, not modern looking reeded edges. The only known "Class II" piece was struck over an 1857 Swiss shooting thaler and is in the Smithsonian Institution. See https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1804-1-restrike-class-ii/414488.

As a practical matter, a circulated 1974 cent is only worth face value, as federal regulations prohibit the melting of copper alloy cents. It is extremely unusual to find a coin of any real value in circulation, but if you want to learn more about U.S. coins (such as their mintages and which ones may have collector value) and how to collect them, you should obtain a current (2025) or recent edition of A Guide Book of United States Coins, also known as the "Red Book". The current edition is available from its publisher at whitman.com. Many additional resources for new collectors are described in the following topic pinned to the top of this forum:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Please note that the "Coin Marketplace" forum is for offers to buy or sell coins in accordance with the guidelines posted at the top of the forum. Questions like yours are best posted on the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum. We have two old but still pertinent sayings that are applicable to your situation. One is "There is no Santa Claus in numismatics". The other is "Buy the book before the coin", which today includes checking reputable online resources. When they have been sold at auction, genuine 2000-P dollar/quarter "mules" have sold for between $102,000 and $192,000, and the genuine pieces do not resemble the item you purchased. See https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/2000-p-sac-1-mule-w-state-25c-obverse/508061. They have also been certified and encapsulated by major third-party grading services before being sold and aren't "loose" like this one. Having some knowledge about these pieces before purchasing a purported but obviously bogus example for what I assume was a small fraction of the market value of the genuine article would have saved you wasted time, even if not money. Perhaps it is just as well that this piece isn't an actual rare coin, as such a piece should never be held in one's bare hands, except by its edges if necessary.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. No. Unfortunately, the coin has been scratched by a roll wrapping machine.

This would likely be a better topic for the NGC Registry forum, which is monitored by the Registry's Administrator. What you describe sounds like a mistake.

What you have is a 1982 small date cent in the brass (95% copper, 5% zinc) alloy with an official weight of 3.11 grams that was discontinued in the latter part of that year and replaced with the current copper-plated zinc (official weight 2.5 grams) composition. It is relatively common and has no collector value when circulated like yours but is worth keeping if you find it interesting. All 1982 and 1982-D cents, whether of the large or small date varieties or composed of brass or copper-plated zinc are common, except for the 1982-D small date struck in brass, which was discovered a few years ago and of which only two are presently known to exist. One would likely have better chances winning the "Mega Millions" lottery than finding another. If you want to learn about U.S. coins and how to collect them, you should obtain basic books about them, at a bare minimum a current (2025) or recent edition of A Guide Book of United States Coins, commonly known as the "Red Book" and available from its publisher at whitman.com. Additional print and online resources are described on the following forum topics:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Your coin is a 1990-P Jefferson nickel with damage affecting the date numerals. It has no collector value. The earliest Jefferson nickels were struck in and are dated 1938. A nickel dated 1900 would be of the Liberty head type dated 1883-1912 and would look like this 1897:

1937-S Lincoln cent, PCGS graded MS 66RD:

The primary reason for the creation of third-party grading services in the mid-1980s was that they would give an opinion as to the grade of a coin without the biases inherent in being the coin's prospective buyer or seller. That is why it would be unethical for grading services to engage in the buying or selling of coins. Their opinions would then be of no more value than that of any established dealer.

@The Neophyte Numismatist--Respectfully, I largely disagree with your view. Counterfeiters have access to the same print and online resources that we do, and they can (and do) create pieces that are more deceptive than these. If they can post on this board, they can just as easily check out the Counterfeit Detection pages on the NGC website and similar resources. The best protection against counterfeits is understanding how to detect them, including knowledge of what the genuine pieces look like. Bearing this in mind, there are sometimes less obvious characteristics that I don't reveal.

Many unknowledgeable people overpay for coins. The NGC Price Guide does currently list a 2016 1-ounce American Gold Buffalo does currently list $2,750 in MS 70, so it is possible that the coin you saw had been given that maximum grade by a reputable third-party grading service such as NGC or PCGS. They list around bullion value in all other grades. Gold Buffaloes - $50 (2006-Date) | Price Guide & Values | NGC (ngccoin.com).

It means "Original Poster", in other words, the topic author. (I'm not sure what "lol" means myself.) I understand @VKurtB's frustration, but how can we get new or prospective collectors to "Read. Study. Listen." if they don't know what to read or study or to whom to listen? I have no compunction about telling those who post on these forums that they are wrong or have been misguided, but I try to explain why and direct them to appropriate resources. As for an explanation of the "minting process", the diagram on the following topic provides an elementary overview, and there are links to resources about this and other valuable subjects:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Your purported 1794 silver dollar is an obvious counterfeit, likely of the sort that have been mass produced in China over the past few decades. See 1794 BB-1,B-1 $1 MS | Coin Explorer | NGC (ngccoin.com) for photos of a genuine example of this rare coin, of which fewer than 200 are believed to exist. All of these coins were struck from the same pair of ties, so the shapes and positions of all letters, numbers, stars and other design elements are identical on all genuine pieces. Note, just for example, the differences in the appearance of Liberty's face and hair and of the eagle on the genuine piece from the counterfeits. Regarding your purported 1793 Chain cent, another very rare coin, please note preliminarily that (1) it is best to post one coin per topic and (2) you should not touch a coin that you believe may have collector value with your bare hands, except to hold it by its edges if you must. This coin is also a counterfeit, also probably of recent origin, that has been darkened to look old. Compare, for example, the detail in Liberty's hair and the positioning of the date numerals and lettering with each of the known varieties at Chain and Wreath Cents (1793) | VarietyPlus® | NGC (ngccoin.com). Where and when did you obtain these "coins"?

Someone on the forum may be able to identify this token, but it would help if the inscriptions were more legible. Please try to better focus your photos and crop them like this.

1937-D Lincoln cent, PCGS graded MS 66 RD:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The Coin Marketplace forum is for offers to sell or buy coins in accordance with the posted guidelines. A topic of this sort would receive best attention on the "U.S., World, and Ancient Coins" forum.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Please post clear, cropped photos of each full side of a coin about which you have questions. It isn't helpful to magnify an image to such an extreme size. Any significant variety can be identified at 5-7x magnification according to most experts. I assume that you are referring to nicks that the coin acquired from contact with other coins and other objects while it was being distributed and in circulation.

1875 twenty cent piece (much scarcer than the 1875-S), PCGS graded AU details, cleaned:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The NGC Registry program is for topics related to the certified coin registry. A question like yours would best be posted on the "U.S., World, and Ancient Coins" forum for proper attention. (The Administrator will likely move it.) Additionally, if possible, please post clear, cropped photos of both sides of your token, as there may have been a number of tokens produced for this company. Unless the token was issued holed, a hole would be considered a severe impairment that would greatly reduce whatever value it could otherwise have.

Native American dollars (2009 to date) have the date and mint on the edge of the coin. Occasionally, the edge lettering wasn't applied, but the plain edge pieces are only worth a modest premium nowadays.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The reverse of this coin was planed off and engraved with someone's initials for use as a gift known as a "love token". This was done with a number of coins from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, especially with dimes and gold dollars. There are collectors of love tokens, but most other collectors regard these as mutilated coins.

The outer layer of clad coins is composed of the same 75% copper, 25% nickel alloy of which "nickels" are composed of homogeneously. This alloy darkens to a deep red or even black color when the coin has been buried or exposed to other corrosive environments. Such environmental damage is what has occurred to this 2015-D Homestead quarter. There are clad coins that are missing part or all of a cladding layer, usually on one side of the coin. There are even lamination errors within the outer clad layer, which doesn't expose the copper core. See https://www.error-ref.com/?s=missing+clad+layer. This coin isn't one of them.

We have an old but still valid expression, "buy the book before the coin." Knowledge is vital for more enjoyment of collecting and avoiding costly mistakes. For collecting Canadian coins, the Charlton catalogs and guides are, I understand, considered basic references. See https://www.charltonpress.com/collections/current-editions/products/canadian-coins-vol-1-numismatic-issues-2024-2025-77th-edition and related pages on that site. For U.S. coins this would be the "Red Book" and other resources described in the following topic:

The apparent lack of doubling on any design elements other than the ear suggests to me that these coins were not struck from a doubled die and that the anomaly is due to some form of die damage, as is now believed to be the case with the similar appearing so-called 1997 DDO, FS-101. See Lincoln Cents, Memorial Reverse (1959-2008) | VarietyPlus® | NGC (ngccoin.com). Obviously, this 2024 variety is worthy of further investigation.