Sandon

First of all, you must understand, that the identification of die varieties and mint errors are traditionally areas for advanced collectors, not "newbies". To be successful in collecting U.S. coins, you should first learn about more basic subjects, including design types, dates and mints, grading, basic authentication, and how coins are made before you should move into these more advanced areas of collecting. Without this more basic knowledge, it may be difficult for you even to know what questions to ask or what to look for when examining coins. Second, you must understand that coins of substantial interest or value are very rarely found in circulation. In my approaching 53 years of collecting and checking my and sometimes other people's change, I have never found any coin worth more than a few dollars in circulation, whether based on its composition, date and mint, condition, variety or mint error. I know of only one person who ever has, this being a member of my coin club who received an uncirculated Lincoln cent overstruck by Jefferson nickel dies in change at a grocery store a few years ago. My knowledge, has, however, enabled me to "cherrypick" some better varieties out of dealers' lower priced coins, and I do know collectors who have found significant pieces among lots at estate sales and the like. I'm not sure whether you are referring to one of the minor doubled dies shown on doubleddie.com or your own coin. Unless you have "normal" coins of this design for comparison, it may be unclear whether or not the coin shows doubling or any other anomaly. Since 1999, the mint has used over 100 different reverse designs on quarters, which makes it difficult to become familiar with any of them. NGC and PCGS only attribute die varieties that have significant interest in the marketplace. NGC, for example, generally does not attribute varieties that aren't listed on VarietyPlus. You would have to make a major discovery for an exception to be made; otherwise, you would be wasting your money should you submit a purported unlisted variety. ANACS (www.anacs.com) attributes a wider range of varieties and charges less than NGC or PCGS but may not attribute minor or new varieties that have not been previously recognized on sites such as doubleddie.com and varietyvista.com. Presently, the only legitimate entity I know of that accepts submissions of coins for examination for new varieties is CONECA. See https://conecaonline.org/examination-services/. Perhaps others on this board will have additional suggestions. Please refer to the following topics to learn more of the basics of coin collecting: You would also benefit from attending coin shows and coin club meetings, where you can view a variety of coins and speak with experienced collectors and dealers.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Your 2016-P Theodore Roosevelt National Park quarter appears to exhibit shelf-like strike doubling, a.k.a. machine doubling or mechanical doubling, which is caused by a die that was loose in the press. See Double Dies vs. Machine Doubling | NGC (ngccoin.com). Coins exhibiting this form of doubling, which is very common, are not valued by collectors. Doubled die varieties, which may have value if significant, are caused by the doubling being in the die itself and result from the die "hub" being shifted in position between blows during the making of the die. In or about 1996, the U.S. mint changed its die production method to one involving a "single squeeze" of the hub against the die blank, which eliminated the creation of all but minor doubled die varieties. The "doubleddie.com" website lists two minor doubled die reverse varieties for the 2016-P T.R. Park quarter, but the doubling is on certain of the devices, not the lettering. See https://www.doubleddie.com/2320437.html.

Welcome to the NGC chat board and Happy New Year. I don't think that the coin dealer with whom you spoke gave you good advice. Once the coin was determined to be the correct weight for a normal copper nickel clad quarter (approximately 5.67 grams), that should have been the end of your inquiry. Submitting this coin to NGC for grading and error attribution would cost you a great deal of money (likely $100 or more), and you would almost certainly end up with a common, circulated ordinary 1966 Washington quarter still worth face value in an NGC holder with a grading determination of "Very Fine Details--Environmental Damage." Contrary to what you may have seen on the internet, it is extremely unusual to find any significant error coin in circulation. A few 1965 quarters are known that were accidentally struck on stray 90% silver planchets intended for 1964 dated coinage. It is conceivable that there were still such blanks around the mint's production floor in 1966, but coins struck from such planchets would weigh approximately 6.25 grams. Moreover, your coin's coloration is more characteristic of environmentally damaged copper-nickel than of tarnished silver. The coin is of the correct diameter and thickness as well as the correct weight, essentially negating the possibility that it was struck on a foreign or other wrong metal planchet. Your 1966 Washington quarter, which had a mintage of over 821 million pieces, is supposed to be composed of a composition of outer layers or copper nickel alloy (75% copper, 25% nickel) bonded to an inner core of pure copper. The copper nickel alloy and the copper core are both chemically active and will darken like your coin if the coin is buried in the ground for a time or exposed to a variety of other unfavorable environmental conditions. I have seen many copper-nickel coins with this coloration over the course of my now approaching 53 years as a collector and spent those I received in change. It is conceivable that the outer layers of this coin were improperly alloyed, giving it an unusual, reddish color that darkened as the coin circulated, but it would be an expensive proposition to determine this for a circulated coin, and an error of that type wouldn't be worth the cost. The best coins to save from your change jar would likely be those that were handed to you directly from rolls of uncirculated (new) coins, retain their full mint detail and luster, and don't have significant abrasions or any fingerprints or discoloration. Someday, such pieces will likely have value, at least to future generations of collectors. I would rinse such pieces off with cold tap water, pat (don't rub) them dry with a clean tissue and let them air dry for a while, then store them in plastic coin tubes or other appropriate holders. As noted, never touch the surfaces of a collectible coin (other than its edges, if you must) with your bare hands, as the oils in your skin are among the substances that can discolor them.

Welcome to the NGC chat board and Happy New Year. As noted, questions like yours are best posted on the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum. The U.S. mint sold over 4.9 million of these three piece sets containing silver clad (net 40% silver) versions of the Bicentennial quarter, half dollar, and dollar. Unlike the proof versions, they were not separately handled, and most have milling marks and other abrasions from contact with other coins before they were packaged. Nothing in your photos suggests that the dollar isn't composed of the same silver clad composition as the other coins in the set. This set has a retail value of around $20. You could probably sell it to a dealer for around its current silver value, approximately $13.

If you use the "Edit" function under the three dots at the right side of your first post, you should also be able to edit the title of your topic. The blob beneath the Lincoln Memorial is likely a die chip, which is rather common on cents of this era. The coin has Extremely Fine or so details but also has rim and surface damage that would reduce its desirability and value. It's still a nice circulation find.

Welcome to the NGC chat board, and Happy New Year. Please post cropped photos of each full side of a coin about which you have questions, as well as pertinent close-ups. I don't know what you mean by a "rom". You may have an example of a repunched mintmark ("RPM") variety known as the 1961-D over horizontal D, which is listed on NGC VarietyPlus and also in the Cherrypickers' Guide to Rare Die Varieties as FS-501, although your photos aren't clear enough to establish a match. See Lincoln Cents, Memorial Reverse (1959-2008) | VarietyPlus® | NGC (ngccoin.com) Here is a photo from VarietyPlus for comparison:

The book the Association publishes is entitled The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins. (Emphasis added.) The "Introduction and Welcome" to the seventh and most recent edition (p.8) includes the following statement: "This grading book is sponsored by the American Numismatic Association. It is recommended that it be used as the standard reference in transactions between all buyers and sellers." Emphasis added. The authors aren't entirely consistent as to what the book is supposed to do, repeatedly emphasizing the subjectivity of grading and stating (p.15) that "this book reports the grading used in the marketplace. It does not create it. . .. Today, we have to consider what leading grading services such as ANACS, ICG, NGC, and PCGS do, as well as what can be observed in auction sales, dealers' stocks, and coin shows." While it is difficult to understand how such a wide variety of sources can be used to create written "standards", the A.N.A. clearly plays a role regarding grading, even if it is just reporting the grading purportedly used in the marketplace. The use of eleven different grades for mint state coins started when PCGS commenced operations in 1986 and was controversial. The A.N.A. Board of Governors effectively legitimized it by incorporating it into the A.N.A. grading standards before each of these grades could be empirically defined. In my opinion, this was a mistake that continues to have negative repercussions.

Those who ask these questions are generally new collectors or those who found a coin that they consider old or odd looking, which to them means it could be rare and valuable. (By that standard, I should be valuable as well!) Most of whatever "information" they have comes from random searches of the internet, and they tend to see the sensational, less reputable or downright dishonest sources. That's why I take so much time to explain to them why their coins aren't valuable, why they have to learn to grade and otherwise evaluate coins themselves before considering the submission of coins to grading services, and from what sources they should learn. Their ignorance won't be eliminated by such "curt" answers (pun intended). I hope that at least a few of them will become serious, knowledgeable collectors. Where I may become sarcastic myself is where a poster claims to have found some extreme rarity in circulation and just wants to know how to submit it, such as the person who a couple of days ago claimed to have "found two 1982D mint mark small date copper pennies in one day" without even posting photos or weighing the coins. I simply replied that this was as likely as finding two 100 troy ounce gold bars on one's porch.

The problems that we are experiencing today really go back to the 1986 decision of the A.N.A. Board of Governors to allow eleven different numerical mint state grades! There is no objective or consistent way to tell each one from the next, and for some coins even experienced graders can differ by at least one point either higher or lower, which for some pieces can mean substantial differences in valuation. (For that matter, can graders consistently tell a VF 20 from a VF 25, a VF 25 from a VF 30, a VF 30 from a VF 35, or a VF 35 from an XF 40?) The addition by NGC and PCGS of "+" grades, which were never authorized by the A.N.A., just increases the amount of subjectivity and inconsistency in grading. The issue is even worse with older series (such as pre-1838) that tend to be struck irregularly or from worn dies and of which very few truly mint state pieces exist; most such pieces graded as high as MS 63 by NGC and PCGS are AUs in my opinion. How extensive surface issues may be before graders regard a coin as impaired is also subjective. CAC Grading (and CAC stickers) are additional "flies in the ointment". We now have different grading services that use the same grading terminology but admittedly interpret it differently! I'm sure that this is all extremely confusing for new and more casual collectors. My practice and recommendation are to learn about grading yourself, develop your own judgment and taste, and when buying coins act in accordance with that judgment and taste and your budget. The opinions of third-party grading and stickering services should be of secondary importance.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. As others have stated, your well-worn (Very Fine or so condition) and very common (nearly 3.8 billion minted) 1964-D Lincoln cent has no collector value and certainly isn't worth the substantial cost ($23 NGC "Economy tier" grading fee alone, plus membership fees, processing fees, shipping, and insurance) of submitting it to a third-party grading service such as NGC, which is what I assume you mean by "getting it graded." It does not exhibit any mint error. The rim has been flattened by wear, and the master obverse die for Lincoln cents had been in use since 1919 and wasn't replaced until 1969, with the result that by the mid-1960s the whole design, including the lettering, had spread out toward the rim. Large numbers of rolls and bags of uncirculated coins of this era were saved, with the result that you can buy an attractive uncirculated 1964-D cent today from anywhere from under a dollar to a few dollars, depending on the quality of its surfaces and the amount of original mint color it retains. Coin World lists retail values for uncertified 1964-D cents at $0.30 in MS 63 RB (red and brown) and $5 in MS 65 RD (full original "red" color). The NGC Price Guide lists certified pieces in MS 65 RD at $15, less than the $23 grading fee alone, so only pieces that the submitter has the knowledge and experience to believe are likely to get extremely high grades (such as MS 67 RD) would be worth the cost of submission. See Lincoln Cents, Memorial Reverse (1959-2008) | Price Guide & Values | NGC (ngccoin.com). As a new collector, you need to learn how to identify, grade and value coins before you even think about submitting pieces to third-party grading services. In addition to attending such venues as coin shows and coin club meetings where you can examine a variety of coins and speak with experienced collectors and dealers, you need to read legitimate numismatic publications (print and online) such as those identified in the following forum topics:

1890-S Liberty Seated dime, NGC graded AU 58:

1795 Flowing Hair silver dollar, three leaf reverse (B-5, BB-27), NGC graded XF details, obverse tooled. This is my favorite coin despite the impairment. Photos courtesy of Stacks Bowers Galleries.

It would be about as likely for you to find two 100 troy ounce gold bars lying on your porch. We shall see.

@edhalbrook--Your inquiry about the 1899-dated Morgan dollar should have been posted as a new topic. The photos, which I recall seeing before, are too blurry even to be sure of the mint mark. The coin's color is a natural one for a circulated silver coin, and it may be neither "cleaned" nor dirty. Collectors want the original surface of such a coin not one that has been ruined by being "shined up".

I've never known them to be popular either and, in some cases, to be considered a negative rather than a positive characteristic. In his discussion of 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cents, the late David W. Lange, in The Complete Guide to Lincoln Cents (2005), at p.98, states, "Untoned or lightly toned pieces may display a streaky, wood-grained effect from imperfect alloying. This is quite common for cents produced during the first decade or so of cent coinage at San Francisco, and it is frequently seen on 1908-S and 1909-S Indian Cents, as well. This phenomenon gradually disappeared around the early [to] mid 1920s." Lange mentions this characteristic with reference to other early "S" mint cents, though generally not those from other mints or later issues. HIs other most extensive discussion appears regarding 1916-S cents where he states (p.121), "As with most S-mint cents of the years 1908-23, the planchet stock utilized for 1916-S was seldom alloyed properly. Uncleaned, Mint State coins with original color will frequently display a woodgrain patten of faint, elongated stains . . .. The effect of elongation occurs when the strip is processed through a succession of rollers to obtain its proper thickness before punching out the blanks. This coloration is desirable to some and distracting to others, but it only affects a coin's grade and subsequent value when truly severe." Streakiness on copper and copper alloy coins, which are chemically quite reactive, can occur from a variety of causes other than improper alloying. Coins stored in the paper envelopes or wrappers used decades ago are often seen with streaky toning. The obverse streaks on the 1982 large date Lincoln cent shown here and on your previous topic, are quite unlike the "woodgrain" pattern seen on the early "S" mint cents and are likely from other causes. You are welcome to collect whatever coins you find interesting, but I doubt that streaky copper coins will ever have much of a following.

It appears that CAC's website isn't up to date on this issue. The "General Membership Questions" page states as follows; Q: How do I become a CAC Member? A: Our applications are currently closed for new members but we are taking names on a waitlist. (Emphasis added.) https://help.cacgrading.com/support/solutions/articles/151000095179-general-membership-questions

I assume that by a "woody" you mean a copper coin with "woodgrain" toning. Your 1920 Lincoln cent is well-worn, and the dark streaks are more likely the result of environmental exposure than its original alloy mixture. I think that my 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent has this type of toning, as I recall do many "S" mint cents of that year. Note the mottled pattern (not solid-colored streaks) on both sides of the coin:

Welcome to the NGC chat board. Please take note that the NGC Registry forum is for questions pertaining to the registry. Your topic would receive better attention on the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum or the "U.S. World, and Ancient Coins" forum." (The Administrator will likely move it to one of them after the holiday.) Your 1958-D Lincoln cent doesn't match the photos of the DDO-002 minor doubled die variety shown on Variety Vista. See http://www.varietyvista.com/01a LC Doubled Dies Vol 1/1958DDDO002.htm. Most significantly, I do not see the southward doubling on the "B" of Liberty or the reverse die chip on the crossbar of the "T" of "CENT". The ghostly images above the letters of the motto appear to be from die deterioration, not die doubling.

The company's website, https://www.cacgrading.com/, should have answers to most of your questions. It is my understanding that CAC still accepts submissions of PCGS and NGC graded coins to be evaluated for stickering as well as certified or uncertified coins for grading and placement in CAC holders. CAC is not presently accepting new members, so coins must be submitted through existing members. (The stickering and grading services are in different locations.) The "green bean" on a CAC grading holder is not a sticker. It is printed on and appears on all CAC grading holders as a company logo. CAC is supposedly grading coins based on its own conservative standards, so coins that would not have gotten stickers at a given grade that they would have received from NGC or PCGS will likely receive lower grades from CAC grading. Like NGC and PCGS, CAC grading gives coins determined to be impaired "Details" adjectival grades. I highly doubt that CAC grading will put NGC or PCGS out of business. Whether CAC graded coins are ever allowed on the NGC registry will be up to NGC. I understand that CAC ultimately intends to create its own registry.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The above quotation from your post is the answer that you will receive from virtually all knowledgeable collectors. Respectfully, this is the last sort of coin that nearly anyone would want to collect. (There is a recent fad among a few collectors of collecting "low ball" sets of extremely worn and barely identifiable coins, but these coins must have only circulation wear and be undamaged.) This severely damaged 1940 Lincoln cent was ground against hard surfaces that displaced the coin's metal, resulting in its numerous nicks, scratches and gouges. The damage could have resulted from being caught in a piece of machinery, being run over by motor vehicles on a graveled roadway, used to test the hardness of tools, or from various other causes. The exact cause cannot be ascertained. The letter "L" was located near the rim to begin with. The rim is supposed to take a disproportionate amount of the friction from wear to which a coin is subjected as it circulates to protect the rest of the coin from wearing too quickly. The rim flattens and widens out as it wears, and on your coin, it may also have been flattened by the pressure to which the coin was subjected that resulted in its damage. Additionally, the same obverse master die was used from 1919 to 1968 to make the "hubs" and ultimately the working dies from which Lincoln cents were struck. Over the years the whole design spread out. By 1940 this spread was already noticeable. Even uncirculated cents from the mid 1960s appear to have all of the obverse lettering connected to the rim. Here are photos of a 1940 Lincoln cent in uncirculated condition with its original mint color. PCGS graded the coin MS 65 RD. This is the sort of coin that most collectors want to own:

This would not be a U.S. mint product. Can you post photos?

The abbreviation "RD" refers to a coin with full original mint color. The 1909 VDB Lincoln cent in the photo has no such color and would be designated "BN". The coin has About Uncirculated details. The obverse scratches may or may not be severe enough for a grading service to regard it as impaired.

This 1973 Roosevelt dime has been damaged. It is not a mint error.

See answers to the same topic posted in the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum.

Welcome to the NGC chat board. The 1982 cent is a small date, and the 1982-D is a large date. They are both composed of 95% copper alloy based on their weight, and both are circulated. Both varieties are abundantly common and have no collector value as circulated coins. They are only worth their face values of one cent each. The only rare variety of 1982 cent is the 1982-D small date composed of 95% copper alloy. They were apparently struck on a few leftover blanks after production had switched to copper-plated zinc (2.5 grams). Very few of these are known to exist. You would have a better chance of winning a major lottery prize than finding one. See the following graphic, courtesy of @EagleRJO, for the differences between the 1982 large and small date hubs.