JKK

If you break open mint sets and put them in an album, you just about might as well spend the coins. They will no longer be uncirculated, and if proofs, will immediately become impaired proofs. You won't have to worry about any PF-70s at all because the mishandling will assure you never have a chance of obtaining that grade. It's like moving to LA hoping to date a starlet without bathing--no need to worry about how you dress, as it's not going to happen from the go. All the people who know how to get them safely into albums know not to do that. My suggestion is you don't break up any mint sets until you develop improved handling methods. Albums are not for uncirculated coins.

There are a lot of different ways to collect. Most US-based collectors start with US coins, naturally, and some never tire of those. I didn't get rid of my US collection, but neither am I adding much to it; I branched into world coins, then ancients and the Islamic world. Some people (including about half my club) mainly collect tokens. Or medals, or errors, etc. Since it's a hobby and we do it for fun, whatever is fun for you, you should do. I would say half of the new posters here have found damaged crapola that they consider to be Rare Mint Errors on which they will Make Bank. About a quarter are dealing with Bampaw's Collection, Bampaw having passed away bequeathing a large hoard of assorted, mishandled stuff that everyone in the family assumes will be Worth Thousands. Actual real collectors of coins of actual real value or interest, not so common. So welcome. And small digital scales are very affordable, and well worth your money. You don't need to depend on jewelers for accurate weight measurement.

Nice AU penny. Worth 1c. Not worth any attention.

Read the grading standards for Rosies. They will tell you which areas tend to wear first. Those high points, especially toward the middle of the coin, will be the ones that are harder to strike up and might have weaker strikes; they are also the points of wear. Find an AU dime and use magnification, however much you need, simply to study what wear looks like and where it begins. You don't grade with magnification, but you can use it to learn.

Yes, but it's indentation by way of a kid, a hammer, and one of his dad's punches.

I think not.

Because they are toned, but well struck and without wear. It was evidently determined that they have full original mint luster, which hopefully you understand doesn't mean the same as what the world's semiliterates call "shinny" and what people with junior high or better educations call "shiny."

What do you bet he got taken in by someone else who wouldn't accept a return and is now trying to get his tuition back?

The simple fact of not posting both sides of the coin makes me think you realize deep down that it's not worth sending in. Otherwise you'd provide the necessary images for people to evaluate. If you are told they are not MS, then you should ask where those saying so see the wear. If you imagine that you see doubled dies (not all of them are of the obverse!), you are almost certainly seeing mechanical doubling, which is very common and adds no value. If doubled dies and pennies that could gain $50 in value by having them slabbed were as common as people suppose (until they get the ice bath of reality I just gave you), it stands to reason that they would glut the market and be worth nearly nothing.

It's using a ferric chloride solution to restore the date. The apathetic and/or stupid method only sees the date briefly. The conscientious and sensible way leaves it fully revealed for the future.

As a dealer, I'd pay you about 1.1 cents per wheatie. I would assume they were fully picked over. For the no-date Buffs, I'd pay 6c each. There are people who enjoy Nic-a-lening those, though most of the people who do it lack the patience, precision, or intellect to do it correctly. But before I did, I'd point out to you that interest was low, that marketability was low, that what I would pay was what they were worth wholesale to me, and that they were more than welcome to seek a better offer. And I'd be hoping they took that advice.

There are very few proof Lincolns that would make monetary sense to send in for encapsulation/grading. If you think you have PR-70s, great. What are the grading criteria for that level? Can you tell me even two? I'm not being sarcastic. I'm trying to help you avoid wasting $200. If that's of no interest to you, and your mind's made up, pay your tuition and learn it the hard way. Otherwise, I recommend you stop jumping the gun, start the long slow process of learning to handle and grade coins, decide what you like, and work toward a day when you'll know what's worth sending in and what's not. One last-ditch effort to convince you. Have you any idea how much penny you could buy for that $200? Is there a universe in which you'd rather have four pieces of overpriced plastic than a whole bunch of really great actual coins? If there is, then I surrender; best of luck. The disappointment is likely to harm your interest in the hobby, and that's sad, but I tried hard. If you'd like to maximize your value and develop a real understanding of what you're doing, stick around; don't send those in; and run stuff by us. If I were your advisor, I'd advise you first to buy one of the grading guides. If you like Lincs, great, start there. Take one of your cents, decide what grade you think it is, take sharp pics, and post them here with the grade you believe it merits. About 2/3 of the people here will overgrade it, but that's okay; just assume that the consensus is about 1/2 to a full grade high, and adjust for that. Keep doing that until you understand intimately the grade criteria. This won't take as long as it might sound.

Not an error. Mike's correct: mutilated coin with no collector value. You might even have a hard time passing it off as a dime in some situations.

Not special. Not a DDR.

There are sensible ways of avoiding one's past ignorances by creating a new account, and foolish ways. One of those is to refer back to what one said on their previous account. It boggles my mind that people think we won't pick up on that.

Just because some people scorn microscopes (and love to heap derision upon them and those who use them) doesn't mean that their guidance comes from Mt. Sinai on graven stone tablets. We do not grade with magnification, as a general rule, except at very high grade levels that most people never see on any coin that is not very modern. However, to understand damage or errors, magnification can be helpful. It's especially helpful with detection of cleaning and determination of cleaning methods and severity. Most of the time that means a loupe or a head-worn magnifier, or a lamp with a big lens and a collapsible arm. For spotting repunched mint marks, for example, a microscope can be quite helpful; same for forensics such as described with cleaning. If the lower forms of mag do not help you, then it's perfectly okay to use more powerful mag--but remember that if we can't see a mark with the naked eye, we don't consider it a grading factor. For example, take a look at virtually every coin properly posted in this forum. How many of them are blown up to the size of coffee coasters on your screen? All of them. That's magnification, and it's helpful enough that everyone does it in order to assess some specific situations. What would everyone say if someone posted the coins so they would appear original size on the screen? Even if they were correctly cropped, everyone would admonish the poster to blow them up. That simple fact highlights the value of blown-up views. Just bear in mind the limits of magnification, especially from a grading standpoint.

The best way to accumulate a great many false hopes and misperceptions is to watch online videos on coin collecting. They've got everyone convinced that they're going to find Rare Mint Errors in their pockets. That group then comes here to announce to us that they have a Rare Mint Error--and to ask our opinions, demand our validation, or some level of civility in between. We tirelessly tell several a day that no, they can't retire off that parking lot coin or dryer coin. If you are seriously interested in coins, however, you can hang out here and learn a lot. Start off by assuming that anything you found on videos is until proven otherwise.

It def does not.

Well, the outcome there is that you should no longer trust that coin dealer's knowledge. There's zero good reason to think this was struck (not stamped) on the wrong planchet.

I think it's simply that you are incapable of seeing this hobby at least, and perhaps other things, from any perspective except your own. When there is only one valid and rational perspective, and therefore all others are invalid and irrational, why bother to be considerate? It would be very liberating to just say whatever one wants without giving two rips how anyone feels (and you have stated how pleased you are that you act in such a way, so I am only echoing what you have said about it before). There are terms for that, and you have the vocabulary to know them.

Then you have the power to say "no" each time.

Yes. Very well. US$60, then.

No, you should not. It would be about as sensible as paying $60 for a Big Mac.

Also, among the coins you buy to test them, pick at least one with amazing eye appeal. Doesn't have to be expensive, just really eye-catching. When you get it home, see just how much of a premium you were charged for that prettiness. While eye appeal does have a role in grading, smart dealers will put like a gorgeous toner out there and raise the price quite a bit, on the logic that one of two things happens: a) it draws the eye to the case, and the longer people look, the more likely they are to buy; b) while it's not really priced to sell, just to display, if it does sell it will be getting massive margin. This will help you see just how sneaky that dealer is. Lastly, don't be innumerate. Innumerate people think that a $9 coin for which they were charged $10 is 'just a buck, not that bad,' and no different than a $29 coin for which the dealer asked $30. No, no, no, no, no. The first one doesn't just have a 10% premium, but slightly more; either way, 10% or 11.1% is a huge jump. The second is just above 3%. The two differences are a world of difference in value received, and too many shoppers these days do not process these realities. In the case of some of the younger ones, they can't. The education system we put them through placed more value on building their self-esteem and pretending that society cared what happened to them than teaching them f-bombing math. A couple months back I brought in four six-packs of cans and bottles for recycling (10c each in Oregon; I want my f-bombing $2.40 back). The young woman could not see "four, six, multiplied, twenty-four." She had to count them starting at one. It's that bad--and she's a cashier, for gods' sake. So if you find yourself tempted to think that the first $1 difference and the second are the same, remember the scales involved. Apologies if you're an accountant or some other person well versed in math, or if you at least went to school back in the timeframe when people actually learned it. In that case I'm preaching to the choir and no offense meant.

It's not even worth looking at, truth told. It is worth 10c.