Rare and Valuable Coins in Your Pocket Change to Look For

The coins passing through your hands every day may be worth more than their face value. From unusual pennies and older nickels to valuable quarters, mint errors, scarce varieties, and overlooked key dates, ordinary pocket change can offer collectors an opportunity to discover interesting coins hiding in plain sight.Rare and Valuable Coins in Your Pocket Change to Look For is a practical guide to searching circulating United States coins and learning what separates an ordinary coin from one that deserves a closer look. Rather than simply providing a list of expensive rarities, this book helps readers understand the characteristics, dates, mint marks, errors, and varieties that can make certain coins collectible and potentially valuable.You'll explore pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins, including examples from both older and modern U.S. coinage that collectors commonly search for. You'll learn how to recognize key dates and better dates, identify important mint marks, understand major varieties, and distinguish genuine mint errors from ordinary damage.The book also explores doubled dies, repunched mint marks, die varieties, off-center strikes, clipped planchets, broadstrikes, die cracks, cuds, and other minting errors that can sometimes be discovered in circulation. Readers will learn why these abnormalities occur and what characteristics to examine before assuming an unusual-looking coin is valuable.Just as importantly, you'll learn how condition, rarity, demand, and authentication can influence a coin's potential value. The goal is not to suggest that every unusual coin is worth a fortune, but to help you develop the knowledge needed to recognize coins that may deserve additional research.Whether you are completely new to coin collecting, already search your change for interesting finds, or want a convenient reference for coins worth examining, this guide will help you look at everyday U.S. coins with a collector's eye.Your next interesting coin find might already be sitting in your pocket, change jar, cash register, or coin tray.