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The Error Collector's Blog

03 Feb 2023

Finding a rotationally miss-aligned die large cent

Young Numismatists Exchange | The Error Collector

The ANA has several amazing youth programs that help young numismatists learn about coins and earn cool prizes, they include the Dollar Project, the Early American Copper Coin Project and the Ancient Coin Project. I completed the Dollar Project last year, and am now working on the Early American Copper Project.  I completed the first section and received an 1854 Braided Hair large cent.  To get the Matron Head large cent I had two write two blog posts, which I published here on the ANA website, and also get elected as an officer in my local coin club. I eagerly completed the requirements and sent in the form for the second coin.  I received a Matron Head large cent for the second submission. The coin I got was an 1835 Matron Head large cent that graded VG-8.  This grade is described in the Red Book as  "LIBERTY, date, stars, and legends clear.  Part of hair cord visible."    This coin is worth about $30.  I wondered about what it would have purchased back when it was minted.  According to The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1947 (p. 170), in 1835 a cent could buy about one 1/3 ounce of pork, 1 ounce of bacon and ½ ounce of sugar. This is quite a bit more than a cent can purchase today!  I don't know of anything that I could buy with just one cent! My dad used to go buy penny candies for one cent, but nobody sells them anymore.

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26 Jan 2023

A Wide AM cent from a change machine!

Young Numismatists Exchange | The Error Collector

Yesterday I was having a hard time.  I had gone to the library with my mom and sister, but while we were there somebody was not nice to me and it left me feeling misunderstood and sad.  When I got home, I was still feeling a little melancholy.  My dad offered to take me to the bank to get some coin rolls, since I like to look through them to find new coins.  I thought going to the bank might help me feel better, so I put on my shoes and climbed into the car to go for a ride.  When we go to the bank, I always check the change machine to see if anyone has dropped any coins. Sometimes people bring a handful of coins to turn in at the change machine and sometimes people bring a bucketful of coins to put through it.  Whenever people put change in the change machine the change machine sorts and counts the change then it gives the person who had the coins a receipt to get cash from the tellers. Sometimes coins get dropped because people are in a hurry. While looking around the coin machine, I found 64 cents of change that someone had dropped. None of the coins were in the feed slot, but a few were in the coin return, and most of the coins were on the ground.  Among the 64 cents there was a 1998 Lincoln cent that I was 90% sure was a wide AM variety. The coin was almost black and caked with dirt.  I wasn't quite sure because the coin was so dirty that it was hard to see the details.  When we got home from the bank, I looked at the cent more closely and it was a wide AM! Unfortunately, the coin was not in good shape, but it is always fun to find a variety.  I felt happy and lucky that I found it! 

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