The Lincoln penny has a couple of common mistakes that individuals and even collectors tend to overlook. One of those is the "Atheist" coin, which is a 1970 - S issue that is missing part of its motto IN GOD WE TRUST. These common circulated coins were minted at the San Francisco Mint and were sabotaged by the devil himself. When these coins were produced apparently a piece of metal broke off one of the dies that caused a lump of metal that covered up the words WE TRUST. These are not highly rare coins, but they are definitely one you want in your collection.



Another Lincoln penny from the San Francisco Mint is the 1970 - S, which has a smaller date than the other pennies from this year. To be able to identify this coin be sure to check the tops of the numbers in the date, because with the large date variety the tops of the 9 and the 0 are higher than the top of the 7, but with the small date the tops of all four number are same. The previous year, 1969 - S, the same error occurred, however, these coins were confiscated by the Secret Service until the San Francisco Mint acknowledged that they were genuine.

The next Lincoln pennies that could possibly be hiding in your pocket change are the 1972 doubled die, the 1983 doubled die, and the 1984 doubled die. With these coins they were hit twice while being produced. The 1983 shows its doubling on the reverse, while the 1972 and the 1984 show their doubling on the obverse. The doubling is obvious with all three years of these coins. This doubling did not occur again until 1995, which ended being featured as the cover story for USA Today. The last Lincoln penny that needs to be mentioned is the 1999 Wide "AM," which is known to have 1998, 1999, and 2000 dates, but 1999 is the rarest by far. To locate these coins notice the AM in AMERICA, because there is clearly a separation in between the A and the M.

The next denomination worth mentioning that may be hiding in your pocket change is the Jefferson nickel. In the 1964 - D series in the motto E PLURIBUS UNIUM the word PLURIBUS is misspelled as PLURIDUS. Apparently, some heavy polishing on the die caused the center of the letter "B" to be omitted, which lead to this error. There are a variety of the old style nickels that have been left to discover starting as early as 1938. There is a doubled die error with the years of 1941 and 1964, which can be located with by the doubling of the D. Other years that need to be inspected closely are 1942, 1949, and 1955, which are all because of doubling. With the new design of the Jefferson nickel the year that stands out is the 2005 - D, which was minted at the Denver Mint. To detect the error in these coins look at the reverse side and beginning at an angle from the E in STATES it appears as if a "spear" is going is a straight line right through the bison.

The next denomination is the Roosevelt dime, however, there are not many errors located in this denomination. In fact, there is only one worth mentioning, which is the 1982. These dimes were minted at the Philadelphia Mint and are missing the "P" mint mark. With the new "state" quarter, there are a lot of errors, which include the 1989 Washington which does not contain it "P" mint mark. Other "state" quarter contain axis rotation errors. Finally, the last quarter has an extra leaf on the lower left hand side of the ear of corn on its reverse, which is the 2004 - D Wisconsin quarter. Ultimately, there are hundreds of dollars that could possibly be hiding within your pockets.