Varieties and Geography

[murphy]

Lately I have been thinking about where varieties were released into circulation and how such knowledge can benefit not just me but all variety collectors.
We know that the 2004D Wisconsin Leaf Varieties were released in the Tucson, Arizona and another place in Texas in late 2004. Many people around the nation in early 2005, myself included, bought rolls and rolls of Wisconsin quarters at local banks looking for those very valuable Leaf varieties and of course we came up empty because that variety wasn't released in our neighborhoods.

So I got to thinking well, what variety does my neighborhood have to offer me? Well, the only things I've really been searching through in earnest have been pennies. I have made it a point for months now when I go to the banks, to ask for rolls of pennies "that the customers bring in", as opposed to rolls they get from "The Fed". Now in searching these what I call "local rolls" I'm not only finding cents that have been through The Fed one or more times, I am also finding cents that were released into circulation in my neighborhood. I can then take note of which varieties that I find over and over and be fairly confident that they were released in my neighborhood and that I will probably continue to find them.

Now armed with a little knowledge of what varieties are in my neighborhood, I wonder who else has a knowledge of what's being found in their neighborhoods?
Would anyone like to post a list of varieties that they find and offer a trade of rolls? I will start off by offering a trade of 20 rolls and list what varieties that I have found more than once in the past 6-months in local rolls from my Southern Indiana area. This is only the varieties that I know I have found multiples of or else ones that I have found in new rolls and excludes many varieties of wavysteps and bar cents that I know were released here, but I just have too many unclassified ones to sort through them all at this time. But here's my list:

1998P Wide AM
1998D-1DR-001
1999D-1DR-001
2000P Wide AM
2004P-1DR-002
2005P-1DR-001
2006-1DO-001
2006P-WDDR-002 (Wexler#)
2006P-WDDR-003 (Wexler#)
2006P-1DO-002
2006P-1DO-003
2006P-WSDDR-001 (Neff#)
2006P-1DR-001
2006P-1DR-002
2006P-1DR-003

[Bob P]

Sometimes...not the entire group of coins struck from a particular die will show up in a certain area of the country. It is a supply and demand thing as well. In addition, tourist rich areas such as the one I am in will end up having coins from all over that folks have brought with them. Another thing about this area is the 50-50 balance that seems to exist when it comes to P and D mint coins.
A good example was the New York State Quarter. The only ones I could ever get here were D mint coins. Yet...the Massachusetts coins were primarily P mint. There are many more instances of like situations.
I wish you luck in your endeavor Murph, and I sure wish I had paid attention to what I found in good numbers here. Keep us informed on how it goes...OK?

[murphy]

Things change over time. Up until 2004 we use to get a lot of Denver mint cents here in Southern Indiana. But I remember getting one box of brand new 2004-D cents early in the year - the first box of the year. After that it was all Philly cents. I have really gone through a lot of new rolls of cents since 2004 and none of them have been Denver mint cents. I just don't see D Mint NEW cents in local banks. Quarters are a different story. I had no problem getting a box of Wisconsin D Mint Quarters here in early 2005. I got it at a branch bank inside Wal-Mart! All the other banks were sold out of Wisconsin Quarters because everybody was looking for the Leaf Varieties.

In going through local rolls I still see a lot of Denver Mint cents from the 1900's and 2000's, about a 50/50 ratio, but only occasionally do I see a 2005-D or 2006-D.

I've recently found a couple new varieties of 2004 cents. I'm looking for more of them and other varieties as well in local rolls so that maybe that will indicate that they could have been put into circulation here.

In the case of some varieties, I believe they are so common that they appear to have been released in many places and not just in a few areas. I'm speaking in particular about the 1998D-1DR-001, 1999D-1DR-001, 1998 Wide AM and 2000 Wide AM varieties. I have found them in Fed rolls too.

But I'll continue to search local rolls as well as Fed wrapped rolls and I'll try to get local rolls from other parts of the nation and if I come to any helpful or interesting conclusions I'll post my views here.