Stan McDonald

I started collecting coins in 1962. My first coin experience was coming across a 1909 Lincoln cent. I was intrigued by finding the first Lincoln cent minted and the VDB on the reverse side. This discovery sparked my interest in collecting various dates and mint marks, leading me to begin filling a Whitman coin folder. I joined ANA and read everything I could about US coins. When the silver content was removed from the coins in 1965, collecting coins became difficult by the late 1960s since these coins were hoarded for the silver value. In addition, most of the wheat cents and buffalo nickels disappeared from circulation. By 1975, I stopped collecting, losing interest because of the lack of dates to collect from circulation. In 1999, I began to attend local auctions to see what I could find to complete my collection. I had a lot of success. At this time, PCGS expanded its error coin encapsulation to all error types. By 2005, many error coins were appearing in auctions. I purchased many samples of error coins and built a reference collection because I wanted to learn everything I could about error coins. In 2008, I started to piece together coin error photographs at auctions. I developed knowledge of error types and descriptions of error coins to validate my findings. The amount of information I collected was immense, so I decided to write my first coin guide about error coins. By 2009, I had published my first coin guide. Since 2019, I have contributed to the American Numismatics Association, posting information about error coins. In 2021 and 2022, I was asked to write coin articles for a coin magazine. I wrote several articles in 2021 and 2022 that were published a well-known coin magazine, The Numismatist. In 2024, I will continue to attend as many auctions as possible, gathering information to add to future books. I focus on encapsulated coins since these are certified errors with actual sales results. Photos in my books are taken from raw coins in my private collection or from encapsulated coins I have in my private collection, sold, or photographed at auctions.