Key coins are just plain exciting. It is hard to explain what happens, but in some of us, every time we look at a coin like a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent, our heart beats a little faster, our blood pressure rises, and we just have an attack of envy that is typical of a youngster and not an experienced longtime coin collector. In fact, it may very well be that key dates are one of the few things that bring flashbacks of youth, for even in middle age, we still want to own something like a 1909-S VDB, the key to our childhood Lincoln set.
Just about every type of coin has one date that can be identified as a key, the toughest coin in the set, and the coin…
