Below is something I have posted before. This is something it would have nice if I had had someone tell me early on in the hobby.
I am posting it here b/c you said:
Any help would be deeply appreciated, going crazy lol
"Don’t learn the coin hobby backwards. :)
Looking for random anomalies on coins and hoping they match up to something collectable will take you a lot more time, wasted effort, and disappointment repeatedly finding out you have nothing but post mint damage.
Spend some initial time at places like error-ref.com, doubleddie.com, varietyvista.com etc. to find what actual and collectable coin errors look like.
A good way to start is, for instance, separate a bunch of pennies by date. Go to varietyvista.com and, date by date, use the reference there to see what errors are known for that specific coin/mint mark. Look for those specific errors/varieties using the pictures provided. After doing this for awhile you will KNOW what an actual error looks like and not have to waste time on face value and damaged coins."