Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

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Yellowjacket1
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Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Yellowjacket1 »

I have a significant amount of old coins and currency which I would like to determine the fair value of it and then the best way to sell it. It includes silver dollars, Mercury dimes, Buffalo nickels, etc. There are also some Canadian coin as well. Had hoped to pass them on to my kids, but they have no interest in them. Thanks in advance for any advice.
runner3081
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by runner3081 »

Look up on eBay or find a dealer who will buy the lot.
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prudent
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by prudent »

A coin shop will probably make you an offer on the whole thing but be aware they won't do it piece by piece, it just takes too long. If you're willing to do some of the work it will probably pay off with a higher return.

Borrow a "Guide Book of US Coins" from your library, doesn't have to be the most current year but within a couple years is fine. Scan down the middle column heading like VF and see which years/mints jump out at you with meaningful higher value than the run of the mill ones. Pull those out from your collection if you have any and offer those separately from the rest.

Then with what you have left:

Buffalo nickels - make a second pass through the low value ones and separate into 3 piles - ones with full dates (all 4 digits clear), ones with partial dates (at least the last two years of the date showing), and the ones with no dates or less than two digits showing. Offer those already separated, it could get you a little more.

Silver dollars - 3 piles - Morgan dollars up through 1904, the Morgan dollars dated 1921, and the Peace dollars.

Other silver dimes/quarter/half dollars - separate them into those 3 piles.

Canadian might be a harder sell, a lot of dealers aren't interested.

Now you may not have any coins that are worth more than average, but if you do, the dealer will pay more for them. If you don't check first, you'll get the minimum price if you just hand over the whole pile unchecked.
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Bogle7
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Local

Post by Bogle7 »

I went to a local shop and they did a piece by piece examination.
I was satisfied.
They had good Yelp reviews.
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Invictus002
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Invictus002 »

I am an advanced/passionate coin collector with over $150k dropped on coin hobby.

My 2 cents:

1. Do not try to sell off ebay, it's very risky and not profitable.
2. Do not use local coin shop for selling, might be just good for getting appraisals.
3. Use PCGG coin facts and look up the coins and its market value based on latest auction results (if your coins are graded)
4. If you have graded coins, see if any have CAC stickers, they bring in a premium.
5. If you have a sizable good quality non graded coins, get them graded at PCGS or NGC only.

6. Try contacting Ian Russel at greatcollections.com, he runs a a good auction house and is approachable.

7.if you have more specific question, feel free to DM me.
Invictus002
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Invictus002 »

Additionally- I might be interested buying, if you have what I want.
zxllxz
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by zxllxz »

If you are just interested in getting an approximation estimate, look on several coin sellers websites (Littleton Coins, Golden Eagle Coins, etc) to see what they are selling that same coin for. These estimates tend to be higher than actual value by 5%-10% (their profit margin)
You also may want to have an auction house specializing in coins appraise your collection.
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Kenkat
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Kenkat »

I think the above posts illustrate that there can be different types of collections.

If the collection is mostly loose aka raw common date coins, either in books/albums or cardboard type 2x2 holders, prudent’s advice is good. What you’ve got to watch for is that there are not rare coins mixed in. For example, you mentioned Mercury Dimes. Many Mercury Dimes are only worth their value in silver content (i.e., a buck or two), but there are rare or key date coins as well. For Mercury Dimes, that coin is a 1916-D. It is worth more than most of the rest of the set.

A second type of collection is of rare coins. Many of these will be in individual holders with the date and grade, holographic label, etc. For this type of collection, Invictus002 gives good guidance.

And of course, some collections are a mix of the two. The key is to understand which coins are high value vs. common coins worth at best a few bucks each before you sell to someone.
Pu239
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Pu239 »

I have a mixed collection referred to by Kenkat. The kids have expressed no interest in the collection but I've decided to pass most of it on to them anyway for the following reasons:

1) I am in the process of subdividing the collection into "piles" as suggested above and entering everything into a spreadsheet that will make valuation easier after I'm gone. I plan to adjust values of the more valuable coins annually with common date precious metal/bullion coins linked to spot prices for calculation of current value. For all values, I have a separate field that will estimate wholesale value (i.e., what a dealer would likely pay).

2) I'm also writing up a brief history of the collection to provide some context as to why I collect, special circumstance about how I acquired certain coins, personal favorites, etc. If they chose to sell, I've encourage the kids to keep at least a few coins as mementos. I guess I'm secretly hoping that one or more will decide to keep part or all, but I've explained they are under no obligation to do so.

3) Unless the law is changed, the collection will receive a stepped-up basis upon my passing which will reduce income taxes when sold versus selling now.

I will probably offload the "dreck", i.e., dateless Buffalo nickels, excess wheat cents, and so forth just to make things more manageable.
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

All Canadian pennies are 95% copper, like pre 82 US pennies. My scrap/coin dealer buys them for copper content.

If these are poor condition, circulated coins, the dimes, quarters, dollars are likely all "junk silver" and the value is really easy to find.

I've sold my silver coins over the last 5 years. I have random coins remaining. I've sold to a bullion dealer, to my scrap dealer (best way for me) and on craigslist. Something I learned from the bullion dealer is that there are a ton of fake silver coins in circulation. With a magnet, you can find some of the worst ones that are silver plated steel. I've looked through for key dates out of my stuff and found none. My scrap dealer did the same with the silver dollars I brought him. War nickles are part silver. Not worth what the silver quarters are, but more than a nickle. Look for the big mint mark on the reverse side.

Some dealers won't buy a small number of coins or a small number of a particular one. My bullion dealer was like this. He'd buy my roll of 43 steel pennies but when I came in with random wheat cents with some 43's at less than a roll's worth, he wasn't interested. He'd buy any junk silver, however.

Good luck and don't drive yourself crazy trying to get the absolute best price.

If you have at least $1000 worth, Apmex will give you a quote and buy them. I've never been crazy about shipping that much in coins, so have stuck local.
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Topic Author
Yellowjacket1
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Yellowjacket1 »

Thanks to all for such good advice. Sounds like I have a lot of work to do.

My collection is from my grandmother and father. Both worked in retail for many years and would put aside coins, currency they found interesting. None of the collection is graded. Sounds like I have a project to mix in with the honey-do list.


Pu239 is that for Plutonium 239? Are you a nuke as am I?
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Kenkat
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Re: Best way to determine value and sell old coins, currency

Post by Kenkat »

Yellowjacket1 wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 5:01 pm Thanks to all for such good advice. Sounds like I have a lot of work to do.

My collection is from my grandmother and father. Both worked in retail for many years and would put aside coins, currency they found interesting. None of the collection is graded. Sounds like I have a project to mix in with the honey-do list.


Pu239 is that for Plutonium 239? Are you a nuke as am I?
Based on the fact that these were pulled from circulation, there is probably a lot of common date 90% silver which is going for 18x face - so a silver dime is worth $1.80. Dimes, quarters and half dollars 1964 and earlier are 90% silver. Half dollars 64-70 are 40% silver. War nickels 1942-45 (big mint mark over the dome) are 35% silver and worth $1.50 or so. Silver dollars usually go for a bit of a premium - $30 and up.

If you want to try to pick out some of the better dates worth a premium over metal content, here’s a pretty good list with general values:

https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/rare ... ate-coins/

D and S mints from pre-1934 or so tend to carry a premium across most issues especially for one of the key dates mentioned like a 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent or a 1916-D Mercury Dime (unlikely you would find one of these but you never know).
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