Helping sort out some inherited safe deposit boxes - advice on the best way to dispose of the coins.
oilers99
Posts: 221 ✭✭✭
A friend inherited a bunch of coins that had been sitting in some safe deposit boxes for years. We sold off all the silver and gold and finally finished sorting out the non-silver stuff. There's over 1500 buffalo nickels and tons of pre-1960 jefferson nickels including 21 rolls of 1939-P. Also, thousands of wheat cents and uncirculated rolls from the early 60s. My question - is there any market for the pre-1960 nickels? Will a local coin shop even want these? It doesn't make sense to ship them due to the weight of the packages. Similarly, will a local coin shop want all the buffalo nickels and wheat cents unless at low ball prices? Thanks for input/advice.
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@oilers99
An idea.
Donate to the Boy Scouts (various local troops) to earn the coin collecting badge.
Unless you are willing to go through all the Wheat cents and Buffalo nickels to look for better dates, simply bring them to a local coin dealer and get rid of them in one shot. It won't be much money, but as long as you value your time it might be the best way to move forward.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
yes give to the needed.
You can always sell on Ebay. Someone will buy them.
I wonder why they were in there in the first place? They are not really worth keeping "safe"
It's not that expensive to ship them with flat rate priority boxes. You can put up to 70 pounds in one box.
pre-1960 nickels that are circ and not silver should really go into a coin star. No coin shop will want them. If the 1939-P nickels are XF/AUish, someone might buy them. If they are VGs, they usually aren't worth it unless you can find a roll hunter on this board who wants to take a shot at a DDR.
Buffalo nickels do have a wholesale price, as do wheat cents. About 2.5 cents on the wheat cents and probably 20 cents on the Buffs if they aren't sorted into full date/partial dates. I buy large lots all the time at that number. The wheats are an easier sell on eBay at around 3 to 3.5 cents each compared to the Bufffs.
If you have a local BM coin store, the easiest route is to flip them to him as long as he isn't well below my price. That way you don't have to ship them or shop them around. And, honestly, not a ton of difference. If you have 5000 wheat cents, it's only a $50 difference between my 2.5 cent wholesale and the 3.5 cent retail. Same with the Buffs. Is it worth sorting and shopping and shipping to go from 20 cents each to 25 cents each?
Lots of good options - Or offer them on the BST.
Someone with young eyes and patience may want to variety hunt all those buffs and Jeffs.
Certainly look through the 39 Jefferson rolls for the Rev. Double Die. It's very easy to see and worth the time even if you only find 1.
I would spot check the Buffs to see if it's a good mix of dates or all commons, also if there are a good mix of mint-marks, check the horn on the Buffalo and see if it's mostly there on many of them. If they are common date worn Buffs, the advice above is perfect. If you happen to have a hoard of better dates/grades, then piecemealing them out would net you more and would be worth the time.
Agree...not worth the annual fee.
Post on the BST I would be interested in the wheats and buffalos
Frank D
What are you paying for wheats and buffalos? I have lots! And I don't search them.
I agree. Post them on the BST if they are unsearched. Variety hunters are likely already foaming at the mouth.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Could we trust them to be "unsearched" after this board has already advised him to search them?
The quantity of Buffalo nickels is interesting. Buffalo nickels were effectively gone from circulation by 1970. I would look through them to see if any better pre-1934 coins are present. If not, they were probably pulled from circulation during the 1960s, a period of intense roll and bag searching. If they are just common dates see what Littleton is paying for such coins as they use them in their promotions to the general public. They may be your best buyer (but pull out any culls as they will just return them.)
On a slightly separate note, thanks to a thread here a year or two ago, I can spot a 1920 Buffalo nickel even if the date is worn off, thank to the unique ribbon curl used that year.
I have found several of them this way (not that it natters much).
Yup, agree, offer them here first. I'm sure there are interested collectors !!!
What is a "lowball" offer on such ?
Maybe offering two percent more than CoinStar pays. 291fifth gave the best answer. Littleton. They do our coins right.
2% more than the coinStar is a highball offer for the Jeffersons.
I would happily pay 2% more than coinstar and would also pay the shipping for the group of Jefferson Nickels!!
If you will pay 102% of face + shipping, I'll send you all my rolled Jefferson nickels.
Are they pre 1960?
as you said, you disposed of all silver and gold.
so WHY do you need help with the rest?
you obviously "know" what you are / were doing.when you separated the coins.
fact is, a dealer would have bought the whole collection .
What is your underlying reason to ask the forum here?
passive aggressive salesmanship?
I'll have to look. I set them aside years ago because I hated to dump them in a coinstar but there was no good way to move them. I think there's still a bunch of them
My friend took the silver and gold coins down to the Long Beach coin show and sold them there. At the time, we didn't have the rest of the stuff sorted out. It isn't practical to take all these remaining coins to a coin show because I can't imagine that a dealer is going to want to haul this stuff home. That's why I posted this looking for best ways to get rid of the low valued stuff. I'm not sure if there is much of a market for the pre-1960 Jeffersons so I was seeking input/advice. Thanks to those who replied.
ok, makes sense
sorry I raised the question
eBay. They will sell. Like here.
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