newbie - i inherited a crap load of coins.. help?

kylek

Hey guys i'm familiar with the sports cards collecting so i'm not a total moron. My grandma passed away so i finally got the coins from my grandfather's death 3 years ago. There's a safe packed with 100ish morgan dollars and every other type of coin like probably 200 different half dollars and god i don't know what these things all are but there's a lot of em.

My grandpa seems to have been big with the mini coins and proof sets. There's a hardwood frame type deal with every pres and first lady mini coin in silver. There's enough silver (.999 troy something) to build a solid silver car here.

I don't think i've struck it rich, but if you guys can lead to me a good coin price guide of sorts, or if there's anybody in the harrisburg/york area of PA with a coin shop that i can bring some of these in to that would be sweet.

I have to split the collection with my brother at some point. Not sure how that's going to work but we're close so it wont be a big issue. I'll take photos tomorrow and coax my buddy into getting them uploaded onto my server (my kodak took a $hit)

Thanks guys


oh - those rainbow finish looking coins, it seems you guys like those.. that's not an imperfection? first time i saw some coins that were all rainbowy i thought something was wrong with them?

kyleknap

Hey, that's my name.

Kyle

P.S. Welcome aboard!

JadeRareCoin

Ouch!! A "clap load" sounds very, very painful......

Best thing to do is to take it to at least 3 different dealers, preferably in different cities. Get 3 offers on the collection, go home and think about it. Feel free to post images here and share the purchase offers just to make sure everything is fair.

Dennis

kylek

lol... good reaction time kyle.. i think you replied before i posted

Bikingnut

Too bad you hadn't posted a couple days ago. I was in that area visiting my parents.

CoinAddict

Welcome aboard. I do not know what to tell you but someone here will know.

kylek

weee yeah clap load alright.. i think i edited that now.. 2 decent sized crates full of coins plus the mini safe.. but my dad said there were 3 crates.. so i dunno maybe there's another one in the garage...

i ran over to see if i could find the those greenbacks.. can't find them though.. there's a thing full of bills... any idea of value of some nice looking 1923 dollar bills or like the red print 5 dollar bills from 60-70's? there was a 20 from 1969 i think and a thing with like 20 different 2 dollar bills.. heh yeah i'll make lists and take pictures .. i tried finding dealers from the one grading site online and there was one listed about 2 miles from my house that as long as i've been alive has never been there..

JadeRareCoin

Kyle, the important thing is that you get 3 independent quotes on the accumulation. Tell the dealers up front that you are just getting bids. Some guys will tell you to fly a kite because they don't like to compete. Others will be pleased to give you their best price. You should call dealers within a 50 mile radius and explain what you have. Some will even come to visit you, considering the physical size of your holdings. It sounds like most of the bids will be close, since you have a lot of common currency, bullion and mint products. If you have many raw and/or certified single, high grade coins, then you will see bigger swings in the offers. No matter what, you need to make a list of everything, to the best of your ability, and back it up with plenty of images. Posing pics here will get you going in the right direction.

ccr

What JadeRareCoin says is a pretty good suggestion. As you may already know, be paitient on selling until you know what you have.



<< <i>oh - those rainbow finish looking coins, it seems you guys like those.. that's not an imperfection? first time i saw some coins that were all rainbowy i thought something was wrong with them? >>



It`s a yes and no answer. Still, don`t clean them as some toning ( tarnish as well. both mean the same thing but, in the coin world coin collecters perfer to use the term toning while tarnish is the perfered term for jewelery and silverware.) is considered very attractive and others ugly. It isn`t an easy task to explain the difference as different collecters perfer different patterns/colors etc.

Still, if you do sell, I can`t stress enough to wait to evaluate what have and understand what you got. Getting a " Redbook " may be of some help too. It`s a general purpose price guide with good facts. You can pick up a copy at a coin store or major bookstore for about $15. The 2005 Redbook should be out around summer time if you want to wait.

ddink

If you do get a Redbook, just don't be too disappointed if none of your stuff comes close to selling for the prices listed in their. They tend to be a bit high.

kylek

Thanks for the great info guys. I don't think my brother and i would sell the collection. There are maaannyy duplicates though and if i could sell some of it I probably would to help me through college. I am still a collector at heart. My parents hate it but i have 4-5 of those huge tubs you store clothes in full of baseball cards from my youth. I guess after finals next week i'll start calling around. I'd love to sit down with a dealer and watch him look through some of the coins so i have a better understanding of them. I figured out where the S and D and O are on the morgan dollars but as far as CC and some other terms, i'm going to have to get that "red book" and figure that out.

Really makes me feel like collecting again. Think i might go through a shoebox of my sports cards before bed

Sphinx357

Bring a list of the paper over to the U.S. and World Currency forum

DominusDeus

Lucky dog. I'm the only person I know of in my entire family who collects coins. So I have no one to inherit coins from...

merz2

kylek
I live in Gettysburg.I'd be glad to help in any way I can.I'd come over and bring all my books.Just let me know. Don't under any circumstances go to cronan's.

kranky

If you can take merz2 up on his offer, do it. He's trustworthy. You'd at least know more about what you have before taking it to a dealer.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Hey guys i'm familiar with the sports cards collecting so i'm not a total moron. >>



Uhh...

No.

I won't go there.

Seriously, though- welcome.



<< <i> There's a hardwood frame type deal with every pres and first lady mini coin in silver. >>



These would be medals, not coins. They must be legal tender, government issue to be true "coins". Of course, silver's silver.

Pick up a copy of the Red Book for lots of useful information and retail prices, and if you can, get a copy of the Blue Book, too, to get some idea of the wholesale value (i.e., what a dealer would pay for them). This'll give you a better idea of the true value.

TheLiberator

DON'T CLEAN THEM WHATEVER YOU DO!!!

certifiedsilverdollar

Are any of the coins graded or are they all raw? What you may want to do, is find someone familiar with coins, and list them on Ebay individually with good descriptions and pics. You will get alot closer to retail as a whole than selling in bulk. All in all, you will come out WAY farther ahead that way. And it would be worth it to invest in a good scanner or camera or both. Just find someone familiar with coins to help you list them. You will get less for some than you should, more for others, and it will all balance out. That is what I would do anyways.

MacCoin

for me I have been collecting for years. that mean doing the research and saving for weeks and sometimes months to get the coin I want. so when I see someone who has a problem like this I have to laugh. the coins were free so it won't hurt you to much to go to the news stand and buy a $5.00 price guide. even better use five of these free morgans to buy it.

Shamika

kylek,

Welcome aboard.

kylek

lol, yeah i use 50 cent pieces all the time and sometimes people freak out about it but i don't really see the big deal.. im talking modern 50 cent pieces.. i probably wouldn't use the morgans to buy a book

Merz, i appreciate the offer. I'm gunna goto the bookstore here between classes and get the red book. I have finals until wednesday of next week. If there's a time next week where I can come down to your place, drop me an email kyle@pennstatejeeps.org. I see you've been on this forum a couple years so im sure you're good with these things. I need to keep looking for dealers in our area, thanks for the heads up on cronan's. Since my grandma's passing away, I'm living right off route 30 at the mount zion exit (close to the galleria mall), so it wont be a long drive either way.

ok, so sports cards are probably the big joke here on the coin forum.. understandable.. i quit that at about the age of 11 There's a decent amount of coin collecting in the family, my brother has some in a small wooden box. I'm not sure why I didn't get into it, i guess because i played sports and all. Let me get some pics up tomorrow.

what a pathetic rainy day..

mgoodm3

Welcome. We like pics. Post all you got. It's fun to go through someone else's coins.

dimeadzn

Hi kylek, Welcome to the forum!

We only tease the card collectors a little bit.

There is even a card forum here you might enjoy.

Good luck and have fun with your collections, that's the important thing in any hobby.

Dennis88

Boom

Let me give you a little friendly advice....before you start messing with all these coins and inadvertantly damage what could very well be some key coins....SLOW DOWN! Educate yourself by going to the library and picking up some Numismatic reference books. #2) Spread them all out, a little
at a time on a soft surface-do not handle them improperly. Get some cheap cotton gloves and itemixe everything. #3) The very last people you want to sell these coins to are coin shop owners-they buy at Blue Book or Greysheet then turn around and sell them at Red Book, Trends, or whatever they damn well please. The game goes like this...

You walk into a shop and immediately the dealer will size you up. Most will offer you as little as possible in order to realize maximum profit. THAT'S THE GAME. Yes, there are a lot of unethical, unscrupulous dealer out ther just waiting to take advantage of a newbie.
#4) As an earlier member said...under NO circumstances are you to clean or rub on the coin in any way.. If you do you greatly diminish the net value of any coin. Just because it may look unsightly to you does not mean that some of these coins could be uncirculated. There are a lot of good people here who would be glad to share their knowledge with you. When you alter a coins surface not only do you damage it by rubbing on it but you also remove the coin's history.

Take your time-get some referecnce books and set yourself up in a nice place in which to work. DO NOT grab the coins on the obverses and reverses but rather by the rims. You could very well have some real nice coins but if you clean them, rub tarnish off, or mishandle them you have committed the mortal sins of collecting!

I hope this helps....any questions just PM me and I'll walk you through everything. I also suggest picking up a copy of Photograde(grading made easy). Remember-dealers will pay as little as possible-stay away from them or you will regret it!

ms70

Whatever you do DON'T CLEAN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wolf359

Hey Welcome to the forums. Morgans are loaded with die varieities, some quite valuable (but very rare). I'm in Columbia, MD about 90 minutes from you. Love to have a look.

FC57Coins

Welcome to the boards - read the advice you are being given here. Boom makes some very good points. Educate yourself, figure out what you have - whatever you do, DO NOT CLEAN OR POLISH any of the coins. Once you've figured out what you have, take the next step to taking your hoard to coin dealers for appraisals - best of luck!

Frank

Typetone

Don't rub anything, don't clean anything, preferabley don't handle anything, don't even look at anything. Absolutely, if he is willing to do it, have MERZ come over and take a look. The opportunity to get a senior collector to take an independent look would be invaluable. He will be able to tell right away if you have anything of value. At that point you can decide whether to go to a dealer.

I had a non-collecting buddy who had a bag full of circulated silver dollars. I offered to take a look. Instead he decided to just go to a local dealer and get a bid. The dealer offer him junk silver for them. Something like $8 per coin which was at the time market. He almost sold them, but at the last second pulled them off the counter, and asked me to take a look later. Sure enough, there was a very valuable 1889-CC in XF to AU condition in what was otherwise a collection of real junk. He did say that the dealer checked each date and said they were all common. Boy that dealer must have been salavating.

Boom

It's greedy dealers like this guy that totally light my butt on fire! That's stealing

ccr

Ditto about hooking up with merz2 as it`s worth checking into his offer. The Red Book, as I suggested before, is a general price guide with some good facts for the new guy in coin collecting. As stated before, the prices aren`t written in stone. Some will go higher and others lower. Just like the stock market, it`s a snapshot of the market. It doesn`t show that the market is organic and prices flucuates and takes alot of study to know or understand the subtleties, something that`s beyond me to understand at this point.

PS - Don`t worry about the baseball cards as I was collecting them for a short while when I was a kid. Most are gone know but, still have about 2 or 3 shoeboxes full of them. Also I intend to keep them for sentimental reasons.

Stuart

KyleK: Welcome to the foeum. I have been collecting coins for 38 years, since I was a kid of age 10.

Fortunately as a kid I also collected baseball and football cards from my local neighborhood hangout store, where I purchased packs of 5 cards for a nickel. Even more fortunately, I still have all of those 1967-69 baseball & football cards, including 2 Mickey Mantle's (one's the 1962 Triple Crown Card), Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, a Gale Sayers Rookie Card, and many other Baseball & Football Hall of Famers

I've got nearly a full set of 1967 Topps Baseball Cards including the key Mickey Mantle Card

I am very pleased to have held onto many wonderful memories of my youth in this collection, and am also pleased with its increase in value

Placid

<< <i>It's greedy dealers like this guy that totally light my butt on fire! That's stealing >>



No it's not, the seller needs to know what they are selling. If they sell for too little its too bad but thats the way the coin business works.

Collectors and people in coins for profit are two different things.

ksteelheader

I agree with what Merz2 said. However, he spelled the coin shop wrong. Don't go to Crone's coins in York. Enough said....Ken

LAWMAN

Best best thing to do is to read some books on coin collecting and coins -- the Redbook is a good start. Learn how to grade and look up prices.

Next best thing, assuming you don't want to educate yourself (and, caveat emptor, if you don't) is to find a couple of dealers you feel you can trust and have them look at some things and get comparative prices -- see if they will handle some of your coins on consignment.

ksteelheader

I work about one mile down the road from the Mt. Zion exit......Ken

Wolf359

Redbook is a great place to start, but 90% of the great varieites (all listed in photos here) are not in that book.

merz2

I appreciate the remarks about my offer.I don't know if I'm a senior collector,but I think I can keep Kyle from being taken.One thing I did learn from a old dealer friend was to never make an offer on a collection you've helped evaluate.So there is no conflict of interest.I may not know all the series,but I know where to look.I also know most of you that specialize in ones I don't.I have sent Kyle an E-mail and also advised him to allow for PM"s here.Thanks again for the accolades.BTW,I did misspell Crone's.I try to forget bad experiences.

ksteelheader

BTW,I did misspell Crone's.I try to forget bad experiences. ...That makes two of us!!!!....

Elcontador

Kyle,

Welcome to the boards! The Redbook will give you an idea of what is common in a particular grade, and what is not. Re common silver coins, pre 1964 dimes, quarters & halves - dealers who buy a lot of bullion coins (which is what these are) will roughly take the spot price of a troy ounce of silver, multiply it by just under 60%, take this product & multiply it times the face value of these coins. Ie., if you bring in $10 face of silver quarters & the spot price of silver is $6 per troy ounce, you'll get offered rougly 3.6 * the $10 face amount of the coins, or $36.

It's a little more for silver $s, I'm guessing in the $7 or $8 range, with the spot price of silver @ $6.

Each dated proof set is different, and two proof sets of the same date can have different values, depending on the condition of the coins (some are struck better, some have attractive toning, some are hazy, etc). Older coins (ie., pre 1932 quarters, pre 1916 quarters, dimes and halves), even if old and ugly, are worth a premium. So are pre 1913 nickels and Indian Head Cents.

Don is a good guy & will point you in the right direction.

Jeff

WACoinGuy

Since you say you have a large number of coins, what I'd do is start by buying a price guide (Redbook, Graysheet, etc.) and look at the dates that you have. Many of these may turn out to not be too valuable, as has been suggested. But there may be some that look to be more valuable -- potential keys or semi-keys. When you've started to pick out some of these more desirable coins, think about what grade you would assign to them -- do they look uncirculated, worn almost beyond the point of recognition, or somewhere in between? Then, you should take some pictures and post them here (there are many threads in this forum about how to take good digital pictures). Grading is subjective, so you'll probably get a range of opinions, but you should at least be able to get some ballpark idea of what grade your coins may be and what they may be worth.

Then, you have to ask yourself what you want to do with your coins. If you just want to sell them and maximize the profit, you may want to look to have some of your coins graded by a grading service. That will give you more leverage when you go to sell (give you more E-Bay bidders, factor out grading disputes with dealers), and hopefully maximize profits. Again, exactly which coins you have will determine the way to go here. No need to spend $10+ having a coin graded that's only worth $15 or $20...

kylek

man, i've got a headache from looking over so many coins. I didn't screw with the surfaces of them, but i guess i shouldn't really handle them much.. I laid them out on the carpet in year order =P

I went to the bookstore today and bought the red book and a magazine with prices in it. I used the magazine to price stuff. I'm not gunna say too much till i get the pictures on here tomorrow. There's a lot of coins 100 or so morgans and 50 or so peace dollars and all that jazz. Just so much stuff, i never realized the value of these things. Even the proof sets my grandparents send me every year, i never thought they'd be worth that much.

Im not gunna go too much farther in depth but i guess i do have some money sittin here. I have been informed that i need to turn on my PMs so im about to do that. Pictures will be up tomorrow don't worry

kylek

stuart, thanks for the life story.. i can die now.

=P nice cards man. I'm goin on 20 here so... my only childhood memories were of.. a couple years ago.. but i've got a lot of tony gwynn rookie's and jerry rice rookies and those guys in the 80's. I was big into emmitt smith and the cowboys.. just tons of random stuff nothing beat the feeling when grandma took me down to k-mart and bought me a box of cards. I hadn't even recalled those times until now. Thanks for the reminder -

richbeat

Welcome aboard!

kylek

ok i'll just totally destroy this post you guys fixed me up ..

merz2

Kyle
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings,but your links don't work. I was looking forward to the pics.

ksteelheader

Don, if you copy and paste each pic they will load. They are too far away though to judge the coins. Maybe you and I need to pay this fellow a visit to help him out.

Kyle, seeing where you live, did you by any chance graduate from Northeastern H. S.???....Ken

kylek

yeah sorry i had to fix some of the numbers i copied and pasted wrong. If you just goto that coins.html site and start from the bottom and look up you'll be in the same order..

I couldn't get any good close up shots of hardly any coins. It's a friend's camera and i'm only used to my kodak which stopped working. I actually graduated from Red Land high school last year, but the kids in the back of my parent's development go to northeastern

rdunnit

Link to index of coins

merz2

Ken
Between the two of us,we should be able to help.Your picture taking abilities and knowledge and mine along with all my books,we'll straighten him out.
Kyle
After looking at only part of the pics,IMHO you do need help.I stand by my offer!!!!!!!

CoinAddict

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