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Help! Too many old coins, dont know what to do.
SilverAvalanche
Posts: 93
Hi, I am new here and this is my 1st post. My father left me his coin collection when he passed away in 1987 and untill now I just couldnt deal with it so it stayed in a box. Well to make a long story short I bought a few books and opened the box and there is just so many old coins I really dont knoe where to start. Some are in books most are loose and in baggies. It is mostly silver coins and the whole box weighs over 35 pounds. I am overwhelmed and really do not know what I should do 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I dont want to take them to a dealer, we live in a smallish town in the southwest and I dont trust anyone with them. Any GOOD advise out there????
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Just a quick first question.
When you say old, exactly what years are you talking?
Group up the coins by type.
Research one type at a time.
Have fun.
Have you decided to keep them? Or are you trying to price them?
Hoard the keys.
Don't clean them!!!
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They'll be plenty of good advice for you here.
Welcome and good luck.
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Buy a copy this year's edition of "A Guide Book of United States Coins", commonly called the Red Book.
Start reading and learning.
There are other books you should buy too...but the Red Book is a good start.
Chuck
The more rare coins would be good to list here first and then Ebay second. Ebay will really give you an idea of what people are willing to pay at the moment.
Hope this help's it's the best advice I think your going to get.
The fast quick money and sounds like you could come home with a good chunk of money is to just unload it for silver at your local shop. If you have a good dealer he may look for the good dates for you if any exist. Sounds like you having a hard time, but hey do you want your money these are your options if you ask me.
The plastic from the baggies shouldn't hurt the coins, but putting each one in a 2X2 will be tedious, and could potentially damage the coins more than they might already be, banging around in a bag as they are. The coin tubes should minimize the damage until you can get through the bulk of them in smaller bites.
Odds are, if they're as you described, your coins are likely already pretty worn (aka, circulated). Unless your father had already protected certain coins by housing them within these cardboard flips, you likely aren't going to do any damage that would hurt the coins, as long as you are careful in handling them.
As others have noted, the Red Book is a good place to start, and of course, learning to grade will be your task. Since the coins are probably already circulated, you can start be learning the mid-range grades, such as XF to AU. A good book to help you here is "The Official ANA Grading Standards for U.S. Coins" (6th Ed.). Nothing's perfect, but it can help you to narrow your assessment of the potential grade of your coins, some of which you may want to set aside in flips to better preserve their condition.
There is much good advice in this forum, and I've found members most helpful and encouraging. Congratulations! You're off to a good start.
Oh yeah...
A Truth That's Told With Bad Intent
Beats All The Lies You Can Invent
<< <i>1St
Turn it on not off so people can give you some advice on the value and maybe rarity on some of the coins. dont let anyone try to take advantage of you price wise. Do your own research on each type of coin.
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...i agree with steve above. and you should put up pics or scans of your coins to help us give you some more
advice. and
Great pictures! Now what you should do is put some of the coins like the morgans in groups of ten and take closeup pictures. People on the forums can quickly let you know if they are rare dates but with the redbook you can also look that information up,
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
Bottom line, it sounds like you don't want to put in a lot of time and effort on this, so you are probably going to make less money on it than if you worked hard to figure out what you have. That is just a fact of life. Collections like the one it appears you have often don't have a lot of rare and valuable individual coins.
Or, you may have already had a bunch of PM responses here to help you or buy your coins. Whatever you do, as HRH would say, "have fun with your coins!"
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
<< <i>Pretty Toes..... >>
I knew somebody was going to make that comment. Just didn't think it would be so fast, especially not the very first thread after the pictures post.
A creepy bunch most coin guys are.
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
You will not be led astray here if you continue to provide photos and read all of the replies given.
What I also know is that the photos you've provided so far tell me this thread could easily surpass 100-200 replies if you so desire and are willing to put the time in to continue posting detailed photos as requested. The collection your father left you will likely not turn out to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but could easily be worth thousands or tens of thousands depending on the specifics of the coins included.
Enjoy the hobby if you desire...I picked the hobby up 20 months ago after my father passed away, and have become quite passionate about it in the meantime.
And oh yeah...
By golly send them to me.
Good luck with the collection though.
Tom
Take your time. Build your own comfort level by studying and asking questions.
Look at everything you have at your own leisurely pace.
The decision of how to sell some or all of the coins can come later.
The coins are not pure silver thou, some are 90% (pre64) and some 40% so I would suggest sorting them by silver content and weigh them again to get an approximate value.
regardless of how intensely you chose to get involved-
older Quarters, Halves, Dimes with a lot of detail still showing could be worth multiples of basic silver price
(ignoring the slim possibility of finding something really exotic);
try not to handle candidates for further examination(no bare hands, scratchy cloths, paper towels, etc)
whatever comes up, SOMEONE here will know, or have the relevant experience.
1879-O{Rev}: 1st coin of my "secret set"
Step 2: Check your lists against the redbook for any that jump out as high value (odds are that you won't find any - maybe a better date, but still unlikely from the looks of the pics
Step 3: Your coins look to be well-circulated...only worth trying to grade if a better date (again, the Redbook you have may help a bit).
Step 4: Put anything that is uncirculated off to the side, to be looked at later, if you want to see about higher grade/value. Depending on grade/look (ie...toning), silver melt value may still exceed coin value here (2011 Redbook won't help here, but folks on the forum can).
Step 5: If nothing jumps out, and you have no desire for the collection, then sell it for silver content. What you can't sell, spend (ie...the Ike dollars (unless 1972 type 2) and maybe some of the Jefferson nickels if they aren't silver)
From the pics, you have some commemoratives (the pile that has the 1893 Columbian 1/2 dollar on it), some lincolns (wheaties?), and other odds and ends......sorting by step 1 above will be most helpful I think
On one hand, after doing the above, you can try to get the most $ by learning everything and looking for certain things (varities, etc). On the other, if you have no inclination to try to learn all that, you can still make good $ by selling it as unsearched (save for key dates like a 1916-D merc dime) for the silver content, etc. There are plenty of folks who do like to look through hundreds of kennedys and thousands of mercs....
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
There are 34 Morgans. Starting with
1878 3rd rev?
1879 2nd rev?
1880 3rd?
1881 O 3rd rev?
all comments welcomed. Condition, price, etc.
Thank You
5. 1881 2nd rev?
6.1882 S 3rd rev?
7.1883 3rd rev?
8.1885 O 3rd rev?
The modern Ike dollars are worth $1.00 each. There are some experts that may be able to tell you what to look for as a variety but other then that they are worth a buck.
The token that has the silver center and the brass outer ring looks to be a silver gambling token. They are not all silver but have enough to make it worth more than face.
Have fun!
Also, I think that reverse one/two are no longer an issue after 1881.
Visit VAM world for information about varieties.
get the feel for it before you do ANYTHING with what you have, it may grow on you it may not, put the best ones in them and use the rest to finance what you need.
if it grows your in the club...if not ..you got a great start to becoming a STACKER. LOL.
Barrytrot(2),Stupid,Savoyspecial,docq,ecoinquest, halfhunter,snman,Coll3ctor.
wondercoin. Blue594. internetjunky.
keepdachange. Scrapman1077.Ahrensdad, mrmom, mygrandeoso, blu62vette, Clackamas,giorgio11, adriana, cucamongacoin,
1. learn good handling techniques--- otherwise you can do a lot of damage quickly.
2. don't sell them or trade them until you have a good understanding of what you are doing. What you think you know today will be dwarfed in one year of paying attention and study.
3. enjoy them, if you are overwhelmed...take it slow...you don't need to go through the box in it's entirety. Don't think you need to solve 35 lbs of coin questions in one thread. Learn to use the archives on the US COIN FORUM and study.
Sit tight and watch the value of silver go up and down for a month or so. Enjoy your coins and don't even let someone talk you into thinking it's JUNK. Someone collected them for a reason. I wonder what he was thinking.
Junk= cull=damaged=cleaned/scratched/bent/worn-out coins. (the rest are collectible and gradeable, in my opinion). And what isn't "scrapped" needs to be seen by someone who knows coins. Now this is where I will not suggest CAC or PCGS... not just yet, anyway.
EOM=end of message
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
You may also start a new thread requesting grade ideas for those two but you will need to have better photos to bring out the detail neccesary for that. Here is a guess the grade thead those photos are ideal but unless you have a high dollar camera setup don't expect your photos to look like that. But as you can see, even with great photos the grade guesses are all over the place. Once you get an idea of the grade to assign then you have a better idea of the value to assign. You can look at values with the red book or the PCGS price guide but another option that is more realistic is looking at Ebay sales or Heritage archives.
Seriously, separate the clad from the silver. Everything pre 1965 is 90% silver.
All 1964 halves are 90% silver, 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver, after 1970 spend em, well unless you have a 1974 DDO.
Then separate denominations, cents, nickels, dimes, halves, dollars.
Then look at dates n mintmarks. You have a RB that's a start, get to reading.
There could be keys just waiting to be discovered,1921 P,D,S + 1938D halves, 1916D + 1921D dimes, 32D + S quarters.
More keys, 1909 SVDB cents, 1914D + 1931S cents. Condition is everything, but with keys a worn 32D could yield hundreds.
Arm yourself with knowledge before walking into a B&M, and plopping them on the counter and saying, "Whats it worth".
Very dangerous IMHO.