Coin collection (1 Viewer)

[casinochipper22]

Found these with my dad while emptying out his storage. We want to sell this lot. I don’t know that much about coins.

Probably nothing much over silver value. But worried about accidentally selling a diamond in the rough. Any suggestions. eBay? Local coin shop, but the would pay wholesale?

tia

 

[bernielomax]

Find a reputable coin shop/dealer. You may be surprised

Don't just liquidate on eBay.

 

[casinochipper22]

Find a reputable coin shop/dealer. You may be surprised

Don't just liquidate on eBay.

Just curious, why not eBay? I wouldn't get closer to retail prices on eBay?

 

[bernielomax]

Just curious, why not eBay? I wouldn't get closer to retail prices on eBay?

There are nuances regarding condition, grading, rarity etc. Are you able to properly identify certain coins?

For example, that bag of Buffalo nickels could contain 20 buffalo nickels that all look the same to you, but to a collector or someone in the coin world they will look quite different and be valued differently.

Honestly, I would just have another person look at them all just to make sure there is nothing rare.

 

[krafticus]

@PhilLaFond

 

[Jimulacrum]

I'll take it all for a hundo!

 

[ovo]

there may be some real gems in there, don't do eBay before you know what you got. I have coins, but don't stay up on the collection. You can buy the latest coin guide and grade them yourself , just to get an idea.

 

[DZPoker]

View attachment 1217913


Found these with my dad while emptying out his storage. We want to sell this lot. I don’t know that much about coins.

Probably nothing much over silver value. But worried about accidentally selling a diamond in the rough. Any suggestions. eBay? Local coin shop, but the would pay wholesale?

tia

What would you take for the lot?

 

[casinochipper22]

I'd be happy with close to fair market value. Only problem is I have no idea what that would be. We will probably the lot to a couple shops to find out. Or wait for a local coin show.

What would you take for the lot?

 

[ChipFinderSK]

@greenchip

 

[greenchip]

Pm me what you’ve got in more details @casinochipper22

 

[PhilLaFond]

There are nuances regarding condition, grading, rarity etc. Are you able to properly identify certain coins?

For example, that bag of Buffalo nickels could contain 20 buffalo nickels that all look the same to you, but to a collector or someone in the coin world they will look quite different and be valued differently.

Honestly, I would just have another person look at them all just to make sure there is nothing rare.

This. I'd also be interested in the lot, but couldn't offer a fair price w/o more detail. Get details on what you have from a reputable source and then make a decision on how you want to dispose of it.

 

[TRKingChips]

I just sent you a PM . . .

 

[Pony]

I'd occasionally have service work at a couple of coin shops in my area. At different times people came in to sell a collection of silver/misc coins from a late family member. Bag/container of - say for example - normal circulated, worn, Mercury dimes, plus assortment of other stuff. Shop owner would ask if they'd sorted through to set aside anything potentially collectible - answer was always "no". Shop owner would then explain silver content of the coins, pull up current spot price, and further explain that they would only pay X% below spot. Customers would always ask about potential collectibles - shop owners always said that they didn't have the time (wasn't worth their time) to go though a whole stash of coins to potentially dig out 1-2 that could give them a few extra bucks.

It was said something along the lines of, that a person would have better odds of winning the lottery, than finding something of significant value in a hobby collector's stash. However - if it was a true coin collector's stash, where they are sorted/graded - different story. But most all hobby collectors pick up standard circulated coins.

Saw this as well in regards to firearms - when my dad passed a couple years ago, I was in charge of disposing of his collection. Yes, my brother an I picked out whatever we wanted, but there was still a lot of basic hunting rifles, etc., that we had no use for. Ended up selling the entire lot for what worked out to around $200 per firearm. I totally understand that the dealer was going to have to check each one, do any cleanup/repairs, deal with potential buyers buying on payments (or trading in other guns), and they have to make a buck as well.

Summary; if you sell to a coin shop, you're going to get less than if you sell the coins by the piece, and less than if you sell to a private party. Get a purchase price estimate from a couple shops, and then use that for a starting private party price.

 

[Jimulacrum]

I'd occasionally have service work at a couple of coin shops in my area. At different times people came in to sell a collection of silver/misc coins from a late family member. Bag/container of - say for example - normal circulated, worn, Mercury dimes, plus assortment of other stuff. Shop owner would ask if they'd sorted through to set aside anything potentially collectible - answer was always "no". Shop owner would then explain silver content of the coins, pull up current spot price, and further explain that they would only pay X% below spot. Customers would always ask about potential collectibles - shop owners always said that they didn't have the time (wasn't worth their time) to go though a whole stash of coins to potentially dig out 1-2 that could give them a few extra bucks.

Coin-shop owners are in it to make money. They have no incentive to help you find the gems in your collection; they have actual incentive to buy them all from you as a lot and check for valuable coins once they're in their possession.

If you have any coins of collectible value, it's unlikely any of them will be of news-making value like a copper 1943 penny—probably more like a coin that's worth $10 in melt value will become worth $25 in collectible value. If these exist at all in your collection, it's probably no more than a few out of the whole pile. Value differences scale way down with condition, and everything I see in your photos is well-circulated, so anything rare in there would be worth nowhere near what it'd be worth in like MS-65 ("mint state" 65, part of the uncirculated scale).

All that said, it may be worth the trouble, if you want to put in some time and learn a bit about numismatics. Just don't get your hopes up about stumbling across some random million-dollar score. If you're not up for putting in that work, I second Pony's recommendation to get some quotes and then use those to estimate a starting price for a private sale—especially if you have the time to wait for a good buyer.

 

[Poker Zombie]

I hate to "advertise" for another numismatist forum on PCF out of fear that it is probably against the ToS, but there is a "coin community" dot-com forum on the interwebs that may be able to help you.

However, I suspect their help would be about the same as the dozens of posts on PCF where a chip collector left behind their collection and the recipient came to PCF to get a value put on the collection. You'll get flippers understating the value, a few dreamers over-inflating value, then the whole thing gets sidetracked into a discussion about hot dogs.

 

[greenchip]

Coin-shop owners are in it to make money. They have no incentive to help you find the gems in your collection; they have actual incentive to buy them all from you as a lot and check for valuable coins once they're in their possession.

Totally agree. They don’t give a damn about your dollar. We pay top dollar is a big fat lie.

Some coin collectors are here to rip you off and there are bunch of flippers there only to flip, don’t even enjoy or collect. Coin dealers are worse, they’ll rip you off and never tell you what’s valuable. Like gimme $100 for all that for something worth $1k to the right person.

I did collect coins in my teenage years to collect nice coins across the world, while making money on stuff I don’t mind/need. Not a lot now, more into chips. I like how most chippers are honest. Coin dealers are usually dishonest in my experience.

 

[BiGGyT]

Rule of thumb for melt value silver coins (90% not nickles or 40% half dollars) $1 = .71ozt so if silver is $23.07/ozt that is worth (23.07x.71)=$16.38 in melt. Usually you get a premium for some things, like us coins, so more like $17 or $18 per $1 in coins. Bigger coins have a larger premium so morgans might be $20 melt rather than dimes at $17. You can sort them by type and mint mark. The ones you have one or two of, look them up on eBay sold items for general price idea, or lump and sell by "unsearched" lots.

 

[Jimulacrum]

Can't believe I forgot this: https://www.pcgs.com/prices/us

It would be a stretch to call this a definitive price list; like chips, coins sell for whatever people are willing to pay at the moment, and this will vary wildly by the buyer, seller, coin condition, etc.

But it is a handy reference to get a sense of pricing for common coins and which individual dates/types/variants carry some extra value.