How much is my coin collection worth?

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irvinesinglemom_IHB

irvinesinglemom_IHB

New member
So the kiddo and I went to visit his grandparents over Christmas, and they asked me to take their coin collection back home with me and figure out how much they might be able to get for it. Right now I'm removing the tarnish with metal cleaner, and some of these coins are pretty old (late 19th and early 20th century).





I know nothing about coins. What should I do to minimize the potential that I'll get ripped off by some jerk?








Thanks!


irvinesinglemom
 
<p>Try one of the price guides that are out there, or check Ebay for sales prices. Are they old coins or are they actually graded?





http://www.coinresource.com/directory/prices.htm</p>
 
I'd read up on the proper method to clean them first ISM ! You could scratch the coins with anything too abrasive... (and everybody reading out there, if you have old copper that has patina-ed....DO NOT shine it, it will lose half of it's value if you do clean it).
 
Hopefully you saw that in time. Now for a more thorough answer.





Value of coins isn't dependent upon age, it is based on a combination of condition and rarity. Small differences in condition of coins can make a major difference in the value of a coin. For example, an 1892-s Morgan Silver Dollar in AU (almost uncirculated) condition is worth about $5,000. The next higher grade - MS60 (Mint State 60, 70 is the highest possible rating) would be worth about $34,000.





Of course, if you took your can of silver polish to the coin, that $5,000 coin might be worth $2,000.





A less desirable coin would suffer an even greater loss in value, and common coins could become unsellable.





The first thing you want to do is get a rough idea of the value of the coins. A good resource is PCGS's website. If you go to www.pcgs.com/prices , you can see the retail prices of any American coin. Don't worry about how they grade out yet. Just find out if you have rare coins, or common coins. (If you have anything interesting, you can either post a picture here, or whisper to me for my email address and I will be glad to help you out)





Should you have anything valuable, you should submit it to be graded. Though there are a lot of companies that will grade coins for you, you should only trust PCGS, NGC, or ANACS. You can only submit to PCGS or NGC through a coin dealer (I have used Huntington Beach Coin Exchange to submit raw Carson City Morgan silver dollars, and can recommend them as being honest. Their website ishttp://www.huntingtonbeachcoinexchange.com/) As a rule of thumb, I would pay about half the price for a raw coin as I would for a slabbed coin in similar condition. Note: PCGS and NGC will NOT grade cleaned coins. They will still charge you for the evaluation, but it won't come back in a slab. ANACS will grade cleaned coins, but it will note that the coins are cleaned on the slab, and you will only get a fraction of the price you would for the same coin if it wasn't cleaned.





Once you have determined rough values of your coins, you can decide how to proceed. Ebay has a vibrant marketplace, and there is also a local company called Teletrade (http://www.teletrade.com) that will sell coins on consignment. Of course, you can always go through coin dealers, or place ads on places like Craigslist.





Also, depending on what you have, I may be interested in buying a few coins.
 
It's bad in an applied sense because it makes the value plummet. . .





It's bad in a deeper sense because it robs the coins of some of their history, and that's a big component of collecting.





It's bad functionally because cleaning the coins never makes them look good because they accrue wear over time, and to then shine em up makes them look, just odd.





Al-mon, I hope I have answered your question in 3 valuable ways.
 
Okay, a word in defense of my utter stupidity. These coins were so dirty that I couldn't even tell what they were. Most of the words and numbers were pretty much illegible even under magnification. I mean, these coins were just gross. So I didn't even think I could begin until I could answer basic questions like, what year is it?





Lesson learned, painfully. Well, I can always hang on to these for another century, right? That way, my great great great grandkids will have a nice patina built up again?!





ism
 
Assuming that it is a circulated coin, somewhere between 3 and 22 dollars. ( http://www.pcgs.com/prices/frame.chtml?type=date&filename=flying_eagle_indian_cent )





The best date for an indian head penny is 1877. After that, the 1909-s and 1908-s are the most desirable.
 
In addition to the 3 reasons that Irvine Soul Brother mentioned, cleaning also damages the coins. You can take a jewelers loupe to magnify a coin and easily see that a coin has been cleaned by damage to the surface.





If you don't know how to clean coins, the best way is to simply not clean them.





If there is caked on dirt/crud AND YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH COINS, then there are a few things you can do. The best, most gentle way to remove crud from a coin is to soak it in olive oil for a few days to several weeks. Then remove the coin from the olive oil and rinse under water. You can repeat the process as necessary to remove remaining crud.





But if you want to try that method, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you try it with common coins first to gain experience, and that you judge your success/failure by learning how to examine coins properly and checking those common coins under a loupe.





Better yet, if you suspect that you have something valuable, take it to someone who knows coins and how to handle them properly.
 
<p>My husband's grandfather's coin collection was split 6 ways, and his share was still large enough to purchase my engagement ring. So, you could really have something valuable there!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>
 
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