Coin collection

How do you go about getting the value of a coin collection when you know nothing about coins? Do you just trust a place and drop off lots of coins and hope they are honest about valuing your coins? Some of the coins where valued back in the early 80's but none have been valued since.

Go to ebay, look up same coins it will give you pretty realistic market price

There are lots of coins.

Here is one I pulled out of the bags. He has a price on it from I think 1982.

My neighbor is a collector. I'll ask him tonight when we go out to dinner.

I know a lot has changed since then, since grading became a thing. Go to your local coin shop they should be able to help. You looking to sell?

Can't even figure out how to open this one.

Thanks

My dad passed away last week and we are trying to go through his stuff. Not interested in selling, depending on value. If not much value, I would rather just keep them. I don't have any real interest in coins, other than their connection with my dad. Thanks. Still hard to look at them very long. So haven't gone through them.

Dont open sealed displays. silver coins are WELL above face value based on silver price then premium for condition. Google silver coin value.

Papalote

I am no expert , but I've heard is costs between 15-30 bucks to have a coin graded. I would not do this unless I was ready to sell.
Lots of online help to get values, If you look at ebay , search for examples that have actually sold.

Uncle Zeek on TFF is pretty knowledgeable , you may want to contact him


good luck

Mo

Thanks. I feel stupid dealing with all this. I have zero knowledge on this topic, and the more I research the more questions I have. So many little things can effect everything.

Don't open them because why? Is there a specific reason?

Coin shops are usually not very busy..... so I would go by a local shop. I'm sure they wouldn't mind having the first look at a collection. Just tell them your situation. I would be willing to bet you wouldn't be the first one to reach out to them with dads collection. I'm sure he had a coin shop that he did regular business with, approach them first. Good luck

I did collect for a short time, but I'm far from a collector.

Thanks may do that. Just really don't want to yet. Hopefully soon I feel better about going through them.

Thanks

Condolences on your loss.
It can be tough sorting through their things.

Take care of yourself.

Thanks

All prices are available online. This is a silver Morgan dollar. Worth between $26 & 64. If it is 'S' stamped then it's worth ~$2,500.

https://www.coinstudy.com/1904-morgan-silver-dollar-value.html

Both of the coins you posted look to have been aggressively cleaned. That hurts the values. If you don't know what you are doing, its near impossible to look at ebay and guage the prices of what you have. You can look up year and mintmark sure, but value is all about condition, and just because it shines doesn't mean its in mint condition, if it has been cleaned it hurts the value quite a bit. Ask around to your family and friends and see if anyone knows about coins. Having coins graded is expensive and I would not recommend it unless it is a high value coin or looks to be a very high grade coin. IF you were close by, Id offer to help.

Thanks as far as I know they where not cleaned. My dad knew better than to do that. If they where cleaned it was done before my dad got them.

I can see the cleaning on the first one pretty easy. Pretty sure that my dad didn't do it though.

It is stamped D, sorry O, not D

Probably an O, for New Orleans. So about ~$35.

Thanks, really makes me wonder where he got these prices from. And yes it is a O.

Silver prices in the 80s were pretty high. Depending on when he bought them.

Yeah, I have no idea where he got his coins. He was very private about things like that. Never talked to us about anything that involved money.

My Dad passed around 3 years ago and ai still haven't gone through his coin collection. Bunch of foreign paper money too. I want to take some of the coins and put them in a pattern on a table top or maybe kitchen island and use that clear resin stuff over them.

That is a really cool idea. Thanks.

I got to thinking about the coins looking cleaned, but I don't remember them looking cleaned in person. I think it just might look that way with the app I used to take the pics. I remember the Hispania one looking very dark in person. Going to have to get another pic of it with the regular camera on the phone. I used a magnifying app that I use at work to take pics of cracks and stuff on the aircraft. It doesn't look clean in person for sure.

Proof and uncirculated coins are sealed as such.

Papalote

I don't see a way to open the one that is sealed. I tried to pull it apart to get better pics, but had no luck. I stopped trying now that someone told me not to open it.

Thanks for this thread. I've learned my 139 year old silver dollar is worth about $25 bucks. Crazy to think the price difference in pretty much any 100 year old baseball card compared to some 100+ year old pure silver coins

If your Dad thought they were special why not just keep them?

Well we have to split them between me and my brother. We have to find a way to split them as evenly as possible. I would also rather hold onto the things my dad and I had in common and the things we shared. These coins where just kept in a drawer and none of us ever really saw them. He also kept a million hats, and lots of mardi gras dubloons. I just can't keep everything he collected.

Crazy huh?

I would list them, and instead of grading, just consider them all fine grade. At the library they will have books on their values. Add the value to the list, and divide accordingly.

As to the table top, I wouldn't. You can get coins of little or almost no value and make something that.

Might want to check with w/ Uncle Zeek on TFF

my dad collected coins starting back in the 1920s when he was only 9 years old and had quite the collection upon his passing, his was mostly pennies thru half dollars with a few silver dollars, US bills and some foreign. He had a pretty complete set of books of pennies for each of the 5 grand-kids minus the really unique and valuable years/mints plus the state quarter presentation for each also. We took the remainder to 2 different collectors to get an approximate appraisal and one offered to buy the entire collection (minus the grand-kid's set of penny books they wanted to keep). He had very few in un-circulated condition as he would make a weekly run by the bank buy several hundred dollars worth of rolled coins that he would go thru over the next several weeks before returning them to the bank and swap them out for more. I tried to get into working coins with him but just never really got into it that much as I had better things to do plus he did a lot of his piddling in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep.

you should be able to find an appraiser to get a close valuation of the entire collection where you and your brother can decide who gets to have what based on value to make things even.

Watered down market I suppose. Sorry for your loss

Thanks

Two good websites for getting a general value or silver content for bullion value is below or at least to use for separating out the ones with a high numismatic value. I don't know if "book value" has caught up with true internet value yet. I constantly see coins sell on ebay far above price guide book value. Especially lesser quality ones that are obviously not fakes that sellers do really well with online. Selling to individuals and collectors will usually get your best return. But know ebay is full of fake coins and wary coin buyers. An individual selling coins there without a long clean history of selling them will not be able to sell higher value, higher grade, etc. coins and get full value for them because of buyers fearing risk of them being fake. I have even received a well done fake morgan from an established ebay coin dealer, but I honestly believe it just slipped by them and not on purpose. They immediately made right on it. But that is why coin collectors or bullion stackers are so careful about who they buy from. I often buy numismatic silver coins rather than bullion silver, but usually I do not pay more than silver spot value no matter what the numismatic value of the coin which is usually more money than the seller can get from a coin shop. Local coin shops will be honest on values, but know they are in it as a business to buy then sell, so will only pay a percentage under numismatic value or for lesser valued silver coins a percentage under the current spot price. They will probably provide the smallest return, but will be the most convenient if your time is money. If you have a lot of silver coins and don't have the time to piecemeal a large collection another option might be to send them to a company like apmex.com or jmbullion.com. Again they are going to pay you a percentage below current retail value. And yet another option is do like my grandfather did. He gave silver dollars to his grandchildren every year for their birthday.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1492.html
https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/morgan-dollars-1878-1921-pscid-49

Thank you so much. Going to look at these sites.

Id recommend him as well if he is near you.

I know when my Pops was collecting, he would occasionally buy red book (don't know the name), but it would show valuation I believe. Well I just Googled and it's called Red Book.

I am south of Palestine, where is he located? Thanks

Thanks, going to look for it.

Lewisville, his phone number is in his sig


https://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/users/13826/uncle-zeek

Thank you so much for going through the trouble. I really appreciate it.

You’re welcome

Been following this with interest. I still have my coin collection that I started and lost interest in when I was a teenager in the late 50's and early 60's.. LOTS of dimes, quarters, nickels and pennies. It appears to me that silver coins are going for over 11 times face value for the base metal.

No real interest in researching for rarity but not sure who to trust on grading them without slipping some of them out.