1901 S Barber Quarter That I Found. Serious Questions

ok...here is the simple math...

sounds like you could probably with a little fishing get an easy, as it sits, $8000 offer on this coin. The show of hands seems to consent that this will get a details grade...so lets keep that assumption.

Run it through ebay per one recommendation and if you set it at $12,500 you end up netting around $11,000 if someone antes up for that price. With ebay fees you would have to gross something over $9500 to make better money than the $8000 you could get with little effort. There are risks associated with deals on ebay, but lets assume things go smooth.

Run it through an auction house and now you are up to the whims and mercy of the bidding crowd. If it doesn't make reserve (lets say we set reserve at $8000) you have to pony up $400 and you still own the coin. So now you run back to the guy who made you the $8000 offer after the auction...if this guy has any sense he will monitor the auction and if you then approach him afterwards I can promise you he will offer you way less than $8000 this time around.

Run it through the auction house and say it does break reserve, whoopee! you now have more money than you could have had before, but how much more, we don't know, maybe $100 bucks more, maybe $3000 more. Lets pretend you get $3000 more, evaluate the time and effort it will take you to wring out that extra $3000...is it ten hours? 20? 40? Are there other costs involved? Remember...your time has value so never think that the time you invest in working with an Auction is zero. If you value your time at say $40 per hour (a fair value I think) and it takes you an extra 20 hours of your time to work with the auction house, that imparts a loss of $800 against your final price of the coin. Is there a lag in time? does the auction happen next week or three months from now? What could you do with the up front $8000 in the time lag where you could potentially make even more profit in that time. Lastly, you run that coin through an auction house and you WILL be paying taxes on that profit. That hit COULD run as high as 40% depending on how they report the earnings on your part. And seeing as your cost basis for that coin is zero...if it sold for say $10,000 (to make the math easy) after taxes you would net only $6000 after taxes. Just some food for thought.

ADDED NOTE... After doing a little tax research. More than likely if you do pay taxes at the end of the year (you are not in the lowest tax bracket) you will garner at least a 15% tax bill on any auction profits and possibly as high as 28%. The 40% I listed earlier involve "windfall and bonuses" type taxes which is not out of the realm of how the IRS might consider it seeing as how you found it, but more likely you would have to pay 15-23% range should you run it "above board" through an auction house.

First off - congrats to the OP, DrTones and to CCF! That is quite the find in the ground!




Many of the finest rarities have been sent via registered mail insured, 1894-S dimes, 1913 Nickels, 1907 HR St. Gaudens, etc. It's the safest way other than Brinks delivery or taking it yourself, in my opinion.

Can't wait to see how this story unfolds

First off, DrTones to this forum... I've learned a lot from this forum these guys here are very knowledgeable and will give lots of great advice.... And I wanted to say I really enjoy watching your youtube channel... I really liked the one where you were digging on that torn up main street in that small town...

OMG! I never put the two together DR TONES!! I watch your YouTube videos all the time...I am a Dirt Fisherman myself! Great videos! If you ever come out to Kentucky...would love to go fish'n with you guys!

Thanks unholy! Yup, I was thinking today how strange it was that I haven't joined any coin forums until this point. I guess I kinda figured that coin collectors wouldn't really care about 'dug" coins. I'll be sure and post some finds and vids here in the future. Btw this is the only place I have mentioned what I've found. The metal detecting community doesn't know yet... They will. I was trying to keep this kinda secret while getting advice from the pros. But I don't think I thought it through ;) I noticed other threads popping up about it within the coin community already. Had to get a safe deposit box at the bank. I'm kinda paranoid about it I guess.

I didn't capture the find on video, but... I have been shooting footage of the coin, the process of what to do with it. So I'll be making a video of basically, what happens when you find something of value, how to go about getting it certified, auction or not? The whole process of the coin from the time I have it until the time I dont and everything in between. It should be a great and informative video

DrTones:
I have never done any detecting, but I have wanted to for years... since I was
a kid, almost as long as I have been collecting coins! About 40 years.

I am at a point now where I might be able to do some of this as a hobby.

Instead of asking you a bunch of questions in this thread, where it doesn't belong,
I'll ask this instead: Now that you are here, will you start posting and answering
questions in the 'detecting' section of this site? I'm sure you'd be a welcome addition.

Wow, Dr Tones is now on CCF?! Awesome! and enjoy our forum. Some of my finds are in the detecting forum.




I agree, which is why I got into the hobby. No better words can be said about us detectorists, and I thank you.