Where Is The Best Place To Grade And Sell Coins?

If you have the money send them off to ANACS. Got to their site and get their phone number and call them. See if they can give you a price break for a large submission like that.

I just stole this from another thread but felt it was appropriate here.





Grading is somewhat subjective. Learn to do it for yourself. This way you will always be confident in your decisions. Paying for a TPG to grade your coins is....at the least, less than cost effective. IMHO


240 coins time $25 each for grading equals $6000. Melt value 240 time $26.46 equals $6340. Unless there are better dates or alot of coins that are going to go MS66+ does not make sense to me.

with that many coins you may want to have some professional come in and inventory the items for you and give you an idea of grade and worth and have them give you an opinion on which ones to send in for grading. I am sure out of that many Morgans you will have some that would not be profitable to send in for grading as you would never be able to recoup the money spent on grading fees and shipment

If you're not interested in learning to grade I think Bryan1315 gave a good suggestion. The key with a third party is that they're neutral. You don't want the person grading your coins to lowball the grades so that he can buy them for cheap.

I'd document everything by year, mint mark as you say you're doing. The next logical step would be to estimate a grade for the group. After that you can come up with a rough idea of their value. Anything that seems questionable might be worth photographing and posting here to get more opinions.

You didn't mention why you want them graded. Is that so you can sell them or just want to know for yourself? To put a grade on a coin is one thing, but to attempt to price one is kind of a vague situation and it can not only vary based on who says what, but can change fast. This time of year many of the price guides are getting later results too. For example the new Red Book is coming out in April although most people laugh at their prices, they are attempting to get them in line with realism. If your collection grows, you'll be spending a lot of time trying to reevaluate those prices as they change.
I'm for you just leaning as much about grading as you can and list them in your spreadsheet anyway you like. That is if your only reasons for those grades are just for personal reasons. For possible selling coins, accurate grades may make a difference.

On the quick I would take this approach,

Sort all your coins by date w/ mint mark and record. Sounds like you were going to do that anyway. If you don't have experience grading, buy a photograde type book so you can compare the condition of your coins to pictures and narratives within the book in an effort to determine general grade (or see below links and no book necessary). Trust me, if you do this for 200+ coins you will have educated yourself immensely and will probably not need to sweat over the photos on the last third. You will have acquired a general idea of what the circulated stuff should look like for various grades.

Morgan dollars:
(052) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed .com/How_To_Grade_Morgan_Dollars.html

Peace dollars:
(052) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed .com/how_to_grade_peace_dollars.html

Once reviewed, get a Morgan price listing and take a general look at your list and the grades as relate to the price list. If the coins end up being common date and grade as circulated (AU or less) they'll probably not be worth much more than a third above their melt value which is +/- $26 to $27 at this time. If their not worth considerably more than melt ... by all means do not send in to grade. You don't want to spend half (+/- $20) of the coins value getting it graded.

That said, for those coins leftover ... either rare mint marks or of uncirculated condition, I would review their perceived grade by doing your best with the photos, determine the coins value at that grade and determine if you think there is a big enough difference between their melt and graded value to warrant sending to a TPG (Third Party Grader, i.e. PCGS, NGC, ANACS, etc...). I'm not a big proponent of having a TPG grade coins unless I have a coin of significant value and wish to confirm such. That however is my approach and others certainly will view it differently depending on their own circumstances and prefrences.

The trick for you will most probably be differentiating a nice AU coin from a BU coin. Sometimes this can be a bit difficult if the uncirculated coin is very nice, has luster typically associated with uncirculated coins, but has only slight wear. That and being able to determine slight differences within the uncirculated (Mint State - MS) grades. For those coins, I'd take a photo and post here on CC and get some help from various folks who have more experience.

So simple, right? It's really not too bad, but does require one to do a little work on the education end. That will end up serving you well if you choose to continue the hobby and eventually add or subtract from your collection. As they say "education is the key to success".

Got to be 250 quality post though. no yea, cool, Well you get the idea. I also think you have to have 90 days as a member to sell

I think it all depends on the morgans you have. IF they are common dates at mid grades, just post pictures here and we can help give an accurate grade. If they are higher quality/ rare dates/ rare mint marks, etc, then sending them off to ANACS or another TPG might be wise. If you have a morgan that is valued at $50, it would be a waste to get it graded. So it all depends on what you have. Just knowing that you have 250, we can't really give you good advice on what to do. Dates, mints, and condition is what matters.