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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,703 |
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New Member
United States
0 Posts |
Hi all  I inherited some coins from my Great Aunt. They actually belonged to her brothers who didn't have a formal collection, just liked making piles of coins here and there it seems. I have been going through them and trying sort them out. Most are old US coins, although there are a handful of older foreign coins. Here is my question... How do you find a coin shop/dealer that you can trust? I mean I have no clue as to the value (or lack thereof)of these coins. I am afraid to take them in and be "taken" myself. Any advice? |
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Moderator
 Canada
10456 Posts |
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4211 Posts |
 and the link above to that specific thread is a great place to start. There are a lot of great people on this forum to answer specific questions but read, learn and educate yourself before you journey into a coin shop for sure. Most owners are great, but there are exceptions..... |
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Rest in Peace
United States
7075 Posts |
Do not attempt to clean the coins. Experience with coin dealers helps a lot. You can probably find reviews of local dealers and Better Business Bureau lists that might help. Do not feel as though you're being taken advantage of if you're offered half of the sale price on the coins. Dealers have to earn their living and they have devoted decades to learning about coins. It would really help to know more about what you have. How many coins? Hundreds? Thousands? Are any silver? When you say 'old' do you mean 50 years old or a hundred years old or even older? From what you wrote about finding the coins in piles here and there, it sounds like they simply kept any old coin they came across. Nothing wrong with that (been doing it most of my life) but there is very little chance that there are really valuable coins in the collection. There might be but the odds are against it. The old silver coins, like Mercury dimes, might only be worth a little more than melt value. Folks here can halp you figure that out. You can also look here: http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/fmv.shtmlFor now just assume that you have circulated low grade coins. Look up the dates that you have for each coin. The prices on that site are higher than most of us would pay but if you find a key date (valuable) -- try to get a photo posted and somebody here will let you know the grade. I hope that helps. There is no easy way for you to get the best sale price for the coins without investing a bit of effort. |
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Valued Member
Australia
56 Posts |
I usually do my own research on coins after I feel comfortable with information I have on the coin , I show them to coin dealers and usually if we dont see eye to eye its for 3 reason
1) he/she is lying to me
2) I had the wrong information on the coin
3) we are both wrong in some aspects
the hard bit is trying to figure out which is the case.
Good luck :)
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Moderator
United States
187557 Posts |
to the Community! |
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
11922 Posts |
to the CCF! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5196 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
73 Posts |
I recently wrote a blog on this issue of trust and posted it on our coin shop website. The suggestions in the article can apply in your search for a dealer in your area. Here's our Aug 16th blog entry:
"We want to build the trust of our customers. We're open to the public each weekend and you're always invited to come in and just talk coins and get a feel if our shop is where you want to buy or sell your coins. A quick online search using keyword 'nwplaza' will give you additional references to find out more about our coin shop. If you're selling coins, we always encourage you to be an educated seller and check out the Fair Market Coin Value guide on our website. Want to chat with us about your coins? Check out our Live Chat app also available on our website. We are active on social media, so you can find out more about us on Facebook or Twitter and read real customer comments on Google+.
You see we're very excited you found our little coin shop and want you to have a positive coin collecting experience with us. Come in this weekend as we promote the hobby of coin collecting in Vancouver, Washington and earn your trust one coin at a time.
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New Member
 United States
0 Posts |
Thank you all for the advice and warm welcome. Some of the coins are from the late 1800's, Alot are from 1900-1950 and A lot are from 1950-1970's. There are definitely hundreds.. maybe thousands of coins and from the dates of the coins most are silver. There was one non US coin that I thought was super neat just because of the history. It is a 1 Reichspfennig coin from Nazi Germany 1939. I have been doing some research online and it looks like the types that I have are Standing Liberty quarters (some with dates and some without), Susan B Anthony dollars, Morgan silver dollars, Walking Liberty 1/2 dollars, Eisenhower dollars, Kennedy half dollars, Franklin half dollars, Indian cents, Barber dimes, Mercury dimes, Peace dollars, Sacagawea dollars, Liberty nickels, Buffalo nickels, Wheat pennies and Silver quarters. I have them all sorted and do not plan on cleaning any of them :) |
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Rest in Peace
United States
7075 Posts |
Actually - for us collectors -- what you have sounds like a lot of fun. Handle the silver coins by the rims or get some cheap cotton gloves. Have fun treasure hunting! But beware -- it's sddictive.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12808 Posts |
and I hope you enjoy going through all those coins. |
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Valued Member
United States
98 Posts |
Be patient and don't be in a hurry to sell with a big offer from a coin dealer. Let us help you. Of course the dealers need to make money but you will not get as much as you would by selling to collectors. Always determine what it is that you have because a coin can be worth 1 cent to thousands of dollars even if it is the same denomination and date. It is possible to have one coin that is worth more than the entire collection. A couple of things to consider: Make an inventory of what you have. Sort the coins out by their type being pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters etc. Then after the types are sorted, list the coins in order by date. After you have the list, send it to the forum so we can help you determine what coins may be valuable. Coins of interest, we will ask for a good photo of the front and back sides.
Edited by DmanofLV
10/21/2015 5:23 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
Buy a Red Book from just about any book store. Should be very helpful. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6370 Posts |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,703 |
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Posted 09/30/2015 7:45 pm
