Newbie Who Needs Help Getting Started.

I also inherited a 10,000+ collection of coins from my Father & Grandfather just over a year ago.
It is overwhelming at first and it will take some time, but you came to the right place here for Pro
advice and guidance. Learn to take really good photos. Clear in focus close ups. You'll see really good
examples of that here and some not so good examples. Work on the photos first. It greatly helps.
I can give one word of advice right now. Referring to a coin as " no mint mark" is inaccurate.
no mint mark = coins minted at the Philadelphia Mint. You'll get used to all the terminology!
Good Luck!

MulletMatt ... also, be wary of ebay "valuable coin" offerings, as a number of them are not valuable, & are often posted by someone ignorant of coin values ... look at the seller's feedback (very little to zero feedback is a red flag), & look at the seller's 'SOLD ITEMS' to see if they're a regular coin seller / dealer ...

...there's a thread here on ebay coin scams ... http://goccf.com/t/166229 ... "Fun Thread--Worst Coins On ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, & Other Buying sites" ... check it out ...

...Looking forward to your posts & contributions ...

To CCF! We'll need pictures to help you out.

The first good thing to do would be to buy some cheap paper shotgun wrapping tubes and a pair of cotton inspection gloves. You don't want to get corrosive fingerprints on any valuable coins. Also, circulated coins are quite dirty. If your father was stashing cents for a long time, you might have some valuable mint state coins in the jugs.

When I went through my grandfather's Wheat cent stash, I sorted them all by year. If you have a lot, you might go straight to piles of year and mint mark. That's what the tubes are for. Then you get trained up on a particular year, and make a first pass. I used a cheap little plastic clip-on magnifier that I bought on Amazon for $9. Still using it a year later, it takes decent pictures with my iPad.

Any super nice gleaming red coins—particularly wheaties—you can stash right in a little folded piece of paper. Flips are a waste of money at the sorting stage, but DIY paper flips and a ziploc bag work just fine.

I eventually found a 1944-D doubled die obverse and a 1946-S inverted mint mark in my pop-pop's stash, but it took a lot of learning and multiple passes to finally pick them out.


That's my basic coin hunting setup, don't let anyone tell you that you need to spend real $$$ to find stuff. It's 95% training—which you can learn right here for free—and 5% using very cheap equipment properly.

Ask your questions here!
The people here, know a lot more than most of the people on YT

to the CCF, MulletMatt! You should also buy a copy of the Red Book: https://whitman.com/a-guide-book-of...2025-spiral/
It need not be the 2025 edition - save some money and get a '23 or '24. Widely available online.

to the CCF

Good advise already given.

I add to NEVER clean any of the coins. You will not improve how they look, and you will destroy nearly any numismatic premium they might have.

If some coins are grungy with organic residue on them it is appropriate to soak them in pure acetone to remove the material. This is not consider harmful cleaning. If you need to do that come here first for detailed advise.

Most of all - have fun with the search.

to the CCF and with all of the other posts. The first thing to realize is that the chances of finding anything that is worth big money are almost nil. If you're in it to get rich, it's going to be a let down. You can't rely on you tube to give you any good advice. You'll have to search thousands of coins before you find something that's worth saving. Go into it for the fun of the chase, then it will be a life long addiction.