Coin Collecting

[TylerDurden]

Anyone on here into this? My inlaws just found out they have some coins, and silver dollar "notes" that may be worth some significant money. I have sifted thru a few online sites, and bought a couple books (havent really read thru them yet) but I was wondering if there are any really good forums like this site, for coins?

and how do you know who to trust in the appraisal process...there are a couple coin places in my town, but just like anything, they could be scam artists and such.....

i think our goal is to sell them all off to one buyer, vice piece by piece, but that will be determined later i guess....

thanks
dan

 

[bishir]

Dan, sounds like they may have some Silver Certificates. Do they look like this?

http://ingrimayne.saintjoe.edu/econ/Banking/Silver.html

If so, its from the good old days when our money was actually backed by silver and gold. We actually have quite a bit of them and old coins in our safety deposit box. I don't think the silver certificates are worth much (maybe 5bucks to a collector) but I'd definitely have some of your old coins checked out.

James

 

[TylerDurden]

yeah the stuff they have that is worth money are the Errors, as in her silver cert is a serial number print error, worth about 500-700 depending on what series it was...and condition of course, i dont have the coins and paper in my hand yet, but will soon, and plan on cataloging it for them, and finding a buyer.

 

[2QUIK6]

Yep, coins or certificates with mint errors are worth tons to collectors. As far as the coins go, I used to collect coins when I was a young 'un. There are books, much like the NADA books for cars, that list all of the values for thousands of rare US coins and there are differing prices depending on the condition, and they usually describe how to determine the condition based on wear markings and how distinguishable certain features are on the coins in question. Might try looking around amazon.com for coin pricing and value books, or price list phamplets.
What ever you do, do not , DO NOT, clean the coins, that will detract from their value to a collector. (Kind of like looking at a used car that just had the engine steam cleaned...erases all of the history.)

 

[bishir]

Errors, yup that's a different thing altogether. The Mint doesn't make many errors so when they do it's worth a mint to the collectors. Kinda like baseball error cards were always worth more.. Isn't the most valuable stamp an upside down plane?

 

[TylerDurden]

yeah i have found that cleaning the coins is WRONG...but what sux, is we have some semi rare silver quarters from the 60s that have grime on them that I can pick out with my fingernail...anything i can do to make those look better without ruining the luster?