Background: When my grandfather died, my mother divided his coin collection among the 3 great grandkids in accordance with his wishes that the money be used for their education. Perhaps “collection” is too fancy a word. What he had were coffee cans full of silver coins (quarters, halves, dollars) as well as commemorative collections he bought - some proof sets, some things like “Olympic Commemorative Coins” - figuring, I’m sure, that they’d be worth a lot some day.
According to a coin collecting book, my daughter’s share is worth $4-5000. I know that it’s only worth that much if someone wants to give her that much. But I do want her to get the best return possible for the collection as she heads off to college.
So, what’s the best approach? I’m not too keen on Ebay, never having used it. I’m inclined to go to a local coin dealer. Is placing a classified ad in the paper worth the effort?
I’d say a blast furnace ought to liquidate them quite nicely.
Seriously, you might want to pay for an appraisal from a reputable dealer. You can say the appraisal is for insurance purposes if you wish, so you’ll know the replacement value. The amount you can sell it for should be something less than that.
There are any number of ways to do this. Getting an appraisal is a good idea; a coin dealer may give you the actual retail value if he knows you are not going to sell to him (he may make you an offer anyway). You could sell to a bullion dealer, but you’re going to take a bath on it that way, since he will only give you melt value.
You might try to find someone who is savvy about ebay selling. Since you don’t know the value of the coins, you can catalog them, take some good macro photos of the better specimens and post it for sale with a starting price somewhat under the appraisal price. Bargain hunters for coins can rarely pass up a collection, particularly if you list everything it contains. If you are nervous, you can use the escrow feature of ebay to insure payment.
Or you can try to sell them piecemeal, which is time consuming. A paper ad will probably only get you looky-loos and people looking for something for nothing. I’d love to get my hands on it, just for the “buried treasure” aspect of finding some gems, but that’s unlikely.
Ah - I hadn’t thought of going to an appraiser. I have been bugging the kid to catalog what she has - I think this might be the weekend to get that done.
Related question - Think I might get a better price in Maryland or in Florida. or would it matter?
Shouldn’t matter where you do it. The market value for coins is fairly well established.
Another possibility: find a friend who is a collector and who can grade the coins fairly closely (it’s not that difficult to get it in the ballpark), then sell based on that advice.
It doesn’t sound like these coins were particularly well cared for if they were loose in coffee cans, so they are probably not going to be graded particularly high (read: worth less than hoped for). If they were protected, then you might have something. The Olympic coins are not really worth much unless you have some gold included.
If you have large quantities of silver quarters, I would suggest rolling them and selling them on ebay as unsearched rolls. They will fetch between $35-40 per roll.
The silver coins were definitely pocket change - very well circulated. The proof sets are in plastic containers mounted in velvet boxes - untouched by human hands.
I don’t know anyone who knows anything about coins, which is why I’m turning to the Teeming Few who might know something.
Well-circulated coins are generally worth face value UNLESS they are pre-1965, or are a genuine scarcity. Pre-65 coins are worth more because of the silver content, hence my suggestion to roll them and sell on ebay. Don’t bother with nickels. They’re worth pretty much face value unless rare (no or minimal silver content). The proof sets are simple to evaluate with a coin catalog, but any damage to the containers or any missing COAs will reduce the value.
Your initial post indicated a value of upwards of $5,000. How did you arrive at this number if the bulk of these are in a circulated state?
When my sister and mom separated the coins among the 3 great-grands, they used a book to make sure the division was equitable. And I think that’s what they told me it worked out to. I could be thinking too high. But she does have at least 2 sets of gold coins, and I know those are worth a bit.
I think we’ll make a list this weekend and I’ll talk to some appraisers next week.
I must bookmark this thread. I have coin collections from both of my grandfathers, including mint-condition silver dollars, crappy-condition old coins, old subway tokens from around the world, really good condition old coins (19th-century) and at least one from the 1500s (too bad condition to be worth anything, I suspect).
Aren’t you a dear!! I planned to sit down with the kid this weekend (after my going away fest) and make a list of what she’s got. I’ll be in touch shortly thereafter! Thank you so much!
