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I got on a coin collecting kick a few weeks ago and have a few questions. How do I get good at grading coins? I have looked at lots of pics online and can sort of group things in 10 point intervals up to AU, but I feel like I need more examples to get better. I feel like I can't buy coins intelligibly until I get better at that. I may post some pics for grading feedback rather than prices. Where is the best place to buy coins? Ebay is convenient, but you can't always see/feel what you are buying. I have gone to some estate sales the past few weeks and bought some coins for 10-20% below price guide values (but it seems like nobody is actually paying for what price guides recommend). Local coin shops seem to be pricey. Has anyone really tried out buying stuff at auction? I just bought like 15 lbs of mixed world coins and am going to be working through those for a while. I figured I'd buy a ton of something not worth a lot. They don't have commodity value, but they're cool. It'll give me a chance to try out different cleaning methods on circulated coins and learn about histories of different countries. I'm bound to find a few worth at least a couple bucks (even though I'd be surprised if I could sell any of those coins if I wanted to).
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Mar 25, 2013 17:09
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Scenty posted:Are there any resources for international coins? I have a 10 cent coin from Italy 1863, a panama coin 1904. I've also got some pretty old British coins from various areas like a one shilling from India, one from west africa, etc. The most common way to store coins is to use 2x2 mylar in cardboard coin flips. They can be purchased online in bulk for just a couple cents each. Some people prefer to use 2x2 flexible plastic holders, and those work too. I collect German coins, as well as some other countries in smaller amounts. The NGC website has a world coin price guide that you can use as a reference. It has all of the exact same information that the Krause World Coin catalog will have. I think the only difference is that the physical catalog has additional values for a wider range of coin grades. With that being said, the prices can't be taken at face value. For the bulk of german coins, the prices are 20-50% higher than what you can actually get the coin for. I recently bought an NGC graded MS-63 1952E East German 10 pfennig on eBay for about 30 bucks. The price guide indicates that the coin is valued around 700 bucks at that grade. Did I get a good deal? No. It's probably worth about 30 bucks and the catalog is wrong. You really have to watch the market and get to know the market before you can really start making informed evaluations, but the catalogs can be a good starting point. As a general rule, each respective country is an expert on its own coins. The US has the best resources for US coins. England has the best resources for English coins, and Germany has the best resources on German coins. The Krause manual does not even approach the level of detail that we use for US coins, where different varieties of the same coin are treated differently. Each respective country will have it's own publications, and those will ultimately be the best source of information. 1863 Italy 10 cent - It's at least worth a few bucks, and can be worth considerably more if it's in good shape. 1904 Panama coin - Unless it's in an uncirculated grade, you would be hard pressed to find someone who cared about it beyond the "Oh, that looks neat, I'll give you a quarter for it" level of interest. British Colonial Coins - There is a decent market for these, and if they are sufficiently old and in good shape, then you may have some winners. English coins seem to be the most collected country in the US behind Canada and Mexico. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 20:59 on May 29, 2013 |
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May 29, 2013 20:43
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Augmented Dickey posted:Hiya, Thats a cool find for a coin star bin. Ron Don Volante got it about right when he said a couple bucks. The coin has some crud on it, lots of scratches, and is pretty beat up even though it does have some good defined details left. It's not something a collector would seek out, but just about any pre-German Empire coin that isn't worn flat is usually worth at least 1-3 bucks depending on how you are selling it. Prior to the unification of the German States to form the German Empire in 1871 for the Franco-Prussian War, Prussia was by far the largest and most dominant of the German States. As a result, the newly formed German Empire would adopt the Prussian eagle as the coat of arms for the Empire, as well as make the King of Prussia the leader of the new German Empire. As a result, Prussian coinage was the most minted and widely distributed coinage from that period. Even though the coin doesn't say Prussia, someone at the time would immediately recognize the coin as Prussian because of the eagle on the front. The coin has the single headed eagle looking left with the sceptre and orb in its claws, which is an image adopted from the Holy Roman Empire (Catholic Church) for use by Prussia hundreds and hundreds of years before. Prussia was part of the Holy Roman Empire until it dissolved in 1806, but there wasn't much confusion in the symbolism because the Holy Roman Empire had long before started using double headed eagle as their symbol. When the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, Austria was allowed to continue to use the double headed eagle (and still does to this day), but the rest of the German States did not and all began using their own coats of arms. Old German coin collectors usually fall into one of two categories. One group of people tends to only collect larger denomination gold and silver coins like thalers and ducats. They are very ornate and that time period/region probably had the best combination of the desire to create beautiful ornate coins and the ability to do so, when compared to other places and times in history. The other type of collector is one that tries to collect coins of as many different types from as many different issuing authorities in the German States/Holy Roman Empire region as possible. If you go back to the 1500s, there have been over 300 different issuing authorities, often called German States, that made their own unique coins. The second type of collector would be interested in your coin, but since there are so many of the coins it's not as high of a value as some of the others. There. That's way more information than you probably needed. By the way, I made a for sale thread on German Coins and world coins in the SA mart. I have a bunch of world coins I'll be listing if the thread generates any interest. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 18:45
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Shere posted:I thought about display options and eventually went a little arts and crafts about it. I went to a local craft store and grabbed a nice (deeply set so there's plenty of room for coins) desktop tri-fold picture frame, a couple sheets of blue foam and some black felt for backing. I used some identical sized but less valuable coins to draw holes on the foam, cut out some snug holes for my coins and now they're sitting pretty nicely on my desk in the frame. Since you can only see one side, this works better if you have two of the same coin so you can do one facing each way. I can take pictures if anyone's interested. Sounds like a good set-up. When storing coins, you always need to be cautious about the materials you are using and how they will impact the coins. Any petrochemical/plastic products always have a potential to emit trace amounts of impurities over time that could lead to coin toning. Felt is pretty commonly used in a lot of professional coin displays. The only risk there is if it's really cheaply made with some bad kind of glue that could affect the coins. Even cardboard, if it's not the right kind, can have negative effects and release sulfur that leads to coloring changes. With that being said, some people like the toning/coloring effects you get from storing coins in various places for many years. I hear fables of a coin dealer in the 90s that baked his silver dollars in a baked potato to give them cool rainbow coloring. That sort of thing is generally frowned upon, but to each his own.
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Jul 2, 2013 19:42
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Kheldragar posted:At least there's new art to "enjoy", at least; it was a gift, so I'm not too dissapointed in it. The America The Beautiful series does have lower mintages than the state quarters. There are approximately 1/5 the amount of any individual ATB quarter than there is for any individual State quarter in circulation. With that being said, it's not so few that the price will go up. There no chance you'll get rich off of them, but they are less common.
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Jul 24, 2013 17:02
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I'm heading to a local coin show in Texas this weekend (about 50 dealers from within 500 miles or so). If anyone is looking for anything in particular, I can seek it out and send it to you at cost. Just trying to help out and not make money. I'll be there looking for a Bay Bridge Half Dollar, an Oregon Half Dollar, and various German/French coins to fill holes in my collection, and a few 20th century type pieces. But they've got bullion, silver dollars, currency, lots of stuff.
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Jul 30, 2013 16:52
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borodino posted:I've amassed about 30 silver coins at my job. If I just walk in to coin store and sell them what percentage of the melt value can I expect to receive? Is it fairly standard or do you have to shop around a ton? They will very rarely give you melt. I would expect at least 75% of the silver value, but I've heard about some places giving 90% spot. You can call around to the different places in town before you go and ask what they are offering for US junk silver. Most shops are constantly buying/selling and getting calls about it. They'll be able to give you an answer instantly. Not all places offer the same and it changes in daily/weekly basis. Places could have been paying close to spot 6 months ago and are paying considerably less now. Shop around because we know nothing about the dealers in your area, and you could have a few shady dealers for all we know. A pretty common thing is if silver is dropping they'll base their prices off of an outdated spot price and still refer to it as the market price. If you go on craigslist, you can sometimes find someone who wants to buy for spot prices since most shops/dealers sell for above that. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Aug 4, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 21:42
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borodino posted:Thanks. Another question, is counterfeiting silver dollars very prevalent? A couple of my Peace Dollars don't really look like they are silver, they look more like regular nickel circulating coins. I don't know how prevalent it is, but there are a lot of chinese fakes out there. Fakes are constantly being sold on eBay. If you google the subject you will find some pretty good information. A person pretty experienced with coins can tell if something is silver/nickel pretty quickly with look and feel, but it's really hard to describe in words. Yours could simply look off because they've been cleaned in some way at some point. Usually a good scale, like a mail or pharmacy scale will rule out most fakes. Most fakes will be lighter than official weights. You can expect a coin to lose a couple % weight from normal wear, but anything below that is a major red flag. You can also measure the diameter and make sure that's right. Beyond that, you need to look for imperfections and other signs of the counterfeiting process. I'm by no means schooled in the art of counterfeit detection, but the vast majority of fakes can be identified by those few key measurements and familiarity with the details of the coin and coins in general. If you want to post pics, I can give my 2 cents and maybe some other folks could chime in.
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Aug 4, 2013 23:08
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Romulux posted:Alright Ron Don, I've got a lot for you to check out if you don't mind. I'm trying to get about $2,000 out of these while trying to keep some stuff of value. These were all handed down through my family, and I honestly know nothing about them. My mom tried looking them up at some point, but there was a lot she couldn't find any info on, and I'd start looking them up myself but I saw your thread in SA Mart and figured I'd ask you first. Sorry about the crappy pictures, I can take more if you need any close-ups for anything of value. I appreciate any insight you can give me. I have a couple more penny sets but they're incomplete. The plastic container is all wheat pennies. As someone who buys almost exclusively foreign coins, I can say you can find the vast majority of your foreign coins in mixed bulk lots by the pound. A typical value for foreign coins by the pound is 6-20 dollars per pound depending on the contents. With that being said, there are a handful of nice coins that you could try to sell individually. I saw a mexican silver coin, a silver maria theresa thaler restrike. A dealer will usually pay at least silver value for these coins. Your chances of being able to sell a lot of non-silver foreign coins to a dealer for anything more than a pittance are low. I can do an appraisal of the world stuff if Ron Don doesn't, but I would think a value closer to 200 dollars on the high end for all of the coins you posted would be more realistic.
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Aug 16, 2013 16:25
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Frostwerks posted:Are uncirculated Millard Fillmore coins worth anything or just their face value? The one dollar coins aren't exactly widely available to everyone, so it could be worth at most 2 bucks to the right person. I picked up 10 rolls of uncirculated presidential dollars from my bank for face value a few months back. I kept nice, mostly uncirculated examples of each president and slowly spent the rest. The fact that you can get them from most banks, if you want to, keeps them from being worth too much. So basically, yeah, face value. Do whatever you feel like with them.
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Sep 4, 2013 05:45
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Ron Don Volante posted:Just bought this rainbow-toned Morgan dollar off of eBay. Pretty. I like the front better than the back. There's something great about light edge toning that I really enjoy. I really like the frosty matte finish of morgans too. DMPL can gently caress itself.
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Sep 13, 2013 18:19
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I don't buy many American coins, but I bought this one recently because it seemed like a good deal at 32 dollars. I have a long term goal of collecting all of the San Francisco Morgan Dollars. Did I do all right? I'm guessing it depends on whether it's uncirculated or not. I am not sure if the darker area around her ear counts as wear or not.  Looks like I didn't get all the red from the light out in the right picture. oops.
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Sep 14, 2013 18:34
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Ron Don Volante posted:That's a great deal! Definitely uncirculated, well-struck (the eagle's breast feathers and the hairs above Liberty's ear are fairly well-defined), unmarked surfaces, and no signs of obvious cleaning. If you were to sell it on eBay you could get $50 easily. The luster looks pretty good. It's uniform throughout. I don't think it shows too great in the pictures because I used really diffuse light. Any time I see a 100+ year old coin as white as that, I think it's probably been cleaned in some way. On the bright side, the edges are dark and toned, which is a good sign. It seems like it could have come out of an uncirculated roll. At 10x magnification with my loupe, the surfaces aren't perfectly smooth. I know sometimes fields are rougher than others based on die preparation and condition, so I feel like I don't know for sure. At worst it was dipped some years ago, but definitely nothing harsher than that.
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Sep 15, 2013 02:34
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RustedChrome posted:Follow up time. I took the cent to a local coin shop that has a good reputation among collectors. They were pretty excited about it and asked me to leave it with them (with a receipt) so the owner could take a look at it. They called me back the next day and said the owner recommended getting it graded. They would send it for grading and then make me an offer when it comes back. If I sell to them, they pay for the grading. If I keep it, I just have to pay that fee, so that's what I did. The advantage of selling high value coins like these is that you can see what other ones have sold for in recent history. You can do a search on Heritage Auctions or any other major coin auctioneer and look at their auction histories for realized coin values. It looks like an XF40 Head of 1794 1C sold for 4100 dollars through Heritage Auctions in July. There was a VF30 that sold for 4400. So, depending on eye appeal, you are looking at 4000 to 5000 dollars through a major auctioneer. With that being said, auctioneers get a cut, so after fees and everything you would take home less. I don't know what the going rate for fees are, but I would not be surprised if the auction houses ended up with as much as 20%. Even considering that, you could get double what the coin shop is offering you. It would be hard to find a specific collector willing to pay 5k without going through one of the larger auction services unless you have a network of coin collecting contacts. http://coins.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?Ne=1897&N=51+790+231+307+4294966988
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Sep 24, 2013 22:11
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RustedChrome posted:I've never sold anything on eBay worth more than a few hundred dollars. I fear the auction and Paypal fees would be killer, not to mention how eBay can totally screw over sellers sometimes. I'll look into that Heritage site, I don't personally know any collectors who would buy this coin from me. I feel like being a buzz kill, so here's something worth considering. If you net >3000 dollars off of coin sales, then you are obligated to claim it as income in your annual tax return as a capital gain. In addition to auction fees, you have additional 20+% in government fees! With that in mind, I doubt most people claim coin sales if they aren't coin dealers even if they are supposed to.
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Sep 26, 2013 05:27
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Ron Don Volante posted:Nothing, it would just have a lower likelihood of actually selling. eBay is much more useful for lower value coins—when you reach a certain price/rarity threshold, you'd be better off listing your coin on Heritage. Heritage's seller fee is also slightly smaller than eBay's for most items. I think Heritage's fees seem lower because of their structuring. I bought my first coin off of Heritage this weekend from the Long Beach World Coin auction. I got a feel for it first hand. There's 17.5% of buyer's fees after the winning price. People will factor that into their bid, and HA conveniently calculates out potential fees for you while making your bid. I believe HA has additional fees for the seller like photography and what not. When it's all said and done, it's more than 20%. I bid 300 dollars for the coin, but after fees, taxes, and shipping I paid 390 dollars. I doubt the seller get to take home the full 300 dollars too. It's a lot. Ebay takes a 10% cut and then PayPal takes a 3% cut. So on eBay you only lose out on about 13% + shipping. If you have an eBay shop, that 13% can be reduced to 10%.
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Oct 2, 2013 15:34
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Ron Don Volante posted:I'd also be greatly interested in hearing how you originally got into the coin business and any tips or advice you have for coin dealing. I just started a small coin-selling website of my own this past summer and also sell a fair bit on eBay, though it's just a little income on the side for me at this point. What's your website? I'll check it out. Magugu: What portion of a coin dealer's business is at coin shows? It seems like a typical dealer will maybe make between 1000-5000 dollars in sales at our local coin shows. If you add up table costs, set-up, time, and travel, going to a local coin show can cost the dealer 300-500 dollars. It seems like your margin would have to be pretty big to make any money, AND you would need to be at a coin show every single weekend to make any kind of living. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 03:24
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Al Harrington posted:I can answer any questions pertaining to US paper money from the colonial period through today. I had a question about the Smithsonian. How do the USA coin and paper money collections compare to notable private collections? I've always assumed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the US mint didn't always have a mind to keep special items for historical purposes, and that most of the good stuff would be what collectors kept around. And what services do PCGS provide for these large institutions? Is it grading, authentication, appraisal, or something else?
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Oct 26, 2013 23:30
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Ashcans posted:This is kind of a weird question, but this seems like the only place for it. When I was visiting my parents, I was digging around in some of my old stuff and found a coin. I remember that my Dad got it on a trip to Ethiopia when I was a kid. On finding it I was puzzled because the coin is dated 1780, but I remembered him giving it to me and nothing being said of its age. There's absolutely a way to tell the difference. For many many years afterwards, they restruck the 1780 Maria Theresa Thaler, and many of the restrikes are rare and worth a fair bit of money. It would take some good high resolution, clear photos to get a positive identification since it can sometimes be minute details that differentiate them. Also, if the coin is extremely worn it may be harder to identify. I don't have any books that cover this subject, but if nobody else in this thread has one I could borrow one from a friend to look it up. Edit: For what it's worth, most 1780 Maria Theresa Thalers are fairly modern and plentiful and are not worth more than 25-50 dolllars. But just about any Maria Theresa Thaler is going to be worth at least 25 bucks. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Oct 31, 2013 |
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Oct 31, 2013 14:48
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Ashcans posted:Thanks, this is interesting! I 100% expect that mine is a fairly modern and unremarkable example, unless my Dad happened to get really lucky buying one off some dude in Ethiopia. It seems to be in good condition, the lettering on the edge is still visible, and while it's a little worn you can still make out most details on the crest, etc. I do have some (hopefully decent) pictures of it, if that helps: From what I can tell, your Thaler is one of the more 'Modern' restrikes. A few indicators like the S.F., .X, crown, brooch, and tail feathers peg this thaler as being from Vienna or Rome in the early part of the 20th century. This is consistent with the provenance since those thalers would be the one's Italy had used/had made for their invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s. Yours is the most worn one I've seen before. That coupled with the fact that it's one of the more common types would prevent it from have much collector value. Even so, it's a historically interesting coin that is still worth 25-30 dollars. It's worth noting that this is a thaler that has been counterfeit many times, and the fake ones will often show up in tourist areas. Yours looks different from others I've seen, but it may be because of its wear or a cleaning at some point. I generally give coins the benefit of the doubt (unless they are ancients), but it would be at least worth checking the weight and diameter. An original, unworn thaler should weigh 28 grams. A worn, authentic one may weight a little less. Most forgeries are not silver or have a lower silver purity and weight 26g or less. You can rule out the vast majority of forgeries by just getting an accurate weight.
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Nov 4, 2013 16:10
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codyclarke posted:Thanks for your assessment on everything! I will take a look and see what the Mercury Dime mint marks are if any, I guess I didn't know where to look. Silver spiked big time and peaked in 2011. Gold and silver prices went straight up after the recession. Prices have been going down for the past two years. People have different theories about what's going to happen week to week or month to month but the bulk trend over the next few years will be downward if historical spikes are any indication. My personal recommendation is to get while the getting is good. For most of the coins you have, the prices are pretty stable. The coins where the bulk of their value is in silver are worth more now than they were in 2008. Other coins, where most of their value was collectible/numismatic, took a hit during the recession but have recovered for the most part (these coins are in the $50 and above price range). It's harder to say how these will perform over the next 5 years. If you look back 30-40 years and compare coin prices of common coins from the 70-80s and adjust them for inflation, almost none of them would have outperformed the stock market. Even the relatively bullish Carson City Morgan Dollars would have appreciated ~50% in that time frame. That's not very much given how much time they've had to gain value. Only rarities, niche coins, and high end stuff will have that kind of performance. Most of the stuff you have now won't appreciate in value at any rate comparable to many other investment options. HOWEVER, if you are going to just take the money and spend it on crack cocaine, then the coins are a better investment. With that being said, I'm just a guy posting on the internet. History will prove me right or wrong. Probably the best reason to keep your coins is if you think they are cool.
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Nov 6, 2013 06:30
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codyclarke posted:Bumping this because I guess nobody saw it. Would love to find out how much more these specific ones are worth. None of those dates are particularly rare in circulated condition. If any of them are uncirculated or close to uncirculated, there can be some large differences in value. Roughly speaking, 1940+ is 2-3 dollars and <1940 is 3-4 dollars when heavily circulated.
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Nov 20, 2013 01:16
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Super Aggro Crag posted:I am starting to get into precious metal collecting and obviously turned to coins first. A few years ago my grandma gave me a 1921 Morgan Dollar and last week my mom gave me two pre-1965 Quarters and a pre-1965 Dime. I also have a good 50+ pre-1982 copper Pennies. Coin Roll Hunting is lucrative in the sense that you can find silver by just searching through coins that you get for face value. But finding silver is pretty rare and it probably does depend on your bank/area. Different banks will get you rolls from different sources. Some may just give you a box of all 2012 half dollars/quarters/whatever, while others might give mixed circulated. I tried doing it a little bit, but stopped almost immediately. It's a lot of work/time/driving for very little money. You have to drive to the bank, get the coins, spend the time going through them, and take the box back to another bank or get rid of them somehow. If you factor in all of the non-monetary costs, it's not even remotely close to being lucrative. For some people it's the thrill of the hunt that makes it worth it. But, hey, if that's what you like then more power to you. I obviously have made my own opinion, but I'd be curious if there are others that have more favorable opinions of coin roll hunting for silver.
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Nov 21, 2013 03:43
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Lutha Mahtin posted:Is there a consensus in the coin community on whether proof sets from, say, the 1980s will be worth anything? I used to get these as gifts when I was a kid. I've always figured, since so many thousands (millions?) of them were sold each year, that it will be a really long time before my stack of coins encased in cheap plastic rectangles are worth anything over face value. The consensus is that it will be a very long time before they appreciate much, if at all. The population would have to grow pretty dramatically or the coin collecting community would have to grow dramatically before it drove prices up. Or there would have to be a mechanism for lots of the proof sets to come off of the market. In pre-1970 proof sets, a lot were broken up for the silver content which helped created scarcity. Since there was no silver in the 80s, I think those proof sets are going to just sit at low prices for a very very long time. I see them for sale fairly regularly for 4-5 dollars each (and still not necessarily sell).
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Nov 26, 2013 02:26
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Super Aggro Crag posted:I went to the local coin shop today for the first time. American Silver Eagles were selling for $25. That's pretty much what you can get for one shipped on eBay. Silver is $20/oz this minute. Is $5 too high of a markup for a brick & mortar store? That's a pretty good price. About 3 weeks ago they were going for 28 if they were nice, not new dates, and 25 if they were 2012/13 or had weak eye appeal at a local coin auction. I wouldn't expect any better from a dealer. Best case scenario right now would be to get them for like 23 bucks each from another collector. The American Silver Eagle market is relatively good right now considering Eagles were going for 40-50 bucks only a year ago when silver was 29 bucks an ounce.
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Dec 19, 2013 01:28
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Ev posted:My grandfather passed away recently and before he died, he handed off his collection of coins and paper money to me. I gave it to my dad because that was his wish, but I don't think he thinks it's worth figuring if there's anything valuable there. Not that we want to sell it, but I'm curious. If you are looking at a high value collection that you may want to insure (probably tens of thousands of dollars), then you'd want to get it formally appraised. It's usually not worth it unless you have a large collection because appraisals will always set you back at least a few hundred dollars. A lot of dealers are helpful enough where they will appraise something for free, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone willing to appraise a collection that's not for sale. It can take a lot of time, especially if it's currently not organized or catalogued. If you post pictures here, we can give you a little bit of a reality check. But without knowing more about the collection, it's hard to give any practical advice. The value of a collection of coins, depending on dates, conditions, and varieties can vary be several orders of magnitude (it could be 100 bucks or 100,000 bucks). If you don't want to sell the coins, then don't worry about appraising them instantly. Take your time, wait until after the holidays. Break the collection into bits and just work through it. And until you know what you guys have, assume it's fairly valuable. Keep it stored indoors and in a safe place. Even if learning about coins and currency isn't really your bag, it's still worth doing at least some preliminary work to understand what you guys have.
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Dec 22, 2013 08:16
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I have a basic coin question about something I see periodically. Is the 'shadowing' below the dates and the stars a result of the coin being struck twice and being shifted slightly? For more content, here's a non-US coin I picked up recently. An 1809 dated 32 Shilling from Hamburg that was minted in 1815 by Napoleonic occupation forces. I have it at an angle to show some of the luster behind the dark toning. Bigger than a half dollar. Smaller than a dollar.  
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Feb 21, 2014 05:04
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Snowy posted:Here's a few random coins my dad gave me, they are mostly non-US and some are pretty beaten up. He was curious if they are worth anything, I told him not to expect much, but any info would be much appreciated. 1. This coin has 14-15 dollars worth of silver in it, so it's worth at least that. Unfortunately, it's so beat up you might not be able to get much more than that. The max value on this coin is about 20 dollars, with you being able to get 14-15 all day. 2. This coin appears to be the common type worth 2-3 dollars. There are some rare varieties, which could make it worth as much as 20 bucks. 3.If this didn't have holes, it could be worth a couple bucks. It's essentially worthless with the holes. 4. Common date nazi 2 reichsmark. About 3 dollars worth of silver, but it could still sell for ~6 dollars on eBay. Much nicer ones can be had for 8 dollars. 5. 10 Centime. Not really worth anything. <25 cents 6. 25 cents. 7. Koblenz WWI notgeld. That coin isn't in that bad of shape given the fact that I believe it's made of iron. It's one of the more common notgeld coins you see. I have one in similar condition and would be happy if I could get 3 bucks for it. 8. I don't know arabic dates either. 9. Token collectors are their own breed, and I unfortunately am not one of them. I've never had a valuable token before, but they supposedly exist. You would likely spend far more money in time trying to figure out what it is, than what it's worth. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Mar 25, 2014 |
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Mar 25, 2014 03:34
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Don't you hate when people poke holes in coins for necklaces? I like foreign coins since I collect almost exclusively european coins. What type of stuff are we talking about? They'd have to be pretty nice to justify shipping. Here's one of my American coins. They just finished revising the eastern leg of the Bay Bridge last year. Here's the coin that commemorated its opening in 1936: 
Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Mar 25, 2014 |
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Mar 25, 2014 03:36
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Snowy posted:Thank you both!! My dad is going to be happy to learn that. Out of curiousity, I went and tried googling you token. It appears to be a fairly well known civil war era token. I checked eBay, and they do appear to sell for actual money. Yours is pretty worn so it isn't going to be worth as much as others, but it could still be worth something in the 5 dollar range.
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Mar 26, 2014 14:24
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Shere posted:For content: what should I be looking to spend for a common date 2 cent piece with good details? Ebay is all over the place. The price varies wildly with the grade, so what counts as a fair price varies wildly per coin. Use this to estimate what condition the coin is in: http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/TwoCent/Grades Then use a price guide or eBay history on certified coins to determine what the approximate price will be (knowing that coins usually sell below price guide values).
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Mar 30, 2014 17:48
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Thank you! As a Californian, I think that Los Angeles railway token is fun. A cool little piece of LA history.
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Apr 2, 2014 02:41
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(and I was serious on that offer; PM me with your address and I'll send you a coin for your collection if you're interested)
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I could use a little more schooling on American coin grading. Here is a Barber Quarter I bought:  I paid 25 dollars for it, but now that I am looking it up I think I may have overpaid. A couple price guides online suggest that this coin is worth 23-25 dollars in F, and something like 35 dollars in VF. Looking at grading guides, I would say this coin is an F15 just by virtue of how strong the rims/denticles are. How far below price guide values do these things usually sell for?
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Apr 17, 2014 23:18
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AuntBuck posted:That's a really nice looking Barber, with some of the more delicate writing legible. What guides were you looking at? The PCGS, NGC, and Numismedia online guides. I haven't bothered to buy a red or blue book.
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Apr 18, 2014 04:21
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I submitted my first batch of coins to NGC yesterday. I've been slowly building up my confidence in my ability to grade MS coins, so I hope the results don't come as a kick in the balls. I am holding my breath on one potential details coin though.
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Apr 22, 2014 16:05
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Ron Don Volante posted:Silvertowne has a one-day eBay deal - 20 silver eagles for $456 shipped, which settles out to a little less than $23 per. Someone was trying to sell 80 ASEs on craigslist this week for 20 bucks a piece. They've been going for 20-23 each at our local coin auctions. It's crazy seeing how many are coming out of the woodwork now that silver prices have dropped. I didn't see nearly this many for sale a year ago. Here's to hoping the price continues to drop.
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May 2, 2014 05:39
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Hahahahahaha, good one dude! I also think that 10 dollars an ounce is not out of the question. 18 is likely not the bottom.
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May 2, 2014 05:41
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Is that a half dollar or dollar?
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May 4, 2014 01:24
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JacquelineDempsey posted:How do y'all ship coins that you're selling? I just sold a Canadian large cent on eBay and got hit on shipping. Didn't think a tiny padded envelope would cost $2.32, but I guess USPS considers padded envelopes a "package" even though it was a 3x5" envelope that weighs less than an ounce. If you pay for shipping on eBay and print the label on eBay, that 2.32 is around 1.90 and you get tracking. So if you have a printer at home, it's definitely worth it to use eBay shipping. For lower value coins (<$50 dollars), I'll just use regular envelopes and not a padded envelope. I put the coin in a plastic or cardboard 2x2 and then cover it on both sides with card stock or cardboard of some type. That's always enough to protect the coin unless it straight-up gets crushed by something. If you are willing to spend more than 5 cents on cardboard, then Safety Mailers (a piece of cardboard with special adhesive that you wrap around the coin) are a great option. A lot of dealers and auction houses use them. You have to sell coins frequently, since I think you have to buy them in quantity. They run about 25 cents each. You can put a coin in those, and then put it in a normal envelope. It's completely protected. With the normal envelope option you pay a for a first class stamp and a 20 cent surcharge (68 cents?) because the cardboard makes it rigid and you don't want it to go through the mail sorting machine. If it's >1 oz, then you need to add another 20 cents, so it's 88 cents, or first class stamp plus 40 cents. If you factor in supplies and postage, the regular envelop option costs anywhere from 75 cents to 1.25. A fair bit cheaper, but you don't get tracking. I've seen about every shipping permutation imaginable from buying on eBay. I think padded mailers make people feel good, but they aren't required to protect a coin during mailing. Generally speaking, the heavier the coin is the more padding/protection it requires. Jimmy James fucked around with this message at 21:42 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 21:39
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Is it acceptable to mail coins in regular envelopes as long as they're in cardboard holders, so I can charge letter rate vs package rate?
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Nah, they're pre-WWII, a few 19th century, for the most part. My crown jewel, so to speak, is this gold Ottoman Empire coin from 1865, like this fella: As a world coin collector, I can say that all of the local dealers around me pay very little for world coins compared to what I could get for selling it on eBay with a good item description and pictures. Almost all local dealers would give you around the gold value for the 100 Kurush gold coin (275 bucks, maybe less), and they appear to be going for at least that much on eBay once you subtract the fees. It takes a little more effort and time to list it on eBay, but for me it has enough financial upside to make it worth it. However, be careful with your start prices when selling world coins on eBay. Many world coins are obscure by most american collector standards and may only get 1 or 2 bidders. In that case your coin may only sell for you start price. So pick starting prices carefully.
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May 13, 2014 00:26
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x n to fill my Kia's tank.