Any coin collectors out there?

[Wade Lippman]

My mother in law died yesterday. She was 94, in perfect health, and had a massive heart attack. Can't beat that.

Anyhow, my wife came home last night with a box of all her papers and what not. There were a lot of coins in it. Most were just coins, but there were also a bunch of dollars, half-dollars, quarters, and dimes from 1880 to 1930. I looked them all up on line and none are valuable (oh well); most are about worth 15X face value at wholesale. Perhaps $500 in total.

So my question.... is that just the value of the silver in them, or do they have some value as coins? That would affect how I go about selling them.

[Michael Dedon]

Wade, I've been collecting for 30+ years. First, DON'T clean them in any way. No matter what they look like. It will only make them worth less.

If you've looked them up online then you've probably eliminated the rare dates but there may be what are called varieties. These are errors or variations of a normal coin that "may" be collectable and are not normally listed in price guides.

Do not bundle them up and sell them at one of the corner gold/silver buy/sell corner shops. Find one or more real coin dealers and take them there for an estimate. If you have a small number of coins he may give you an estimate on the spot or ask you to leave them. Don't accept the first estimate or at least give yourself some time to think about it.

If your silver starts in the 1880-1916 range and it contains halves/quarters/dimes those usually carry a premium above melt. Quarters 1916-1930 also. There are also Nickels and Cents that may carry some premium so don't overlook them just because they don't melt.

I have no interest in buying them but if you wanted to send me a list I can give you a quick tick list of what may need to be separated and looked at further.

DON'T clean them

[Jim Koepke]

As Michael said, DON'T CLEAN THEM!

You could have a box of coins that someone set aside after returning from an evening out. They may have had special meaning to the one who set them aside.

If you have checked dates and mint marks and have found nothing, it may just be an accumulation.

I have a few groups of coins like that laying around. Then I have my coin collection.

Recently my inclination has been toward selling my coin collection. As a serious coin collection grows, expanding or improving it becomes an expensive proposition.

Read a story about a construction work who found a can full of old coins. He scrubbed them real good and took them to a coin dealer. The dealer seeing the obvious cleaning picked up one coin and remarked, "congratulations, you have turned what would be a $3,000 coin into a $100 coin."

jtk

[Steve Peterson]

I think silver coins from the 1960s are worth about 10X face value just for the silver content. The other 5X must be based on the age.

Steve

[Fred Perreault]

I have collected for almost 60 years. The "value" of coins is varied..... metal content (gold, silver, nickel), or rarity, or sentimental, to name a few values. I tend to keep coins that have sentimental value, or a backstory, whether rare or common dates. Coins saved by family members are at the top of the list of keepers, with uncommon types (older series) coins coming in second. How often do we run across a coin from the late 1800's? Sometimes we are richer by keeping these things. For coins, it is unlikely that they will lose value, particularly if you leave them in their original, uncleaned, unabused condition. For coins, as most collectibles, it's about rarity/condition. Good luck