# Regarding Coin Collections



## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

Hello I am new to this site. I have watched over the last 6 months. I hope my post is not in the wrong section.

I have a coin collection that dates back 90+ years. It was handed down to my mother who is 90 years old. 
I have no Idea how to go about selling this collection. However I have made some inquiry's and I really don't trust the responses from so called buyers.
I have even had offers below face value of the coins.
I myself am not a collector which leaves me very vulnerable when it comes to selling.
Has anybody any experience with this?


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Just because something is old, doesn't make it valuable. There can be a wide variety of prices, and condition is very important. 

I would track down a couple of reputable coin dealers and get a couple of appraisals.

Remember, these people need to make a living, so their margins will be high. Expect to sell for significantly below retail if you go through them, but it's not easy to sell them on your own. 

These are usually not good investments.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

How many coins are we talking here? Dozens? hundreds? thousands?

I would probably go to a coin collector/pawn shop and get whatever the latest 2015 Canadian coin guide book is. Then you can search though your collection to see if there are any exceptionally valuable dates.

I think if you want to get anything close to their value you're going to have to sort, organize and sell them individually yourself... A ton of work. If you sell them to a coin collector/pawn shop you will probably get 50% at most of their value.

More than likely only a few coins in the whole collection are worth anything much (like $10+) and the rest are either worth their silver scrap value (for dimes and quarters), or under $1/each.


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

Or you could Google something like "Canadian coin collectors exchange" and see if there is a site for buying and selling coins. You'd be able to tell fairly quickly what the market is like for coins. Are there even "coin stores" anymore?


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

Ok I believe I was looking for a reputable coin dealers when I started the thread.
So who are they???


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Yes, most cities have coin dealers. There are also coin shows that arrive on a regular basis. Since condition is everything, and these are probably ungraded, the Internet would be fairly useless. No serious dealer will buy unseen over the net.

You could google coin dealers though.


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

peterk said:


> How many coins are we talking here? Dozens? hundreds? thousands?
> 
> I would probably go to a coin collector/pawn shop and get whatever the latest 2015 Canadian coin guide book is. Then you can search though your collection to see if there are any exceptionally valuable dates.
> 
> ...


You are so right about having a lot of work doing this. I was hoping to find somebody that has a Collector that they worked with.
We are talking a large sum of money. Now with that said. If I would only be looking at 50% face value it might make more sense to go to the bank and exchange them for paper. They have to be worth face value at a bank would they not? 
I know nothing about coins but have been saddled with the burden of trying to figure it out.
At face value they are worth a lot.
On line Canadian websites value them at the lowest rating turns out to be higher than face value.
When I send off the list to the buyers on KIJJI and Craiges List I get really low balled less than face value which is ridiculous.
Just to put it in perspective a fifty cent piece can't be worth 25 cents. Can it?
There has to be buyers out there that are Reputable. 
But who are they?


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## 6811 (Jan 1, 2013)

Some months ago I had a discussion about this very topic with a Trust Manager from one of the major banks. I was told that this was a common estate management problem and that they had a list of trusted appraisers that they used for various collections (rare books, coins, art, etc.) Perhaps you should contact your own bank's trust department and see if they will provide you with their local appraiser.


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

Try Googling each specific coin, if there aren't too many.
If the coin isn't worth more than the face value, you may get no results.
If the coin has value, there should be lots of info.

For example, I randomly Googled *"1900 Canadian quarter"* and this popped up:
http://www.coinsandcanada.com/coins-prices.php?coin=25-cents-1900&years=25-cents-1870-1901

I can't help with reputable coin dealers.


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## dougboswell (Oct 25, 2010)

There is a newspaper/magazine that can be found in Indigo stores in the hobby magazine section. http://canadiancoinnews.com/the-magazine/about-the-magazine/

It will list dealers and upcoming coin shows. If you find one near you take your coins and talk to the dealers and see what they have to say.


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## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

Just a Guy said:


> You could google coin dealers though.


I would tread very carefully here. Do your due diligence - find an informed dealer or broker - crooks and low-ballers are likely very abundant out there.
I suggest that you talk to someone involved in estate sales, find someone who comes with a good, verifiable reference.
You may, ultimately decide to break up the collection and sell valuable pieces separately.


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## Ag Driver (Dec 13, 2012)

Deleted


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## nobleea (Oct 11, 2013)

ebay would be the first place I would start to get an idea of selling prices. But that's for individual coins. Sounds like you have thousands of coins to go through. Are they at all sorted? Wouldn't be hard to get a list of the high dollar value coins in the time period/country you have and then go down the list until it's no longer worth your time.

I don't know how coin collectors would think. Would they be looking for just one or two elusive coins to fill their collection? Or would they rather buy the whole lot at a discount and sift through to find some gems?


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

Here's why I recommend doing some research on your own before going to a coin dealer.
You never know what you might have, and I'd hate to see you sell something for a couple bucks, if it's worth tens or even hundreds.

Pawn Stars - Expensive Coin (3 minutes)
https://youtu.be/uF3UUUsd4I8?t=31s

And to think, when I was a kid, I had a 1922 American Silver Dollar;
although hopefully it wasn't the same series as shown in the video.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

It may help you get a referral if you told us which city you're in...this is a Canada wide board.

And you could expect 50% of catalog value probably, which is different than face value.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I would suggest contacting a certified auction house such as Sotheby's and if they are interested they will ask you to submit a list to them.

If they are further interested, they will arrange for an expert to look at them and they will give you an estimate of the value at auction.

If they are valuable, the best prices will be fetched at auction in US dollars.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/departments/coins.html

To buy and sell contacts at Sothebys.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/buysell/overview.html

Selling basics information.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/buysell/sell.html

If they are interested or not, you could be confident in the information their experts give you, and decide from there.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

If they are silver from before 1966 bullion value alone is quite substantial. You can get an idea of value of individual coins by buying a price guide or looking them up on the net. No dealer will give you a fair price. For best results sell them one by one on Ebay.


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## Tesla (Mar 20, 2010)

It depends what you have really. I would start googling coins. Alot of the older coinage is silver some of it can be gold as well. Different countries coinage will have silver in them at different dates. For example canadian dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars are 80% silver from 1987 and earlier. Some of the canadian coins are also 92.5% silver it depends on the year really. Also for the coins there can be key dates and certain mint markings that will change the value alot as well as the condition of the coin. Where are you in Canada? I could give you a reputable coin shop. You could be sitting on a gold mine with key dates or worse case you can sell them for the metal content. There is also a difference between metal based coins and numismatic coins. A really good forum to use for some research is Kitco.

Also there is a HUGE different between bullion based coins bough for the metal content only as other coins which are numismatic coins bought for many other reasons(collector value, certain mintage, to celebrate a milestone ect)


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## Tesla (Mar 20, 2010)

Rusty O'Toole said:


> If they are silver from before 1966 bullion value alone is quite substantial. You can get an idea of value of individual coins by buying a price guide or looking them up on the net. No dealer will give you a fair price. For best results sell them one by one on Ebay.



It depends on what country they are from and what kind of coins there are. In canada dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars are from 1967 and earlier are silver. Some 1968 Canadian stuff is some isn`t. USA 1964 and earlier is silver on there dimes, quarters, half dollars, and silver dollars are 90% silver. US kenndy half dollars are 40% silver from 1965-1970. Also USA nickels from 1939-1945 have some silver in them and are commonly refereed to as war nickels. 

Again mexico and Europe and england and scottland all have different dates and metal percentages.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

wolf said:


> If I would only be looking at 50% face value it might make more sense to go to the bank and exchange them for paper.


I meant 50% of their actual collector's value. Obviously if someone is only offering you 50% of face value they are trying to rip you off...


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## swoop_ds (Mar 2, 2010)

If they are canadian or american coins they will be worth at least their face value.

Older coins (see above) will be worth their melt value in silver/gold

Older coins that are of a significant date/mint-mark/rarity/quality will be worth more than their face value (possibly many times more). I have a 1 cent piece that is worth a couple hundred dollars for instance.

You'll need to provide us with your location if you want dealers.


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

swoop_ds said:


> If they are canadian or american coins they will be worth at least their face value.
> 
> Older coins (see above) will be worth their melt value in silver/gold
> 
> ...


I live in Edmonton Alberta.


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

Tesla said:


> It depends what you have really. I would start googling coins. Alot of the older coinage is silver some of it can be gold as well. Different countries coinage will have silver in them at different dates. For example canadian dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars are 80% silver from 1987 and earlier. Some of the canadian coins are also 92.5% silver it depends on the year really. Also for the coins there can be key dates and certain mint markings that will change the value alot as well as the condition of the coin. Where are you in Canada? I could give you a reputable coin shop. You could be sitting on a gold mine with key dates or worse case you can sell them for the metal content. There is also a difference between metal based coins and numismatic coins. A really good forum to use for some research is Kitco.
> 
> Also there is a HUGE different between bullion based coins bough for the metal content only as other coins which are numismatic coins bought for many other reasons(collector value, certain mintage, to celebrate a milestone ect)


You are so right. I find the whole issue very confusing. I wish I was a bit interested in collecting.
I either get interested and start learning the values or keep the collection and mark the box "STUFF"
I am in Edmonton.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Well, as I said, Google is your friend...

http://www.edmontoncoinclub.com/sellcoin.htm

The club would probably be a good place to start.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

wolf said:


> I live in Edmonton Alberta.


I think there's a shop on 105th street in the strip mall behind the old Princess Theater. I'm originally from Edmonton and while I was back there a few years ago, I happened to have some currency with me collected while travelling- (I like to find old money from different countries while traveling- especially countries/governments that no longer exist). The shop owner was very helpful in giving me advice on value/rarity etc. Could be worth a shot.


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

Thanks for all the replies and leads. 
I will be talking to my bank Manager in the near future and I will ask her about appraisals.
I will check out the Edmonton Coin Club,never knew there was one.
And I will look at the shop on 105. I take that to be just off White Ave.

Thanks so much for the replies!


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

wolf said:


> Thanks for all the replies and leads.
> I will be talking to my bank Manager in the near future and I will ask her about appraisals.
> I will check out the Edmonton Coin Club,never knew there was one.
> And I will look at the shop on 105. I take that to be just off White Ave.
> ...


FWIW, West Edmonton Mall has a coin / collectables shop that you can take a look at. It never hurts to get another opinion.


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

Years ago when silver was in pennies of making decade lows I think it was something like $3.5 Robert Prechter told his clients to buy junk silver coins. He recommended using Jim Blanchard as a reputable coin dealer. I have a lot of respect for Prechter


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

Thank you for he replies.
I will be checking out Jim Blanchard and the shop in West Edmonton Mall.


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Remember, west Edmonton mall has one of the highest rents per square foot in North America. Any coin dealer there, or any store for that matter, has to have a very good profit margin...which translates to they'll pay you less. 

Google says there are at least a couple more coin dealers in Edmonton.


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## wolf (Feb 2, 2016)

Just a Guy said:


> Remember, west Edmonton mall has one of the highest rents per square foot in North America. Any coin dealer there, or any store for that matter, has to have a very good profit margin...which translates to they'll pay you less.
> 
> Google says there are at least a couple more coin dealers in Edmonton.


Point well taken.


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## Tesla (Mar 20, 2010)

It would be best to do research on these coins yourself to determine a fair value for them. You should get at least spot price for the metal content of the silver and gold. The best way to sell it would honestly be ebay or a coin show. A dealer will offer you under valued price for numismatic coins do to them having to make money as well. Just do your research.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

wolf said:


> Thanks for all the replies and leads.
> I will be talking to my bank Manager in the near future and I will ask her about appraisals.
> I will check out the Edmonton Coin Club,never knew there was one.
> And I will look at the shop on 105. I take that to be just off White Ave.
> ...


Yes, just south of Whyte.


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