# Selling Old Coins?



## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

Anyone have any experience dealing in old coins? father left us a bunch of old coins when he died in 1970's. Canadian, US & NL. Just sitting in a box since (maybe 50 lbs worth ) A lot are in those old "Library of Coins" books, where you slip the coins into their approriate years etc. -between plastic/cardboard. i've thought about appraising/selling them a hundred times..but being the world's worst procrastinator I've never gotten "round tu-it....
I'm worried about getting ripped off by some collector...How do you go about it safely?
Does the"market" for old coins ebb & flow? Is there ever a good or bad time to be selling?
Any comments / advice appreciated.


----------



## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

Haven't worked with coins in particular but, when I was younger, I did get quite heavily into stamps, including working for a stamp dealer so I saw "behind the scenes" as it were.

There is definitely a difference between various people in the business. Like anything to do with money there are honest people and there are crooks. High pressure sales, and slow rolling.

The markets do fluctuate, usually based on the economy (good times people can indulge in hobbies, bad times they can't). Also, I'm not sure how many of "the younger generation" have an interest in coins and stamps (haven't been in the business for years, but I think kids are more interested in comics and collector cards). 

I'd get multiple opinions on its "value", and remember that there has to be a margin in it for the dealer. There are catalogs out there but, in my day, hey weren't very accurate (we typically sold well below catalog "value" , like 50-60%, at the retail level, so we bought even lower). Also, a lot depends on condition and that could be highly subjective.

Best thing to do is get several appraisals and decide if you'd rather have the money, or keep them. Don't worry about getting the best value, I doubt that that is something you could ever be sure of, just be happy with the amount you get and forget about it. 

The best deal would probably come from the collectible market, the worst prices would come from the bulk metal buyers. However, be aware, no collectible dealer is going to spend the time going through every single coin to get you the best price (especially if there a large amount of common coins) they are just going to quickly look to see if there's anything interesting easily found. If not, they may just offer you metal price at a discount.


----------



## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

thanks JAG!
anyone else?


----------



## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

if the collection is in any order take it to a local auction house and get them to take a look, they have an interest in getting the best price so should give you a good estimate

also, try a couple of dealers and see what they say

there are many web sites that will tell what coins have silver content and you can sort through to take out silver if what you have is just a mass of common coins

in terms of collectibility, you really are only looking at coins in pristine condition as condition now is king for both stamps and coins

stamp collecting is slowly fading but still alive ... coins more so


----------



## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

For old silver at the moment the cash value is about 10.00 dollars for every dollar face value.
The first thing to do is check for key date coins as they will have a much higher value.
Next would be condition worn common dates are strictly silver value but even common dates that are in great condition can bring a better price.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Google is your friend.

You can get real time pricing for anything these days from Ebay or auction houses.

Got a 1950 Jefferson US nickel ?..........type "1950 US Jefferson nickel" in the search bar.

(It is worth 10 cents to $120.00 depending on the condition)

http://cointrackers.com/coins/1090/1950-jefferson-nickel/


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

My wife & I sold some silver coins - practically for the cost of the silver, at a collector. I took the $ and put it into her RRSP.
She did some research & sold some lead soldiers that she inherited from her family estate to a collector in England of all places.
She also has some collectibles - hockey & baseball cards from the mid-60's to the 80's. Also loads and loads of stamps - her collection and her mum's (now deceased)
Not easy at all to find buyers for stamps and sports card memorabilia. 
One collector was buying stamps by the pound here in Vancouver - not much value at all. There were stacks of stamp albums in the corner of the store. he looked at a few pages of the album and would then offer a few dollars for the entire album!
Her stamp collection included some German stamps from the 20's that were 1000000 deutchmarks (due to inflation) - they were practically worthless - I think we still have them.
Millennials don't value these kinds of things.


----------



## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

dubmac said:


> My wife & I sold some silver coins - practically for the cost of the silver, at a collector. I took the $ and put it into her RRSP.
> She did some research & sold some lead soldiers that she inherited from her family estate to a collector in England of all places.
> She also has some collectibles - hockey & baseball cards from the mid-60's to the 80's. Also loads and loads of stamps - her collection and her mum's (now deceased)
> Not easy at all to find buyers for stamps and sports card memorabilia.
> ...


i am selling off a collection ... stamps are finished ... it will continue as a very high end hobby where scarce and high-quality stamps are still collected but the common material will be firestarter ... coins at least have metal value

i know little about sports cards but i know there is masses of the common stuff and i suspect it is the same as stamps where the cream will be very desirable and the rest worthless

someone just paid 17-million dollars for paul newman’s rolex watch which was 17 times what they expected at the auction ... there is huge amounts of money around looking for rarities to invest in but only the very best stuff


----------



## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

Hey - I have Antoine Domino's autograph....wonder if that'll fetch anything???


----------



## verticalguy (Nov 3, 2017)

I would simply go to some shops and ask what they are ready to pay. If you want to sell them I wouldn't wait another x years, as the demographics collecting coins is slowly shrinking. Young people don't really care about them.


----------



## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

i had some old tungsten bars lying around so i dipped em in gold and sold them to rbc ... made a nice little profit


----------



## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

^^


----------



## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

I have a 1L Munich Hofbrauhaus beer stein almost filled with Canadian and probably some US pennies. Not sure whether the mug or the pennies are more valuable. 









Eins, zwei, g'suffa . . .


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

I'll take the mug.


----------

