What to do with old coins?

"area man" (hurrburgring)
04/30/2015 at 10:12 • Filed to: None

A few weeks ago my parents called an exterminator to sweep their attic as they prepare to sell my childhood home [sniff]. My mom was sitting at work when she got the call that homeowners only dream about - “Hi ma’am, uh, well we found a false wall in one corner and behind it was a dusty shoebox full of old coins.” Cha-ching!

Well, not exactly. Even though the house is over 100 years old, based on the range of dates (1890-1970) this collection of dimes, nickels, quarters and silver dollars was likely assembled and stashed away sometime in the mid 1970s. My parents, annoyed that they won’t be able to retire on this little box, passed it to me to figure out what to do with it. But the plus side is all the money will go into my car fund.

And there is some money to be had! I initially thought about taking the whole lot to someone who’d pay me the melt value for the silver. Then I got curious this morning, and after a little digging I found a rare unmarked 1928 silver dollar that the Internet pegs at $100+. Hmmmm....

I figure there’s gotta be a few people on here with more numismatic knowledge than me. Should I just soldier through this box and record everything? Where can I go to get the best price for the rare ones? Wanna buy a 1928 silver dollar for $100?

DISCUSSION (26)

Snuze: Needs another Swede > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:15

I know nothing about coins, but I think you’re doing the right thing. It always hurts me to think of how many awesome, old things have been melted for scrap.

boxrocket > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:16

Record everything, and get them appraised.

I think it's illegal to scrap coins anyway, as they're federal legal tender.

Cebu > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:18

Ooh, sweet. Good luck and get them appraised professionally, but shop around for a guy that won’t charge you through the nose.

area man > boxrocket
04/30/2015 at 10:19

I don’t know if you can spend a lot of these, but scrapping seems like a waste. Well, there’s that one jar of wheat pennies that I have no idea what to do with. Any suggestions for a fair appraisal source?

Tohru > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:30

Don’t put them in vending machines.

CalzoneGolem > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:32

You aren’t going to get much out of those wheat pennies unless they are miss prints.

OPPOsaurus WRX > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:34

I was working on my girlfriend’s family house a while back. The house was built in 1815 or so and had an absolutely beautiful fireplace mantle which was falling off the wall. I was restoring the whole room and part of the project was re-setting the mantle. When I finished helping it fall off the wall, I heard a loud metal thud, looked down and saw a rather large dirty coin. Well turns out it wasn’t even a real coin just some souvenir type thing from the 90’s.

Kinja'd!!!

area man > CalzoneGolem
04/30/2015 at 10:36

So should I just throw them at people or what?

area man > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/30/2015 at 10:37

That house looks awesome.

RockThrillz89 > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:37

I’d be on the look out for a coin show near you and go to one of those. Talk around with some of the sellers and ask what’s the best course. Hell, take them with you because you may find a booth or dealer who is willing to go through them and see if any are worth your time to try and sell. I wouldn’t go in with no knowledge and expect to sell, because they will probably rip you off. You never know, might have a fantastic mercury dime in there worth a lot of money. Coins are crazy like that. One year with a certain mint mark can change the value 10 fold compared to the exact same coin from one year earlier or later or with a different mint mark.

OPPOsaurus WRX > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:38

it was rpetty cool, nice detail. the crown molding was actually plaster so it was far far easier to fix the cracks than if it was wood

fhrblig > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:40

About 20 years ago when I was working in a gas station, some guy came and paid for $30 in gas for his Suburban with 3 rolls of old, beat up silver quarters. I put them in the change safe to buy them the next day when I got paid. The next day I find that my idiot cashier put them in the change machine (when regular quarters were in the safe too) and about half of them were gone. I managed to get about $15 worth of them and sold them to a coin shop for $45. And that was just for beat up, scarred silver quarters. I think it’ll be worth your time and effort to go through them.

thebigbossyboss > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:41

Yes.

area man > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/30/2015 at 10:45

My parents house also has plaster everywhere. They renovated the living room and I remember the crew having a hell of a time with the baseboards.

505Turbeaux > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:46

internet may say $100, but that is dependent on many factors that the lay person may not see. I for example have a coin collection worth close to $200K so sayeth the internet (and gold prices from last year), and a stamp collection that may surpass that even. However, buyers of such things are quickly dying away. I had some loose (but protected) stamps to sell a few years back that I had doubles of, internet said $1200 for a particular one, even $400 in tough shape, but even after many months of trying to find a buyer, all I got was offers of $100. Philatelic and numismatic collectors are really pegged into the retirement age crowd and over. And I will never sell, my dad hid the coin collection from my mom when they were getting divorced or it all would have been liquidated, like his 911 cabrio was.

CalzoneGolem > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:52

Yeah but don’t take them out of the jar first. I have an exceedingly rare first run Lincoln penny that is worth hundreds of times more than what it was originally worth. You can do that math.

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > area man
04/30/2015 at 10:53

Separate out all the silver, spend the rest. If they look like they were in circulation, its doubtful any of the old pennies are worth more than a couple cents. The the newer silver money certainly isn’t worth more than face value.

area man > 505Turbeaux
04/30/2015 at 11:02

Yeah, I know it’s going to be a tough go. I doubt I will get even close to $100 but hopefully I can get something decently above the $14 melt value. I checked the rest of the silver dollars and they’re all like $20-25, which probably isn’t enough of a bump to make it worth the effort of selling vs scrapping. So fingers crossed I don’t waste time with any low-return coins among the other denominations.

area man > RockThrillz89
04/30/2015 at 11:03

That’s the hope!

boxrocket > area man
04/30/2015 at 11:03

Antique shops, pawn shops, local coin collecting clubs, etc. You may not get much more than face value for a lot of them, if that, but they'll go to someone who appreciates them. Keep the valuable ones, pass them on to future generations, and let the rest go. Definitely don't put them in a coinstar, haha.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > 505Turbeaux
04/30/2015 at 11:08

What are you, Ron Swanson?

“I don’t know the amount of money I have I only know how many pounds of money I have.”

Kinja'd!!!

505Turbeaux > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
04/30/2015 at 11:09

haha I know it is heavy, that is all. I also know 10 MILLION Reichsmarks is worth about 1 dollar too

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > 505Turbeaux
04/30/2015 at 11:16

Same as all of the Saddam era money I brought home from Ramadi.

Meatcoma > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/30/2015 at 13:07

I remember those coins, my dad had 2 pennies and 2 nickles framed with some other coins. My mom probably still has em.

PilotMan > area man
04/30/2015 at 13:39

Don’t you have a local coin shop? Have them check them out with you. It’s nice to see what you have already for sale.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > 505Turbeaux
04/30/2015 at 14:41

Actually given what you said, it would be great if you could take the coin collection, give it the “internet value” and let her have it in exchange for keeping other assets of “similar value”.

But what would likely happen in practice is it would get sold in a divorce auction and some low-ballers will get it for far less than the appraised value and then that money will get split.

So it’s probably better in the end that the coin collection was kept hidden.