Freakin' Mother Load...

I would love to see a picture!

 

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I'm sorry to hear about your loss. You could have alot, I mean, ALOT of money in that stash. It wouldn't hurt to go through the coins and look for the key dates. Because some can be worth hundreds and even thousands just by themselves. It sounds like you have Morgans Silver Dollars and Peace dollars in your Silver Dollar supply. Morgan dollars were minted from 1878 to 1921, while the Peace dollars were minted 1921 to 1928 and once again in 1934 and 1935. I don't know all the key dates to the Morgan dollar set but I may be able to remember a few, which is 1881 CC? 1880 CC? 1887 CC. And the Peace dollars keys (that I know of) are the 1921, 1923-D, 1928. Look for the dates listed and you'll have atleast $1200 counting the Morgan keys listed. What I would do is sell them by the roll (after looking for rare dates). Then sell the rare dates (if any) separate. Franklin Half dollars weren't minted until 1948 to 1963. Before that, it was the Walking Liberty half dollar, which was minted 1916 to 1947. One of the key dates I know of is the 1921-S and maybe the 1921-D?

 

You Bet I will get some photo's of this.

 

HAHAHA, yes good to mention that other collection, just in case!!

I didn't have much time to reply earlier as I was on my lunch break, but i'm glad to head that you can keep this collection and not have to split it up or sell it off. This is a great opportunity to get into the hobby and put together a darn nice collection in the process without having to put in any extra money.

Are all of the coins in rolls or have you had a chance to look through them? Everyone here does love pictures so if you can post some you would definitly enjoy rock-stardome status here for a day or two

A red book can be had at most local coin shops. Without giving too many details what part of the world are you in, I'm sure someone here could recommend a reputible shop for you.

Oh and hopefully you already have one but if not, get a safe!!

 

You could post some pics here and we would be glad to help you out

 

I wouldn't bother with a safe. Get a safe deposit box for it.

 

Wow, Nice find!

OK... first order of business.....

DO NOT CLEAN ANYTHING AT ALL NO MATTER WHAT! No washing with soap, nothing, you can ruin a coin this way.

Oh, and when we refer to coins as junk silver or "melt" it means that the coins carry little to no numismatic premium over their melt value.

Now... if I had to guess, because I have been through a whole bunch of old time coin hoards (Including one I also inherited) I'll give you a rough idea of what to really expect..

In $4,500 face, expect to find $5-10 face in coins worth more than melt. That's been my average... usually way less than 1%. But that can be VERY well worth searching for and a lot of fun too. Remember, "rare coins" are worth money because they are indeed rare, even when they were new!

But an old time hoard like this will generally yield some treasures.

OK...

Mercury Dimes:

The 16-D is the holy grail, it's $500+ even in very low grade.
1921 and 1921-D Dimes are the semi-keys and worth way more than melt in any condition.

26-S and 31-D are also better dates, like a lot of coins, there's a number of Mercury dimes that really are bullion coins until they get into nicer condition.

Watch the 1942 and 1942-D, those are melt coins in circ UNLESS they are overdates, in which case $3-400 even in low grade and they skyrocket from there.

Unless it's something berzerk like way off center, no silver Roosevelt dime in circ condition is really worth more than melt.

Standing Liberty Quarters? Unless there's no stars under the eagle, dateless ones are bullion.

With dates, there's a lot of pricey ones, some are cheap in low grade and quite valuable as the grade increases (27-S)

Any Pre-25 with a date, and 25 and later you're looking for 26-D, 26-S, 27-D, 27-S.

Washintgton Quarters? Only low-grade circ ones that bring over bullion are the 32-D and 32-S, look for those. Otherwise generally melt, but there are a number of doubled dies that are valuable, again, these are in the redbook.

Walking Liberty Halves? The Valuable ones are almost all early dates, any 1921 is worth a big premium, and as the grades increase values skyrocket. Assuming these were put away in the 50s-60s most, if not all of your early date Walkers will be in low grade. Still, if well worn, 16, 16-D, 16-S, 17-D (Mint mark front or back), 17-S obverse mint mark, 19, 19D, 19S, 20-D, 21, 21d, 21s, 23S, 38D are worth saving. Other early dates, with few exceptions are all pricey in F and above, more importantly, they are rare in VF+

Franklins... 55 is the one date in circ that brings over melt.

Morgans... oy vey, LOTS. Assuming circ...

ANY "CC"
85-S, 86-S, 88-S, 92-S, any coin dated 93, 94 or 95, 96-S, 99, 02-S, any coin dated 03, 04-S

Peace? 28 and 34-S

 

I can't wait for that list. I have " that ole feelin' " he has some real keepers.

 

Sorry to hear about your grandfather. That is an awesome hoard he left you. I also inherited part of my grandfather's collection after he passed.

Beyond the dollar value, he passed me a love for the hobby as a result of inheriting his collection. Coin collecting has become one of my passions.

I echo the advice of others on this forum; go buy yourself a "RedBook". Commonly known as A Guide Book of United States Coins by R. S. Yeoman. That will allow you to identify any key date coins that might be worth a substantial premium. Also on pg 412 of the RedBook, there is a bullion value table which will give you melt value for all the common silver US coins.

The best link I've seen on line for checking the spot value of all your silver coins is this:
http://www.silvercoinstoday.com/silver-calculators/us-silver-coin-calculator/

Good luck and please share the results of your hoard search with us!

 

Some coin dealers have a habit of saying that everything brought into their shop is just "melt".

 

I'm glad you mentioned this! Do not, under any circumstances, keep these coins in a gunsafe. The oils and lubricants that are used to clean and protect guns can be harmful to the surfaces of coins. The coins don't even have to come into direct contact with the solvents. The molecules floating around in the air of this enclosed space can settle on the coins.

Joe, I wouldn't concern yourself with trying to identify key dates, semi-key dates and VAM's at this point. For a new collector, this will make your task a bit more complicated at this point. Just post a list of the Morgan and Peace dollars, and we can help you weed out the less valuable dates/mintmarks.

Let's just take it one step at a time. After the Morgans & Peace, we can tackle the Walkers, then the Franklins and then the quarters in the same fashion. This should make it easier for you.

By the way, the CC Morgans were only produced 1878-1885 & 1889-1893. The most common of these are 1882-1884.

Chris

 

I guess I am a bit confused here. Do you guys wish for me to list all my morgans year and mint ? I will try and give it a start, maybe over a few posts though. Thank you all for the advice, like you said I will get the morgans next to my pc and list them.

Also, I guess I should thank Grandpa for having the foresight of doing this.

Mainly it was the quarters knowing when they switched the property of the quarters that silver was going to be weeded out. To be able to foresee this and put this aside is truly amazing. Most of his machines were quarter machines and then I am guessing were half dollars, same thing to put them aside. With the Morgans I am betting mainly it was a collection, had to be. As these are at a much lower number then the halfs and quarters. Also, unless he had dollar slot machines somewhere I am not sure of any other dollar machines that people would casually use. Plus they are quite a bit older than any of the other coins.

I bet their are plenty of older people who say, " how could I have not known to do this ?" Having fortunes in their hands and spending it on cigarettes or pinball machines, whilst the new cheaper coins are starting to dominate their change pocket. So to have someone who actually have done this is again amazing.

So with that being said I will get a list of the $'s up. and try and upload some photo's. We knew of the coins stashed away, he had told us where. But with everything else going on a month has passed since he passed. Yesterday we finally pulled them out, quite laboring to dig them out. Thats when I thought I better find out what these might be worth, hence I joined this group. Honestly the thought of getting them out again hurts my back, hehe. But I will plan to do it a gain shortly, if only to like someone said to have "Rock Star status" for a day or two.

 

Oh dear. Dig them out? Did Grandfather have them stashed away under ground?

 

Hi Joe,

Chris's advice on the gun safe is very important! You may also want to pick up a pair of cotton gloves (craft or hardware store probably has some cheap). Reduces the chance for finger prints on a surface that might not have had one prior to you handling it.

I would start a spread sheet in excel by type and list date/mint mark. Maybe a different worksheet for each type of coin. If your wife helps it can go really fast. It's an important 1st step to later looking for key dates & mm. Don't worry about grading yet. Then use the red book to identify dates/mm that are more valuable. Once you separate these, then I would really start asking questions about grades and value. Pictures will be critical at that point. The red book doesn't do a great job about identifying varieties or errors that might also have significant value so do not assume because the date looks common that you have a coin only worth melt. The members here can help with that but that's when you should start sharing of the list information. I would save that for after you identify the key dates.

BTW - members on any board (especially that have been here any amount of time) are likely to question the authenticity of stories like this without a picture that shows at least some portion of the collection. People sometimes come around and tell wild stories that later turn out to be false. Unfortunately other collectors and dealers on the forum have spent time to give good advise only to find out it was a waste because someone thought it would be funny to get people here worked up about a found or inherited hoard. Just a piece of advice, you may get more help from experienced collectors/dealers if you post 1 picture of some portion of the collection. As time goes on if there are no pictures people (generally the less experienced or more skeptical collectors) tend to start claiming the collection doesn't exist. Weather it does or not and that tends to get the original poster to move on or disappear. Handel it the way you feel comfortable but a photo will end any really distracting posts.

Good Luck and Best Regards ~ Darryl

 

The keys to determining what you actually have include:

1. Know the date
2. Know where to look for the mint mark. This is often significant because one can be common and others rare for any given year.
3. Learn about grade AND condition.
4. DO NOT CLEAN!!!!!!
5. DO NOT CLEAN!!!!!!
6. DO NOT CLEAN!!!!!!
7. The next level is to learn about errors and varieties. You can receive much help from this board if you can take a good digital photo and post it on here.
8. If any of them look like they're turning pretty colors, you might have a toner. This can add value. If they look like they are turning black, then it might be damage. This can only be determined through supply and demand.

9. If you determine that you have a special coin, you can get some advice about third party grading. It's somewhat expensive so you want to save those for the higher value coins.

Welcome to the world of Numismatics and collecting. Good luck.

 

Not under ground but tucked away in totes, where I have to pull them from under something with no access from the top. They are in bags each titled, $500 quarters 9 of them and three bags of the Half's titled the same way $500 half dollars, so you can imagine the weight of this.

Also, as USS656 has stated, which I can honestly understand, without pictures it may be hard to believe. Completely understandable.

On the other hand I am very cautious of;
1) That I even mentioned this on line,.... as I mentioned before my wive look's good in Levi's. Not literally, but was actually kinda mad at the fact that I did mention this online. With what people say what this could be worth in melt alone, I hate to put anyone in my family in harms way. I can understand her point of view.
2) pictures- would definitely proof that the story is real.

So, a quandary exists:
No pictures= this guy is full of ****.
Pictures= this guy is telling the truth, I hope he is joking about his gun collection.

That being said I will talk it over with the "boss" and see about pulling them out once more snapping some photo's and posting them. I will have to soften her up. Because like I mentioned she was understandably upset that I even mentioned this. That I mentioned it.

But, I do honestly appreciate everyone's input, I know I cannot say, "hey believe me with no pictures" I would think my self full of BS as well. I am excited about this and truth be told I hate the fact that they are tucked away, an awesome collection should be shown. Does no good, in my point of view, to have something like this and have to hide it. So, I want to take pictures and show them off, as I think it is cooler than hell. The Morgans on the other hand were in a safe deposit box, with, unfortunately, only one 1880 ten dollar gold piece. This is at home right now and I can go thru it, so I can probably start of with some pic's of these. Again I think it a shame to have these tucked away in a bank. Why not have at least some of them on display??!!

But, honestly I am leary of on my profile to state where I am from. My career, as it is directly related to my area. Hope you can understand. I do believe that most every one here is here to help, with no ill intent, but.....you never know. In no way am I stating any individual directly, I hope not to offend anyone here.

One more thing, I think it a no win situation what I wrote about my wife, that she look's good in pant's then say not literally. I am digging a hole for myself.

I am sitting down right now I will list some of the Morgans and peace dollars, like someone said earlier, the rare ones were rare when they were in circulation, not only in a collection. So I think maybe I have just some ordianry ones, but lets see !!!

 

This is where considerate people step in and change the subject.

I think posting a list of dates is a good idea. Arranging some sort of secure storage for the bulk coins is also a good idea. Keeping six-figure amounts of anything portable, fenceable and not personally identifiable around the house is probably a bad idea.

I wouldn't particularly care about convincing people here whether or not the hoard is real -- if you post some date/mint-mark info, and maybe a few pictures of more interesting individual pieces, that'll be enough to pique people's interest and keep them engaged, IMHO.

 

SAFE DEPOSIT BOX SAFE DEPOSIT BOX SAFE DEPOSIT BOX.

Get one, man. It'll give you a ton of peace of mind... probably no more than $500 for one big enough to store all the silver in.

 

$28.41 Silver melt for 90% coins

Total silver value for quarters is $92,482.02.

Total silver value for half dollars is $30,827.34.

Total = $123,309.36

 

Don't give out any personnel information! I am generally more concerned about the people that are not members that read these posts. They get many views from non-members. Stick to talking about coins and not about how you get at them and how they are stored. Don't tell your friends as they are as likely - if not more likely to say something to the wrong person!

Are you crazy man, I would be as worried about making comments like this! STOP DIGGING, start with roses, chocolate, and offering to do dishes all week! LOL...

Lets just assume that you are not and leave it at that! Nothing wrong with people knowing you are willing to defend your home and family!

I would stick with your later idea about showing some of the Morgans - that should be sufficient. Regardless, you both should be involved in these decisions about what to share with the public!

Believe me, we all think it is cool as heck too! I wouldn't go overboard with photos and stick to what's relevant.

We look forward to to anything you are willing/able to share! I hope you find some great pieces and the search for them will be a fun experience.

TMI - no one should be offended and no one needs to know anything about you. You only need to learn to understand the correct/current value of your collection as well as any other information that will help you as it relates to the coins/collection. As the price of silver swings the value of the bulk of your collection will obviously swing with it.

Happy Hunting!!!