My grandparents brought these to me today and asked me to find out what I could. I have many different collections such as casino chips and sports memorabilia, but hardly know anything about coins; which I'd like to change. I've tried to include some extremely detailed pictures to help you out as best I could. I really know nothing about these things, but I know these internet forums are the greatest place to ask for help as we are like a big family. Looking to learn some history about them if there is anything interesting, and what the approximate value is of the whole lot. On to the pictures! (the site auto-resized them, but if you click them you will get a much more detailed picture) I've arranged them chronologically top left to bottom right. I know that the oldest isn't necessarily the most valuable.
the majority of those are silver morgans and the others are silver peace dollars. They sell normally on ebay for around $35 each. Each coin contains basically .8 troy ozs of silver, so its melt value is in the high 20's. Depending upon the year, condition, or mint city they can be worth more. Id suggest checking out ebay for each yr too see specifics. most of yours have seen hard times when it comes to condition scale, sorry to say.
The pictures are very helpful...but I can't get a really good look. First, let me say you have 2 types of coins there: Morgan Dollars (1878-1904, 1921) and Peace Dollars (1921-1935). These were the last two types of true "silver" dollars made by the US. They are 90% silver. I will try and give you more information in a little bit. But, there are several dates of these types that are highly desirable...but yours look like common dates at first glance. The photos of the reverse side of the coins aren't clear enough for me to see all the mint marks...so I can't completely tell what all the coins are.
Welcome to the neighborhood. All of these Morgan and Peace dollars appear to be common dates, and in their condition are probably only worth melt value. Each one contains .77344 oz. of silver. Unfortunately, your photos were resized but your thread wasn't, so I have to scroll back and forth to read your post. How big is your casino chip collection? Do you have any silver strikes? Are you a member of CC>CC? Just curious. Here's something in your honor. Chris
Not sure what they paid for them, it is more likely they have been holding onto them since the 1930s maybe 40s. comparing to ebay, some of these have an "O" mint. I don't see any CC. they recently took them to a few local coin shops that offered $428 and the other $482. I knew right away that the retailer wasn't going to pay near what they could sell them for, as i know from all of my other hobbies. thanks for the help so far, looking forward to more comments. heres a quick picture of my chips if you're interested my favorites are probably the hotstamp- blue foils and the $25 luxor/river palms.
I agree that they are all common dates and worth melt. You have 22 of them in the photo and the current melt value is $27.11 each. So, the silver value is: $596.42.
Birdy, go to pcgs.com and ngccoin.com for their price guides. If any of the dates you have come out as worth 2-3x or more than the regular common dates, those are key dates and worth keeping. The others you can probably sell on Craigslist for melt value or on eBay for a little more.
I don't think this is going to be of much help. First, I feel the PCGS guide greatly overprices the coins listed (don't know about NGC). Secondly, the OP states he is new to coins...which to me means he hasn't yet learned to properly grade coins (especially difficult coins to grade like Morgan Dollars since the series has great variety in strike quality). If you can't properly grade a coin, then a price guide is useless.
thanks so far everyone. I don't see any point in destroying american history if they still hold value for their own weight, so melting them would be silly. I'd rather have the coins than a lump of silver. Aside from the O mint, i did notice a D mint on one of the 1921s. I asked and it turns out my great grand mother actually took these out of circulation each time she would go to the market to get something and she got one in change, they've been passed on since. If only I wish they understood to look for condition a little better, darn oh well. Also I noticed there seemed to be some type of oil on them, any chance this was a preservative or more likely something that has made them worse over time? I dried them off with just the paper towel for now. also another side hobby of mine, i dabble in auto-detailing so i have some very OCD related talents in maintaining condition of certain items. (that big bottle in the chip pic is polish). If I were to clean these, what would be the proper way to do it? I see it as I have nothing to lose and maybe a little glimmer to gain if they look prettier.
I would suggest not cleaning them... at all. Most collectors would prefer a dirty natural coin to a cleaned shiny coin. Either way, they are worth melt value (that doesn't mean they will be melted, just worth the amount of silver they contain) but it's harder to sell a cleaned coin.
ahh gotcha, i figured you guys weren't recommending to melt them My two favorites are the top left and right corners. the 1880 is got some real depth remaining to it (not rubbed flat and its the oldest one). And the top right corner seems to be the cleanest one all-around. Think those two are worth a little more?
All of them seem to lack any luster so the best any one might grade is AU (About Uncirculated), but since these are all common dates, melt value is probably the best they will get. Please don't misunderstand. That doesn't mean they aren't collectible. There are a lot of collectors who put together sets of G-AU coins and they're very happy with them. I'll post some photos to give you an idea of what an MS (Mint State) Morgan should look like. Chris
Here are a couple more. Note how the luster "cartwheels" from the center of the coin to the perimeter. As you tilt it in the light, it will move around like the spokes of a wheel. Chris
yep that was my first chip taken out of a casino when i was 21, the top row are the ones i personally took (other two mgm), the rest i mostly got on ebay. anyone got any idea about the oils?
