Over 2,000 old silver coins (dimes, quarters, half dollars)

I guess this is the proper place to put this? I'm visiting my grandmother and while I was in the middle of setting up my media player on her television, we moved a dresser to reach an outlet. Underneath the dresser were a couple of cookie tins. I thought nothing of it, just some old lady grandma stuff inside them probably. Trinkets and the like.

Well, she immediately pulled them out and said "I want you to have these, I've had them for so long I'm tired of hiding them"

Inside the two cookie tins were thousands of old silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars. I did my due diligence in researching the best I could, and I went through each and every one of those coins to make sure there weren't any rare or unique coins (there weren't, really, based on some makeshift price guides online), and determined that their best value was in the 90% silver they were made out of.

Well, like I said I went through each and every coin. Some were in good condition, others were in terrible condition (especially the older ones). But none o them were of a rare mint so I wasn't too concerned with that, I was only concerned, after a while, with how many I had and how much they would be worth heir weight in silver.

Based on two different equations I found online (and I tried both and came out to similar results, give or take a couple bucks), the total value in silver for ALL the coins, based on the equations given, is $11,012, give or take. This made me and my family pretty excited. We have 341 half dollars, 1,289 quarters, and 429 dimes, all ranging between the 1920's and 1964 (one dime at 1917, but it's in terrible shape).

So we're trying to find out how much we can get for it. We obviously don't think we can get full value, that would be foolish to assume, but we're trying to figure out what the best course of action is to get rid of them. We've been reading that coin dealers, even if they give good deals, won't do any deals larger than a grand or so in purchases. We're currently trying to look up smelters but we're not sure where ot even begin with that. My brother thinks we should hit up Ebay, but I wouldn't know where to begin on how to list this whole thing.

As far as I know none of the coins are rare or valuable on their own. I checked Coin Study and Coinflation and looked at their list of valuable coins in the versions we have, and didn't find any of them to be of significant value, and the ones that did meet certain criteria were in terrible shape or were only worth maybe a few bucks more than their silver price.

Sooooooooo, I'm clueless. I'm sitting on (I assume) $10,000+ in silver within these coins, and I have no clue how to get max value for it. I NEED HELP!!!!!!

P.S. Just for a fun story, I asked my grandmother how she had all these. She is a hair stylist/barber and she said back when she was in her 20's and 30's she used to cut hair in a shop that sat above a bank and the clients would tip her in these quarters and halves and dimes and what not (this was back in the 50's/60's), and instead of spending them she just tucked them aside. She's been sitting on them for almost 60 years now.

On top of these silver coins, she also had $275 (face value) in common day half dollar coins and $150+ in common day quarters. And 65 of those gold Sacagewea dollars, which I researched and found them to be worth nothing more than face value (right?)

But yeah, HELP PLEASE!!! What should my first course of action be?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Sorry, can't help with the course of action for you to take, but noticed the part about the Sacagawea's...there are two well known varieties the "Cheerio" one (I believe it's the year 2000, and the eagle's tail feathers are supposed to have detail) and the "Wounded Eagle" variety (same date I think; there's a mark across the Eagle's belly). Nice finds!

 

Welcome to Cointalk and congrats on your find - oh and give grandma a super big hug for being so smart!

Best place to get current melt value is www.coinflation.com but roughly speaking the half dollars are worth about $10.30 each, the quarters about $5.15 each and the dimes about $2.06 each, so yes you have quite a stash there!

Ebay would not be a bad place but you will have a lot of fees etc. depending on how you list them. As a whole group it will cost you like $100+ but if you list them individually the fees can really add up.

I would advertise them locally and call around some local coins shops and pawn shops to see what they would give you for them... alternatively you could sell them to an online store like www.Apmex.com or www.kitco.com

Good luck!

 

Sell them off slowly to different dealers.... so you don't have to pay taxes on the windfall.

 

FWIW, I made a spreadsheet of the years, quantities, and, in the case of the half dollars and some of the quarters, their mint, right here:

Dimes - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Apgpofk8J-QPdDBxTlc5MmN3TTcxRzFsMWJROHM0aWc

Quarters - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Apgpofk8J-QPdFVSaURXMDlEaUtfYllfbkZxOVowNWc

Half Dollars - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Apgpofk8J-QPdHc2YzJfV3Y0QzdSbFh3QkhWMGhtYnc

Thanks for the advice guys. Very helpful so far!

 

Good advice!!! Just don't get taken advantage of. I was in at a place the other day and with silver at $29.50, a guy was getting $19 times face on dimes. Seemed like a fair price with melt being right about $21.

 

Well, these aren't things I can really take with me. I don't live here, and we honestly don't wish to hang on to them. As with most people, we all have some financial issues that we would very much like to alleviate. We're not really looking at them as an investment. We're gonna keep a few of the older ones just because, but for the most part we'd like to move them all, and soon. I definitely can't take them back with me on the plane, they weigh more than my bag does, lol.

This is situation where we need to move them, and soon, within the next 2-4 weeks. Would be nice if the price of silver rose during that time, but that's kind of what we have to do at the moment. If we weren't in financial binds we'd probably definitely hang on to them, but as it stands we have more use for them being sold now than holding onto them.

 

You didn't know you were getting them, and you want the cash fast.....well be prepared to pay taxes on this next year.....if you go that way. I dislike taxes and gov't personally.

The price of silver is unlikely to move either way by more than 10% in the next month.

This site will give you a realistic price....

http://www.saharacoins.com/

click the second link on the left hand column

 

Isn't there a minimum price tag attached to a gift tax of $10,000? I don't think we'll get that much for it all, honestly, we were being hopeful for somewhere between $8000-$9500 if we sold them all off in a bunch

 

You're probably better off selling them via an online store. Just go to one of the more reputable sites. Besides the few listed above, Providentmetals.com also buys silver.

Like others have mentioned, with selling that much to one place, you're going to get nailed in taxes next year.

 

I don't know much about tax laws.....but if were me, I'd have the means/ connections to sell them for cash. Big checks create a paper trail.

 

I don't see anyone making that large of cash transaction though! $1,000, maybe. $10,000, I just don't see it.

 

What you should do is contact a tax lawyer in the state you wish to sell these and IMHO I also think it would be foolish to not have an expert or someone who is knowledgeable about varietys and errors to give it a once over.

 

I'd wait for the price of silver to go up before you sell them.

 

C'mon look at the spreadsheet, it is just common junk silver. There is no way a dealer would look through this stuff, my local cuts up Proof sets and junks the silver. Unless the earlier stuff is near MS, it is junk. The OP already checked dates and mints.

Pay taxes, if you like !

 

Obviously the OP wants cash ASAP.

 

I like to sell silver at the local coin show. With several dealers competing in the same room, buy prices tend to be pretty good -- usually within 10% of melt, I think. It's usually cash transactions, although the best-paying places occasionally want to issue checks.

If you're in a more populated area, Google around and see if there's a coin show scheduled before you leave.

 

I could do it with my local dealer, I know him well.

 

Didnt see any spreadsheet and your gonna tell me that the OP does not have a chance at having a double die washington or anyother variety or error??? I never said take it to a dealer either i said someone knowledgeable or an expert and to the OP why dont you read some of the epic junk bin finds CT members have found in these very same junk bins that Doug21 has spoken of and im sure you will look at your Junk silver in a different light. Maybe im optimistic or a hopeful but to dismiss the possibility all together is foolish.

 

Good way to do it, if there happens to be a show available.