Well I have recently renewed my interest in coin collecting (used to collect when i was younger, from age 8 to 15 or so, and now I'm quite a bit older. I had forgotten all about my collection, and had never cared about what things were worth, I just found the coins to be interesting. Well I picked up a price guide the other day and found a few interesting coins that I happen to have in my collection that are of some value. Among these are: 1932-S Franklin Quarter (rare) Almost all Lincoln cents incl. 1909 VDB MANY Indian Head cents incl 1908-S (any idea what I should do about tape residue on it?) 1857/58L/58S Flying Eagle Cents Numerous Liberty Head Nickels incl 1894 75% of all Barber Dimes incl 1895-S, 1898-O, 1899-O 85% of all merc dimes Approx 10 morgan quarters Some liberty standing quarters A couple Morgan dollars A giant pile of world coins I didn't realize I had some "key date" coins, which is quite interesting, although I doubt I'd ever sell any of them. Now that I have a full time job, and some extra money hanging around, I intend to complete a few of these sets, and look forward to posting on these forums as I continue my hunts and explore new coins that I had not previously known about. On a related note, here are some photos I took of some of them. I do not know much about grading, and am not too familiar with what a "MS-60" or "AU" or "VF" even look like. Any ideas on these? (i'm sure the 1932-S is a pretty bad grade) Thanks, and I look forward to chatting with you all. Steve EDIT: Please explain why the grade is what it is, so that I may learn how these things are done. Thanks!
welcome to the forum Steve and dont clean any of your coins. if you need conservation approach NCS. I know you wont sell any of your world coins but if you plan to sell you can list them in the open forum here. enjoy I ma sure you will like it here.
Steve: First, the quarter is not Franklin (that is the half dollar) it is Washington; Nice coin, possibly a G-4, some may consider it a VG. Second: For the tape, try Afta, a solvent that shouldn't hard the coin. Others will be along shortly with other comments.
As Frank has already pointed out---its a Washington Quarter I would also grade it as G-4. The rims are worn down to the letters and some places is totally gone. The detail is lacking much. I would suggest buying a few books before you buy many coins. The first being Photgrade, and ANA Grading Guide. The PCGS grading guide might also be helpful. Speedy
Welcome back to collecting. :thumb: You got a very nice start of coins already. :thumb: The terms you mentioned, AU, BU, VF, are all grading terms which it lookslike you know. They are a part of the Sheldon Coin Grading Scale, which you just type that into google, or go to www.pcgs.com, and you will find what the grades mean. I would grade the quarter a G-4, but a nice looking one at that. :thumb: Now I would personally go with Speedy's advice also, I would go to your local bookstore (such as Barnes and Nobles or etc) and they normally have a good supply of coin books, pick up a few of them, and then learn what you can from them. You will also learn a lot from here too. Best of luck! Phoenix
Thank you 1) Thanks so much for the replies, I will follow the advice and pick up a few books. I just read a bit about the Sheldon coin grading system, thanks for the tip. 2) My mistake on the "franklin" quarter, I had what they call a "brain fart". 3) What grade do you guys think the 1908-S is? I'll take a stab at it and guess "F-12 fine" and maybe even "VF-20". 4) phoenix 21 - thanks for the welcome back! 5) viper - thanks for the compliment! I have another question: Who are some good coin sellers online besides, of course, Ebay? Also, it turns out I have all sorts of uncirculated world coins in this collection that I had forgotten about. I will post up some pics in the world coin area one of these days. Thanks for the help so far, you guys are very helpful! Steve
The indian head I would say VG-8, but am not that good at grading indian heads, so I could be wrong. You will get a whole lot of different answers on some good places to buy on the internet, but I do my buying from places like: www.coinbug.com, www.jakesmp.com, and a few others I can't think of. Some other good places that are good to purchase coins are www.teletrade.com, www.coins.ha.com, and also others too. All good sites. But do your research and learn all you can on coins before you purchase some. Best of luck to you. :thumb: Phoenix
Welcome to CoinTalk. It's always nice to see someone finding renewed interest in the old hobby of coin collecting. I rediscovered numismatics about two years ago after taking a 25 year hiatus. I suspect that our hobby is experiencing an increase in interest due to the large number of GenXers that are approaching middle age and rediscoving their childhood hobby of coin collecting. As children, during the late '70s and early '80s, many of us were introduced to the hobby via the excitement generated from the Hunt brothers attempted cornering of the silver market. Now, years later, I suspect older collectors returning to the hobby are fueled more by a feeling of nostalgia and sentinentality than anything else. It's just my theory and I'm rambling now so I'll stop. :kewl:
Welcome to the forums and I do like the Canadian 10c that looks lovely and while my eyes are not the best, I can see very little wear on it :thumb:
Steve: It is hard to see the detail with that tape residue on the obverse. Perhaps a F-12 if there is a full Liberty.
You may be right about this theory. I definitely have nostalgic and sentimental thoughts about my younger years of collecting. Back then, a $10 coin was a HUGE purchase for me, and I would spend days looking at it and reading about it and whatnot. I am, however, generation Y, a.k.a. the MTV generation. Not too many people my age were into coin collecting, because it was considered too nerdy even though I thought it was :kewl: Thanks for the compliments on the canadian 10c, I just found it in one of my piles of world coins, I'll have to search through there and see if I can find anything else as interesting. If I do, I will be sure to post some pics! Steve
welcome to the forum!!! you got some very interesting coins in your collection! Good luck on your future plans to continue collecting!!
welcome to the forum!!:hail: thats cool that you got a 1932S!:kewl: did you get it from circulation by chance?
Yes! Almost all my coins are from circulation. The 1932S and the 1908S were both gotten that way! (lucky me):thumb: Steve