$500 bags of coins

:hail:I have come into possession of some sealed $500 bags of silver coins. Dimes and Quarters. I have the original receipts for them from 1974. I don't know what to do with them. Should I sell as is or bust them open and start looking for rare ones? Anybody know about what they are worth. Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to get burned at the local "coin" pawn shop! Thanks

 

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First welcome to the forum.

Personally I'd be ripping the bags open and searching. Definitely stay away from pawn shops!

 

Open the bags!!!

Go buy a copy of the red book for 2008!!! Use this to help determine rough value (ask questions!!!) and identify key coins!

Start looking through what you have and ask questions as you have them. Pictures are worth a 1000 words!!!

If you sell them as they are you will probably never realize what they might be worth! If they are just common dates you can always sell them in bulk lots on ebay!

Good Luck - tell us what you do and what you find if you open them.

Best Regards

Darryl

 

They are worth about $4500 per bag (Assuming they are actually silver with no 40% Kennedy's). Any dealer not paying at least 8.5 to 9 times face for junk silver is either incompetent or cheating people.

 

At $500 face value, I think there is little, if any, added value in keeping them sealed because most people who would buy them would do so for the silver value alone.

So, I don't think you lose anything by looking through them. If you have any interest in doing so, I would say go right ahead.

 

welcome to the forum! :thumbpen them up!

 

welcome to the forum .. im with the others, rip em open, start searching, and welcome to the hobby

 

You've got to go through those babies !
If you don't want to, send them to me to sort.

 

There's no loss in value for opening them. So hop to it and let us know what you find.

 

Welcome to the forum. Buy a copy of the Red Book and open the bag up! Then start asking questions here on the forum.

Lou

 

If you know from the receipts that these are "junk" silver coins, don't expect to find any rarities. But I'd be inclined to go through them anyway. You might be able to enhance the value a bit by putting them together as sets and short sets. There is also the chance that a few of the coins might have a bit more numismatic value now than they did when they were sealed in the bags decades ago.

 

Sounds like nothing, so I'd open them up and just spend them at local stores. With me right behind you. Just joking. Welcome man! I'm with the others in saying open 'em up! If you have any questions, feel free to ask on here!

Phoenix

 

Im with the rest.....bust 'em open!!!

 

You should definitely open them. Bags of silver from the mid 70s may have better coins than more recently accumulated bags of silver. You will very possibly and even likely find better date Franklins like the 52-S, 55, etc, some XF/AU Walkers from the 40s, some lower grade better date Walkers like the 16, 17-S and 38-D, and possibly even some lower grade Barber Halves.

Let us know the results should you open the bag.

 

Welcome to CT. I think it's unanimous. You've got to go through them. That's the fun(work) part of the hobby (next to finding great coins).

Bruce

 

Lets get together and help him open that bag!

 

I opened one of the bags of quarters. It seems the majority are from the 40s and 1964. There are a couple of liberty quarters that are so badly worn you can't see the date. I think that is expected because even in 1974 they would have been worth more. I have ordered a Red Book. I guess I'm going to sort them by year to start off with. I'll look for any that are in good shape. Most of them do look pretty worn. I was wondering about using them as legal tender. Say I make a $9000 deal on a used car. If they take 2 $500 face value Washington face silver quarter bags couldn't I get away with paying only $1000 worth of taxes? And couldn't they technically take the car sale as a loss at $1000?

 

LOL - Good luck with that! Now you would be putting it on them to realize the gains on the silver value. I think you would be creating more work for them to help you avoid paying taxes. I think (I'm not a car salesman) - They are trying to hit a sales volume that would be affected negatively by that transaction.

 

Interesting thoughts.
It is a shame that Roy isn't here to comment.

[That would be fun to watch!]

 

I think his response would have just been "ask your CPA / tax attorney".