I'm getting conflicting information

I have a batch of coins collected over decades from a friend's father and husband, and I'm trying to figure out how to help her with the coins.

None of the coins have been protected and almost all of them have been in circulation. I've got a couple that were uncirculated, but most are VG-8 and below, as far as I can tell. Some appear to be VF-20 and higher, but not a lot.

When I look in the Red Book, the Blue Book, Numista.com, and EBay, I see coins with the low ratings going for something over melt value. Not much, but a little.

I have now talked to two individual collectors and one coin shop owner and have been told that most is not worth much more than face value. The coin shop owner suggested that he was going to send some of the silver dollars out to be melted down because they were not AU-50 or higher.

So, what's the scoop? How come in some places even the lowest grade coins are assigned a value, and in other places I should just melt them down or spend them?

I'm talking about Morgans, Peace dollars, Walking Liberty and Franklin Half Dollars, V nickels, War nickles, Indian head nickels, etc.

Do I go ahead and categorize the rest of her coins, or just take them in buckets to the bank?

 

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He may not have been collecting them as coins per se (as evidenced by the storage method) but as bullion. So having the silver itself may have been the point. If that's the case, there would likely not be any key dates in the mix.

 

There are some old albums in the background, so, I assume he was a collector.

 

Old coins need the same respect as old people. I don't believe in euthanizing anything.

 

Seems overwhelming and contradictory, doesn't it? Yes, there are different collector bases that different coins will appeal to. Most common and average worn cents and nickels will not bring much more than face value to most. A few of the rarer dates will bring a premium, but would entail you checking each coin for dates and mint marks. I see some Whitman books in the box there. Often the old Whitman books will give a quantity minted figure for each coin in the book. That can be helpful in determining which may be rare and potentially hold any additional value.

Now the silver coins (Pre-1964 dimes, quarters, halves and dollars) will all be with at the very minimum spot silver value. Last I checked spot silver it was about 12X face value. So a dime would be worth $1.20 roughly in silver value alone.

It can be a daunting task. One that many here would certainly enjoy doing. Don't run to the bank just yet. At the very least pluck out the pre-1964 silver coins first. Good luck!

 

@Wandering Man coin books of whatever kind are going to list coins at more than face value. Consider that if you look at the 2019 cents, they aren't listed at one cent. So, why not go to the bank and get many rolls of these and try and get that listed value. When looking at the Red Book, look for dates/mints that are listed above the others and then check the "sold" prices on e-bay.

 

To some dealers it may just be about the silver value and shipping off to be melted. But what about possible varieties, errors and such. I see Barber dimes in the mix. Check everything carefully before disposing of them.

 

Since I see a blue Whitman's Indian Head Cent album, I would have to say that he was a collector. Judging by the box of Kennedy half dollars, my guess is he was grabbing those for the silver content.

The buckets were probably just pulled out of circulation because they were common at the time. I would suggest that you take the time to go through each and every Album, bucket, box, etc. I personally would not be concerned about varieties but I would be looking for key dates or exceptional coins.

It looks like quite a task but if you really want to help your friend ask yourself what's the best thing I can do? To me, it's go through each and every coin one by one. Best wishes and have fun.

 

I keep much of my junk silver in albums as well just for fun. I got the albums for free or next to nothing over the years. I figure why not see how much of a set I can complete from what I pick up silver stacking? Albums don't mean anything. They are just supplies. If they don't have key dates or high grade coins in them it's still bullion.

 

I’ve been going through them. I’ve got about 300 in paper flips, with estimates of grade and prices in a spreadsheet. Then I took some to 2 different coin dealers. The one guy in town, and another 2 hours away. Both assured me I over estimated the grade.

I basically was reminded that I should just mount the coins that are important to me, sell the junk silver for melt price, and roll the modern coins.

By the way, the local guy indicated he has a sterling guy who buys his silver, and the Houston guy reminded me that melting coins is still illegal. He had trays of coins that looked just like mine and for sale. I feel better about selling to him.

 

Who sez melting coins is illegal...

 

@Kentucky The guy in the Houston coin shop.

 

AFAIK, melting cents is illegal, but I don't think that applies to other coins, especially the 90% silver.

 

I think it is 2 different people who had the batch of coins. Either that or the OP's friend is married to her father.

 

Haha! No, not married to her dad. Dad was a locksmith and vending machine operator. He owned all of the cigarette machines in two counties along the Texas Gulf coasts. As you can imagine folks put things other than coins into the machines. I’ve only found one slug so far, but there are a lot of coins from other countries.

Husband did a bit of collecting, but very little organizing.

 

It is not clear to me what YOU want to do with these coins. Sell them?

 

I got rid of around 10000 wheat cents a few years. I had them separated by decade. Any semi key/key dates were kept separate. A local dealer paid me 3x face value for dates in the 30's, 40's, 50's. I think he paid 4x for dates in the 20's and 5x for anything before that. I had about 500 IHC and he paid me 50 cents each. Again, anything that was XF or better I kept separate so he could give me a quote individually. I think I had a number of 1909 VDB and 1914-S Lincoln's.

I took a friend to the same dealer to sell her late mother's collection. Most silver was treated as bulk as well as the gold. I set aside a few nice large cents and sent them to NGC before having her send them to Great Collections to be auctioned. The overall price she got for those coins was considerably more than what the dealer offered, even after factoring in NGC fees and seller fees.

I do see many slabbed, circulated common silver coins being sold that would be considered bulk if not in a slab. The cost of getting the coins graded and slabbed definitely was not worth it.

 

Just be aware, all values on the websites and in catalogs are the price dealers will sell at to you.
Naturally they will buy for somewhat less.

 

And the 1965-1970 half dollars.