Hello all, I was wanting to know if anyone had any websites or apps that can track older US coin values. How much they have gone up or down over the years? I found a few hits on Google but they were not specified on all coins, only a select few. I have a few coins in my collection that I’d like to see if they’ve gone up in value per year or 5, 10 years and if so how much over these years.
I can't think of any off hand, but for myself I use PCGS's population report which shows some of the past auction results. Not exactly what you're looking for, but at least you'd get a general idea. As for those ungraded, perhaps EBAY to see where the figures are?
This is the best one I know of to see market trends - https://www.pcgs.com/prices/coin-index/pcgs3000 Once you're on that page you need to scroll down to see the individual indexes. You also need to understand that this does not allow you see or track individual coins by date/mint. Instead it allows you to see the most popular, most widely collected coins by group. And the names of the groups are self-explanatory. Each individual index allows you to see the market trend for that specific group for the past 50 years. If you want more specific information, such as a price history for 1 specific coin by date/mint/grade then you need to use auction archives like those found at Heritage - https://coins.ha.com/ Only registered members can use it but's it's free to register and you have to do the grunt work on your own. Enter specific info that you want to find in the search box, and then filter the info it gives you by the various category options it gives you like - best match, most recent, oldest, lowest, highest, etc etc. To see historical pricing over time it's best to select Oldest as your filter. The the oldest sales will show at the top and allow you to see all sales going back to about 1998. But that's as far as they go back. Now you can do the same kind of thing at just about all the major auction house websites. Some go back much further, others don't. A word of warning. If you want accurate information don't trust price guides - ANY PRICE GUIDES - as not a single one of them is worth the paper they are written on, or the digital bits they comprise ! Use auction archives only.
Most of the major auction houses have resources that allow you to see what coins sold for in the past. However be prepared to be shocked. I was on Great Collections site looking at coins being auctioned soon. There was a real nice 1909 Lincoln cent graded MS 66 red in a first generation PCGS slab. It had a current bid of about $1,200.00. On another major dealers site they were selling a nice 1909 Lincoln cent for under $500.00. It's not uncommon to see coins selling at twice what price guides state. It can also go in the other direction. A coin with great eye appeal and a great strike will sell higher than the price guide but, a coin with the same technical grade but a dog may not even sell or it will be sold at a much lower price. One of the original purposes of the grading companies was to be able to sell coins sight unseen. That idea imploded very fast. True collectors realized very fast that it wouldn't work. The only case that it can work is with modern coins. Buying an MS 70 silver eagle in a slab is a no brainer. But that won't work for a 1955 Franklyn half graded MS 66. On older coins strike and eye appeal can vary to a point the difference is like night and day.
I didn’t know PCGS had a population report, I’ll be looking into this. And I try to use eBay to see current trends but I believe they recycle listings after 60 or 90 days I don’t remember. I’m trying to see some of the coins I have graded worth 5-10 years ago to decide which ones to hold on to.
Wow this is great info! Yes I’m trying to track specific coins I have that are graded to see how much they’ve changed over the years to see which ones I will hold on to for longer time. I was a grunt in the army so I don’t mind getting my grunt on again LOL. I’ll keep that in mind because some coins I’ve had for a year or 2 keep the same price per grade on pcgs price guide it seems.
That’s a huge number difference for that Lincoln, I guess it really comes down to after the grade, it’s strike, toning, etc. thanks for the info I’ll keep all this in mind, I think Heritage will be my first check point.
