Hey all, I joined this forum 2 years ago, to try and get some ideas on how to value my late father's coin collection. There's a lot of little odds and ends, but the big stars are the morgan dollars, peace dollars (both incomplete) and the franklin halves (complete). I heard last week that Silver is at an all time high, so it's kinda spurred me along in wanting to decide with my siblings (4 of us total) what we should do with this collection. Of the four of us, two have no interest in the coins, only the money from selling it, one is interested in the silver to sit on it for years to come and let it continue to appreciate, and I'm interested in keeping at least some of it, as I've always had a mild interest in coin collecting, and would love to get into it a little deeper when I'm older and more established. I took pics last night of the franklin halves, but it's hard to photograph them properly. Some look shinier than they really are, and some look duller than they really are. But I'm curious if you guys have any thoughts from these pics what it may be worth. Crap. this isn't working, it only lets me upload a few. Here's a link to where I've put them online then... http://dominomall.com/coins/ And this is a dumb question, are these silver? Like pure silver? Or does that composition change from year to year? Thanks! Farns
http://www.coinflation.com/ ^^^^^ Very helpful site for pricing silver coins. Franklin Halves = [FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Metal Composition:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]90% silver, 10% copper[/FONT]
There is 0.3617 troy ounces of silver in 1 silver Franklin half dollar which is what you have showing. Below is a link that indicates melt value of various US silver coins. http://www.coinflation.com/coins/silver_coin_calculator.html
You should have someone evaluate the Morgan & Peace dollars and the Franklin halves on a coin-by-coin basis because some may be worth considerably more than others based on condition or scarcity. You may find that they are worth far more than melt value. Chris
The key to the condition for a Franklin Half are the bell lines.....the lines across the bottom of the bell. In the picture above, I don't see any which means that these coins have been well circulated. Those with bell lines, especially full bell lines are worth more. So, minimum, each coin has over $10 worth of silver at current prices (which are NOT at an all time high, by the way, but are significantly higher than recent times). And, as stated above, some dates are worth more than the "melt" value due to their rarity.
wow this is very cool. I'll have to get them back out of the safe and look at those bell lines. Yeah, they are fairly worn, for sure. I had wondered if selling them coin by coin would be the better way. I'll try to post pics of the morgan and peace dollars soon! There's also a bunch of "prestige" sets and "congressional" sets (proof sets in a fancy box) from the 80's, are those anything to get excited about?
Farns Here is link that maybe helpful on how to grade Franklin. http://wnccoins.com/0014.htm I suggest you take the time to do lots of research before selling anything. Ask questions here and read some books on the subject. There is a saying within the coin collecting community "Buy the books". I would suggest you start with buying the Red Book to assist in getting to know your coins in general. I have a extra 2005 red book that I will send to you if you desire. PM me with mailing information if you want it. A newer one version will cost around 12 to 15 dollars.
Thanks for the offer, I actually bought the 2008 red book, back when this started after mom died, but I struggle with knowing what grade to figure on each of these coins. That link you sent seems it would be very useful in helping me learn how to do that, thanks! I have a whole bunch of stamps too I need to figure out what to do with.
