My father passed away on December 30th. His passing was unexpected, to say the least, and it's been a lot of work to help all of his final affairs in order. As a son, one of my duties was to swamp out my dad's 1990 Ford Taurus. The car was a mess-- there were things growing in there that easily could have driven off with the car on its own. When going through the trunk, I lifted out heavy bag. Looking inside, I discovered amongst rolls of modern pennies and nickels a significant coin collection. I took it to a coin shop for appraisal today, and the gentleman there said he would pay around $780 if he was buying the lot. I did, however, want to share the collection online to see if anyone wanted to give me a second opinion, or-- failing that-- could give me any idea of some of the coins might be worth a bit more than what we were told. The list of coins includes: 1934 Eagle Silver Dollar (worn) US MORGAN SILVER DOLLARS (ALL COINS WITHOUT MINT MARK AND CIRCULATED WITH MINOR WEAR UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED) 1921 1921-S Qty 2 1900-O 1889 Qty 2 1888 1884 1881 (very worn) BEN FRANKLIN HALF DOLLARS (ALL CIRCULATED AND WITH MID-MINOR WEAR) 1960 Qty 3 1960 1959 1958 1954 Qty 3 1952 1951 Indian Head Pennies (ALL CIRCULATED BUT STILL IN FAIR CONDITION) 1904 1900 1893 1925 Los Estados Unidos de Mexico 50 Cetavos Piece (CIRCULATED AND WORN) 1872 Canadian 25 cent Piece (CIRCULATED) 1933 New Zealand Six Pence (CIRCULATED) 1938 Newfoundland One Cent Piece (CIRCULATED) Also included in the collection are 16 1 troy oz silver pieces and 2 1 troy oz silver rounds, and some various other coins deemed not to be of any particular value. I've attached what pictures I can. Admittedly, they pictures are kinda crappy (sorry, I'm working with just a point-and-shoot of my mom's-- if I get access to my SLR I'll post better pics later on if anyone requests them.) The wear on the 1881 coin is the worst. The 1921 coin is pretty close to the rest of the other silver dollars. He also had one 1923 Silver Dollar Note, in pretty poor shape. It was fun to see, though ($20 bill for size comparison.) The other coins that were deemed to be not worth much, if anything else at all.
Based on the highest dealer buy prices I've seen advertised in the latest edition of Coin World, my estimate for your collection would be based mostly on silver prices, since you don't seem to have any particularly rare dates: Silver dollars-- $21-24 each (can fluctuate), say $220 for the lot of 10 Franklin halves-- $10 each, or $110 for the lot of 11 Indian Head cents-- 75 cents each (guess), or $2.25 for the lot of 3 Silver bars/rounds-- roughly $28 each (price fluctuates a lot) X 18 = $504 Not counting the foreign coins, the wholesale value of your coins based on advertised buy prices in Coin World, appears to be closer to $830 P.S. I am also sorry to hear about your dad. It's always tough to deal with things like that.
Welcome to the Forum. Sorry to hear about your dad. I know all too well the pain of losing a parent. Thanks for posting the pics. I think you could do better somewhere else other than the dealer you talked to, if you chose to sell these coins. It will pay to shop around some. I don't know that much about indian head cents or foreign coins. The 1934 Eagle coin you reffered to is a Peace Dollar. The melt value, the melt value, alone, on the silver bars, rounds and all the silver dollar coins is in the neighborhood of about $885.00. Silver is at $29.71 per ounce this moment. Some may grade higher than melt value, but doubtful. But who knows. Hard to really tell from the pics. Or maybe you might want to just hold on to them awhile and see what silver does in the future. I'm sure you've had a million things to think about lately, so take your time about these coins if you wish. There will be other replies to your posting from alot of great people so that will probably help out alot. Good Luck!!!
I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I too think you can do a little better on the price. My hope is that they find someone who appreciates them as much as your dad must have. Have you thought of keeping them? Aside from the sentimental value, the investment value is certainly there as silver keeps rising in value. Welcome to Coin Talk, Jody
Sorry to hear about your father especially the way that he passed so quickly, Did you ever think About picking up where your father left off with his collection? it would be a great way to Honor him
Thanks for all the input, everyone. It's been a rough time, but the well-wishes (even from people I haven't met) have been a great piece of support. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Collector 1966-- Thanks for the breakdown! That's tremendously helpful. 2schanuzers-- I hadn't really thought about that, but it makes good sense. Certainly good to keep in mind. jallengomez-- In all likelihood, that's what we'll end up doing. The coins are technically my mom's now, and though I'm sure she'll listen to offers, she sounds like she's going to hold onto them. mpcusa-- I'd love to start, but I struggle with a couple of problems: 1.) Capitol -- I don't have a lot of fluidity to start a coin collection 2.) I'm a real coin noob. I'd have no idea where to start.
Start with what you like, and can afford! I like a bunch of things (Especially Mercury dimes!), but my favorite is Morgan Dollars. So I'm putting together a collection of one Morgan from each year in a grade I can afford (MS63 for most years except for the big three). EDIT: By the way, that 1881 would make a great pocket piece. If you don't end up keeping anything else, keep that and carry it around with you as a reminder of your dad.
After a little more searching, it appears that the Newfoundland cent would catalog at about 75 cents; the New Zealand 6 pence contains .0455 ounces of silver, so it is worth more than $1. The 1925 Mexican 50 centavos is a better date, but if it's too badly worn it would be worth around $6 for its silver alone, but maybe more to a collector of Mexican coins. The two Liberty (V) nickels should be worth at least 50 cents each. The 1872 Canadian quarter has at least $5 worth of silver. Some of the coins you showed in the "miscellaneous" picture are also silver and would be worth at least their silver value. The Georgius (George) IV silver shilling from Great Britain should have a bit of collector value as well.
Welcome to Cointalk! I am sorry to hear about your dad. Everyone has pretty well covered your answers but just wanted to add in my $.02 and say it would be a great honor to have you pick up in your fathers coin collecting footsteps and would make a fun and great way to remember him everyday!!
Welcome to the neighborhood, and I'm very sorry for your loss. That dealer's offer seems to be pretty fair if the US coins are in circulated condition. The Morgan dollars are all common dates so premium values would only be for high-grade uncirculated specimens which you don't seem to have. Let's assume that one of the previous estimates of $885 is accurate. That dealer offered you $780 which is about 88%. Most dealers would offer you about 80% or lower. I can understand that your Mom would like to hang on to them for now, but you might want to keep an eye on the spot price of silver to see if it might go higher. Chris
Actually, the dealer's offer seems very low-- at least $50 less than what I had calculated from dealer's buy prices in Coin World. But looking at the pictures again, there is actually another Franklin half that wasn't listed, which should add another $10 to the total. Plus the foreign coins contain another $20 worth of silver, from what I can tell, but they weren't considered in the calculations. So I wouldn't consider the $780 offer to be particularly generous.
Sorry for your loss, I know it must be really difficult. I'm glad y'all decided to keep the coins, I haven't read every single reply so someone may have already mentioned this. Silver is at an all time high so you can sell the generic silver bars for over $25.00 each as I am sure your dad must have bought those as an investment and keep the coins. just a thought! Also, if the Morgan SD's have a CC on the reverse they are worth more, sometimes alot of money. good luck
