We have been left several coins and are trying to find out the value of them. 1. Fully encased Obgsolete Coins of the Civil War (Copper Nickel Cent 1861-1864, 2 Cent Piece 1864-1865, 3 Cent Piece 1865) 2. Large Cent 1848 3. Large Cent 1849 4. Libery Half Dollar 1935 5. Libery Quater Dollar 1929 6. One Dime 1905 7. Five Cent 1934 8. One Cent 1895 9. One Cent 1907 10. Five Cent 1937 11. Wartime Steel Cent 1943 12. WWII Dime 13. WWII Silver Nickel All of the above are encased and preserved in great condition.
Many companies over time have made a considerable amount of money "encasing" coins from different eras... putting a few well circulated (and oft time cleaned) examples in a fancy holder and selling them through ads in the Sunday supplements. Are they worth anything? Of course they are.. but generally speaking, a lot less than originally paid. And many times, are worth only melt value. Anyway, photos would help, but probably look something like these: http://cgi.ebay.com/Mixed-Lot-30-Wo...93?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item1e66070a45 And welcome to CT!
If it was the set sold be Sears then the value is nominal. I saw one of those sets about 10+ years ago. The owner was very proud. But, they were all cleaned & scrubbed coins.
Welcome to CoinTalk. "Encased" is pretty much meaningless as is "in great condition". Can you post some good photos of your coins? What I am afraid you are going to show us is something like the photo below: These sets are generally common, well-worn coins that are not worth much and are put into a fancy display case to make the coins appear to be special and more valuable than they are. To make the coins more attractive the seller may polish the coins to make them "shiny" but polishing a coin usually destroys any collector value the coin may have had.
Here's an auction for the Civil War era coin set: http://cgi.ebay.com/Obsolete-Coins-...32?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item45fc6980e4 Or for those of you who don't want to look at the auction, here ya go: