A coworker of mine gave me a bag full of world coins and wants me to find their values. I know nothing on world coins, let alone how to determine the value of any coin. But he insisted. Is there an online source that may be able to at least tell me what he has so I can get a start in the right direction?
A coworker insisted, even though you don't have the knowledge about them or how to get the value????? And you now have to start in the right direction??????? Does this coworker have something on you or something?
To maybe save you some time, if they aren't older than the 1930s or so or else made of silver, they are most likely not worth anything. Yes, there are some rare dates and types, but he most likely doesn't have them in some random bag of coins.
You are being bullied by your coworker. You should talk to your work manager and if he/she wouldn't help, seek assistance from authorities/police by filling a complaint.
http://en.numista.com/ An excellent starting place to identify coins, their composition, any noteworthy privy or mint marks, mintage, etc. From their, looking up estimated values or checking e-bay/craigslist/etc should be a bit easier.
Hiddendragon MAY be spot-on with his post. The silver (& gold ) should be pulled-out first. If you can get your hands on a Krause World Coin Catalog (perhaps at your library), then the exercise could be fun. First separate the coins into piles by country & then by denomination. Then, look them up in the catalog. Any coins that are not easily identifiable can be looked-up in the instant identifier section of the book. By the time you are finished, you MAY find that hiddendragon was pretty much spot-on. You may also find yourself a new interest in World coins and be hooked on the hobby. I know that I am hooked and it's a good thing.
You can look up all Krause Catalog information for free on the NGC website. You can search by country, date, and denomination. See link here: http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/World-Coin-Price-Guide.aspx
I pretty much figured he wont have anything of value, and their condition is definitely not the best. My plan was to at least pull out any silver ones, and put some of the more interesting ones in flips for him. I put aside anything that was minted before 1965, was any country still using silver in their coinage after that date? Im pretty sure any gold colored ones are gonna be brass.
Many countries still made coins containing silver after 1964. Many countries also phased it out earlier than that. Canada made circulating silver until mid 1968, and Mexico reduced the silver content, but kept small amounts, in some of their coins on and off until the early 1990's.
Sure, quite a few. The 5 DM pieces from the Federal Republic of Germany for example (country name on the coin would be Bundesrepublik Deutschland) were silver until 1974. And silver commems were issued at face (5 DM, 10 DM, €10) until last year. Christian
Not to hijack the thread, but just want to say thanks for the links for coin identification. You guys are the best.
Huh?!?! Did you stock up then while the gettin was good? To the OP: Unless you really want the practice, or are getting something out of it in return, hand the coworker their sack back and tell them to visit the library or buy a Krause like anyone else who cares enough to know about their coins. To Collect89: My 2010 Krause doesn't have the instant identifier :/ One reason I really miss my dog-gone 1998 version. (Dog ate it) :rollling:
I think you should base on literature, not websites. Krause or Friedberg Catalogues (if coins older than 1600, you got no choice - Friedberg only) are the most universal ones. I would never rely on information from websites, you never know when it was updated and by whom. And mentioned NGC coin is good, but prices of coins are too high in comparison to market prices. The same catalogues, all tends to overestimate values. Keep digging for last auctions' results for similar coins - similar type, date and condition. It should be the best solution.
Goldducat, while I agree with you regarding high end and rare world coins, I was replying to the first thread regarding a bag of likely relatively modern world coins. With regard to "price", no catalog or guide is accurate -- any serious collector knows that. The catalog available on the NGC website IS the Krause catalog. And, the values listed for world coins via that search tool are also provided by Krause, not NGC. The catalog is complete, and updated annually. It contains the same information as the print versions, but you don't have to buy multiple different 1500 page volumes. The OP mentioned a bag of coins from a co-worker; I seriously doubt any are from before 1800, let alone 1600. I was offering the least expensive and most complete online research for identifying said coins.
You are right, for modern coins it is [probably] much more easier to estimate corrrect prices than for hammered coins from up to 1600, that's what I am interested the most - and I can have my habits here. According to "The catalog available on the NGC website IS the Krause catalog" part I would discuss with that because of one thing - as you said, prices on site are updated annually, on Krause's book you got prices from the year of printing. So website seems to be the best solution for quick view on prices. Not the only one source of course, but for the first sight, to have an idea - perfect. Fast, always updated, available without checking in many paper books (mostly). That's something I did not knew, thanks for information.
I think Im just going to give the bag back to him with the exception of three asian coins I want to identify as well as a damaged coin from 18?? that I want to identify. There is a phillipines copper that was minted by the U.S. that I want to find out more about and maybe buy it from him. Krause put the value at close to a dollar for it, so its nothing rare, just neat.
I like to help friends & coworkers look through there coins. I like it. I'm going through a collection for a friend of a friend's collection who is terminally ill and broke. I hope me advice and knowledge helps.
