Hello- This is an introduction of sorts and an overall general question I have regarding a coin collection I inherited that has been sitting idly for years. First of all I stumbled across this site doing some coin research and found it to be an informative and helpful site with members who are civil and willing to help novices. I appreciate that and look forward to reading the help already provided. That said, I will get to my general question. My coin collection goes back many generations and it has sat in my basement for years with little attention. In my effort to downsize before an upcoming move I took out the boxes to start sorting. Some of the coins are of value due to age and scarcity, and I know some that might have metal content of worth. That I can readily research before I go to a dealer. My question is to what to do with the volumes of older coins (mostly circulated Lincoln pennies and Jefferson nickels) that have little or no value. I have literally one hundred pounds of older Lincoln pennies and Jefferson nickels that have nominal value. If something is a few cents over face value do I just put them in a coin sorter at the bank or is there something else I should do with them? I think the coin sorter is my current option because I don't really want to do the effort to try to get 2¢ for a coin that might be valued at 4¢. I'm talking garden variety coins here, not those that have low mintage numbers or say the Jefferson nickels minted during the war years. Do I just cash them in at face value to get rid of them or is there something I am missing? I appreciate any responses and ideas for my search on this matter turned up nothing. Thanks for reading and I look forward to using this site as I weed through the collection.
I don't collect Lincoln's or Jeff's; however, there are possibly some valuable coins in those circulated coins. There is a book called the "Cherry Picker's Guide". Might not be the exact title, but the idea is there are things like doubled dies, etc...hidden in common coins. You should buy the book and try to identify some of the more valuable varieties and then sort your coins accordingly before just giving them to the bank at face value. You might be surprised at the value of some of the coins.
If you have wheat cents, you can get some premium, provided you can sell them in your home town and NOT have to ship them, which eats up all the profits. The population of your county or metro area has something to do with your ultimate strategy; lotsa people, lotsa collectors you can deal with face-to-face, using a little caution which CT-er's will make known to you. The coin counter is always an option for you, if you get tired, or run out of time. The original collector must have saved them for a reason?
Unfortunately, searching for varieties, especially for someone unfamiliar and/or uninterested in them, is likely to be a lot of work with little reward. Even if you just want to liquidate and be done with it, if you've a fair amount of wheat cents, you can likely do as was mentioned above and simply sell them to a local B&M or perhaps local collector. This isn't going bring a great return, but if you can sell to someone close by, is better than simply changing into cash. As for the others, there probably isn't much you can do with them that will bring you out on top unless you can find someone willing to throw you a few bucks (on top of face) to take them off your hands.
If they truly are just circulated, common date Lincoln and Jefferson nickels from say the 1940s and '50s onward then I would just take them to the bank. By circulated, I mean little to no mint luster and by common date I mean dates other than 1949S, 1950, 1950D, 1951S and 1955 for the Jefferson nickels. Similar to what BooksB4Coins says, checking the coins for varieties could strain your eyes, be boring for you and offer little return for the amount of time invested in the process of looking for them.
some coin shops buy wheat pennies at 2-4 cents each... so if you have a ton of them and you want to dump them ..that's a good place to do it for a little more money.
Pull out a handful of coins, and list the dates for us. Maybe 25 pennies, nickels, and dimes selected at random. We can deal with that.
Thanks for the suggestions. I hope to find a seasoned collector to look through my reject pile before I unload them at the bank. Perhaps I will be sending something you find interesting your way!
Do you mind sharing what state you are from? That might help you generate some private messages from collectors who would be interested in helping you.
Steven, I'm surprised nobody else mentioned it yet, but the very first thing you need to do is to get your coins out of your basement and keep them out of the basement. Basements are notorious for being one of the worst possible places to store your coins ! So please, for your sake, get them out of there.
I'm from Washington State, specifically Bellingham. And my basement stays a rather constant temperature between 55-65 year round. It's great for wine but is it for coins?
I think GDJMSP's concerns revolve around typical basement problems that often arise in the Midwest and back east. These issues often revolve around humidity and the fact that basements are more prone to flooding when compared to other areas of a house. Since it sounds like you regulate the temperature in your basement fairly well and live in Washington, these issues may not be something to be concerned with.
Except that having lived a year in Oregon, I can assure you that a basement in Washington is damp all the time, affecting cardboard albums and 2x2's.
