Hi! I wanted to know; what coins should I keep and buy that will be worth more in the future? I have plenty of U.S. coins from the 60's until now. But I don't know which ones will be junk, and which ones will be worth a lot of money in like 50 to 100 years from now. I've started collecting the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial, 2004 Smithsonian nickels, copper pennies, and state park quarters. I also have a really nice looking 1965 dime, and a 1992 s dime that my dad found in a parking lot. I don't have a lot of San Francisco minted coins. I have about 30 s pennies, one quarter, one dime, and a couple nickles.
There is no way to know what will be valuable in the future. If anyone knew that they would be hoarding themselves! It all depends on what is popular to collectors at the time. You can research, study trends and make your best guess.
You might want to check your collection for errors or varieties. These can often be worth more depending on the coin.
I agree with @TyCobb keep them all , the newer ones are not going to give you any windfall so I would just put them away to give to grandchildren someday!!
The first thing you can do is get rid of all of the copper cents. If it was legal to melt them, which it isn't, they are worth less than one cent each. As for the rest of your hoard, if they are all coins that you found in circulation, you can get rid of all of them if they aren't rare errors or varieties. Chris
I would keep the nice 1965 dime, also keep all of the 1960-69 copper pennies that are in good condition with lots of details.
Oh man if we could only answer that question. As a stroke of dumb luck I had a small windfall in the 1990’s and spent every bit of it on gold coins... For no other reason than I could never afford them before. Gold was trading as I recall 500-600 and ounce back then. Now gold trades 1200-1300 or thereabouts.... Straight up dumb luck on my part....... If we knew what would play out we would all be sipping boat drinks in Bimini. I would have never guessed the huge interest in error coins. Just isn’t any way to know.
Neither does any else. Collect what you like, of course, but if it were me I would take all of those (presumably) face value modern coins you have and use them to buy a coin or coins that have legitimate collector value now. Coins with collector value are likely to at least retain their value, and possibly increase their value, in the years ahead. Whereas those "Smithsonian nickels, copper pennies, and state park quarters" may never be worth much more than face value in your lifetime . . . unless there's a rare variety or error among them, which is statistically unlikely.
Nobody knows which will be junk and which will be worth a lot of money, for the most part. But start by collecting the ones you personally like best. Decide what condition you like for them. Start going to coin shows and looking at ones there. Bargain with the dealer a little if you like. Buy a Red Book and look at prices and see which ones are key dates, etc. Buy a Blue Book and compare prices these books have. Though the books have prices, do not take those as real. Use them to firmly establish in your mind normal resell differences. It's good to realize ho little a dealer 'might' pay for a coin you think is valuable based on prices in the Red Book (or elsewhere). Basically if you buy coins hoping they will appreciate in value and they really don't, know that if you get a dealer to purchase, you likely will lose money on it. Realize that most current coins (basically post 1964 clad) are all worthless if found in change. But occasionally you do find something of value.... If history repeats, none of any transitional or single year one-offs, like the 2009 Lincoln Cents, 2010 or 2017P Lincoln Cents, 1976 Quarters, etc. will be worth much (some exceptions for extremely high quality or variety maybe). Because those tend to be saved. Also, it is too early to see how many rolls of uncirculated coins have been hoarded. So... for the most part, you are taking a chance on finding the valuable ones now. Look and familiarize yourself with errors and varieties. Some can be quite valuable. Enjoy what you collect.
Here is one I found in a roll I got from the bank: It is a dropped letter error, you can see where the G from In God We Trust 'dropped' and left a retained impression next to the mintmark. This was both a very clear example and the coin graded gem quality at MS66. So I sold it for ~200 to someone. It cost me .25 plus the grading fee. Here is another one that only cost me .01 and grading fees. Sold for 87.00. It is an error coin, as it's reverse has the 'wide' AM in America. It is a 1999 cent. So, subtracting costs for grading and the insured postage for return (dropped off coins at a coin show so no postage to get them in), I made around 200.00 on just these two coins. I don't usually get my coins slabbed, but in both these cases, I think I got more money selling with the slabs. My point is if you are looking for coins that have value and want to find them rather than buy, start educating yourself on what to look for. But be fore-warned. Money wise for time spent, you are better off just working to earn money to spend on coins to buy. I actually suggest you do that. Get a second job, part time, if necessary, and use that income to purchase coins you think might gain value. Then hold on to them long term and see if they do. If you are lucky, have an eye for coins that will appreciate, and the good luck to not need to liquidate your collection at any point too soon, then you might make a bunch from this.
Thank you for your answers! I'll learn about some new errors, double check all of my coins for errors, and get rid of all of the coins I don't need. Thanks again!
