I have a decent sized collection. Is there any one ( or more ) that would be a valuable find? I do not have the 1922 no mint penny but a lot of coins starting from 1911 going through 1958. A few are S mints as well. Of course i am looking forward to one day sell these coins so any info on that would be extremely helpful as well. Any coin book title that you trust for accurate info and value? Anywhere on the net to search for information? But please do not tell me to check Esty site... Every coin on there is priced to the extreme and they look worse than any of my coins. So many scams its hard to feel comfortable with info found on the net. Thanks so much
Coin books like the red book are good for relative prices, and knowing which dates and mint marks are scarcer. Even a used copy a few years old can be a good starting point For lower value coins, there can be a big difference between a dealer's buy price and sale price. It's just not worth the time and and effort to sell common dates individually in circulated condition. Have you tried the NGC coin guide for price comparisons?
I recommend getting use to figuring out grading for yourself . Here's a good Intermediate level grading book full colored !
Believe it or not, one of the best places to get a feel for market values is eBay. If you know the approximate grades of your coins, you can, for example, enter, "1937 cent (or penny), XF" and then filter for "SOLD" items. That would give you some indication of recent transactions. If you're not sure about the grade of your coins, then just enter the year and mint, and see the SOLD items. Then compare the photos with yours to see which comes closest.
You are correct, ETSY is not the place to look. eBay is more realistic as far as value goes. And, a good measure of interest. Good Luck and Welcome to CT.
I recommend grading your own coins because it accomplishes at least two factors for the newbie. First: You get a sense of what constitutes grade differences and second; It allows you to set aside coins (for later study) which may exhibit errors or variations.
Littleton has a nice beginner's guide to the Lincoln Cents. It's VERY rudimentary and thus is not a replacement for the other professional publications mentioned in earlier posts. But it covers the basics for beginners like us and talks about what to look for, famous varieties and errors, the types of 1982 cents, 1960 small and large dates, etc. If you call them up, they might send it to you. They were nice enough to do that for me. It's a nice booklet for beginners to start with.
I will double down on the Redbook. I been collecting for fifty years and still refer to my Redbook daily.
If you seriously collect Lincoln Cents, beginner or someone that really wants to know the coin you are holding I suggest STRONGLY "The Authoritative Reference of Lincoln Cents" 2nd Edition by John Wexler and Kevin Flynn. If it is a Lincoln Cent this is the reference. Semper Fi Stay Safe Phil
The Red Book for sure, the Blue Book for dealer prices, and eBay are pretty good choices overall in my opinion. Good luck
The problem with the Red Book is that by the time it gets printed the values are at least a year old. Like others have said, go to eBay and search the Sold coins. Can't get more up-to-date than that.
Keep in mind that the Red Book, Blue Book, and other references mentioned here are GUIDES and not price lists.
I agree with the red book too. You also might want to check out this web site. https://www.coin-collecting-guide-for-beginners.com/
A Yeoman Red Book allows you to do several things with your wheat collection. It will help you learn how to grade wheats, it has a grading guide at the beginning of the wheat section. It has mintage information for all wheats. But, 2nd most importantly for your wheat collection, and what will answer your question best...you can look at the values listed and tell which dates are more valuable. Yes, 1922 no mint mark. Yes, 1914D...and so on for all the dates you have. During this process, the most important thing that happens is you learn. You are then able to do things for yourself. ...jmho...Spark
I have the usual childhood collections of hundreds of pennies and nickels going back to 1909. I've sold the Indian head nickels and the most sought-after Jefferson nickels (1942-1945 large format mint mark) to a local shop but the guy does not want to see my pennies and other nickels. Are there wholesalers out there? My two grandkids are not interested in inheriting them. Some are in fair-to-good condition, the majority in average or poor (but date readable) condition. Any suggestions? I'm in Boston with little patience for investigating the value of every penny. Thanks!
Hi Carl..... I have helped several friends liquidate large quantities of old wheat cents that like yourself, didn't care to sort them. You can generally sell them in bulk from .03 to .05 cents each. If your dealer doesn't want them, I am sure they would get snatched up quickly on Ebay.