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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Troodon, post: 1658438, member: 4626&quot;]Your basis in the quarters is the lesser of the fair market value or the purchase price.&nbsp; If you spent them as if they were worth face value, than that&#039;s all they were worth in the first place, $20.&nbsp; Therefore, your loss was $0, so no.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A receipt is merely a convenience to prove your basis (it&#039;s <i>especially</i> convenient should you ever be audited!) but it is not an absolute necessity.&nbsp; There are other ways to prove the FMV at the time of purchase should it be necessary.&nbsp; You can still claim $20 as your basis and $30 as your proceeds on your Schedule D.&nbsp; Alternatively you can just claim this as a business profit if you&#039;re actively in the business of buying and selling coins (research the rules as to whether your coin buying/selling activity constitutes a business rather than a hobby).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Your basis in a gift is whatever the donor&#039;s basis is, which assuming your mother bought it recently, would be the original purchase price quite likely.&nbsp; Even if your mom doesn&#039;t have a receipt the US Mint&#039;s catalog or website could be used as reasonable proof of the basis.&nbsp; See the answer to the second question above; a receipt is a convenience, not a necessity, to prove your basis.&nbsp; Keep in mind should you ever be audited failure to be able to prove your basis in some reasonable manner means the IRS will presume your basis to be $0, so keep some kind of records!&nbsp; If you don&#039;t have a receipt, find some sort of proof of your basis (a coin catalog would probably suffice in this case).&nbsp; Also see above for claiming the capital gain or business profit.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a side note, coin collecting can be treated as a hobby rather than an investment, meaning gains could possibly be treated as ordinary hobby income rather than capital gains.&nbsp; Also, if you use your profits from selling coins to buy more similar coins, the gains could be potentially be offset as a like-kind exchange.</p><p><br /></p><p>DISCLAIMER: While I do have a degree in accounting and have studied tax extensively and prepared many returns, this is for information only and DOES NOT constitute tax advice.&nbsp; These answers are correct to the best of my knowledge and belief but I assume NO RESPONSIBILITY for any loss, penalties, or interest assessed if they turn out to be partially or even completely incorrect.&nbsp; Contact an enrolled agent, CPA, lawyer, paid tax preparer, or the IRS if you have any questions about such things beyond the hypothetical.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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