Since I'm the newb, here's a newb question. As some may remember I received ammo buckets full of coin, paper money and world coins and paper money. So now I plan to sit down and sort through the coins and other items. My question is, what's the best method for sorting? What I mean by that should I group say all pennies from 1920-1929 into one bin and then break it down further into single years? Then the question which I hope doesn't offend the true collectors here. What do I do with all the coins that once sorted say are not worth any collecting value? I really don't plan or want to store all the coin--so if there is no value should I just <GULP> dump them in a coinstar? <Double GULP> So what I know at this point from the members here: Try not to touch the coins, use cotton gloves if possible Try to preserve the coin as it is now and never attempt cleaning So I did order some of those 2x2 flat folds in case I find something of value and some tubes to store some of the nicer coins. I have about 3 ammocans full of coins labeled ????-1910, 1911-1930, 1930+. So I assume old gramps did some sorting already. As always I understand these may be "Go check coins.about.com or something noob" type questions, but it never hurts to ask.. I appreciate your time and consideration. Thanks
Well, make sure not to clean the coins. That's never good. As for the cotton gloves thing, if the coins are already circulated, touching them momentarily should not hurt them. If they're uncirculated, however, then some sort of gloves would be useful. As for the coinstar thing, if there is anything you don't like, you can put it up for sale on the open forum here, and as long as someone has an interest in it, they might want to give you something for it. If not, there's always the bank.
As new member here also, I personally would not sell any of it. What you are suggesting is exactly what I do. Dont sell any of it The value of a coin will never go down, only up! All coins are worth collecting. Especialy the old ones that you have!
sorry Eyesee.. coins certainly do experience the same roller cosater ride as everythign else, they rise and they do fall in prices. I wish it werent so, but it happens.
Psycho, (love the name by the way) I had forgotten about the ammo boxes, so thanks for the reminder. I would reccomend sorting by type. All the wheat cents in a pile, all the indian heads in a pile, all the mercury dimes in a pile. After that go through and make a list of all the dates and mint marks and take a couple pictures. Post your pics here so that everyone can be jealous of your finds. All U.S. coins pre-1965 have collecting value. If its a cent, it's most likely a wheatie and made of copper. If it's a dime, quarter, half or dollar; they are silver and worth keeping in any condition. I don't have any interest in world coins so you might try posting your finds in the world coin forum for advice on what to keep and what to ditch. Why don't you want to store all of the coins? You've held on to them this long haven't you. Ammo boxes make great bookends and door stops. Unless you really can't stand the sight of them, why not let them hang around? If these coins have been sitting in an ammo box for years, chances are they will be circulated, just don't touch any of them on the surface, try to handle them by the edges. Cotton gloves are a little extreme, in my opinion, but what the heck, everyone likes to play doctor or mad scientist once in a while. Yeah, don't clean them. Cool, 2x2 and tubes are great for storage. You also mentioned currency. Your local coin store, if there is one, will have currency sleeves. Sturdy plastic envelopes to put your bills in. Depending on how many you have, You might want to get an album. They have pages with sleeves that are usually 3 bills per page. Take pics of those and post them on the paper money forum for comments and grading guesses. Best of luck and I'm waiting to see your pics so that I can drool with the others.
Take all coins to a bank and deposit them into a savings account. More for us coin searchers. :smile So much depends on you. If interested in coins as a hobby, collector, learning about history, coin values, etc., there are many things you should be doing. To start separate the coins by denominations and years. If no Albums, put as many in plastic rolls or 2x2's untill you figure out what you have. You really need a few books on coins, not many, just a few so you don't get rid of something valuable. Try flea markets, coin stores, garage/yard salesl or even a book store. Preferably purchase a book a few years old so you don't have to pay as much and being interested in what you have, any prices listed may not be worth the paper it's printed on. It's the information in the books you want for now at least. As already noted be carefull with those coins. True cotton gloves may be a little over kill but banging a coin to another coin and finding it WAS worth thousands prior to the nicks, may make you think twice. If you ever watch that TV show Antique Road Show you'll hear them say so many times, if this was in better condition it would be worth many times ...........
Thanks for all your replies.. I've put a blog only a few coins listed there, as I into the first little bag of coins.. Many, Many, Many, Many more to go.. Still have to crack the two ammo cans, and 2 large freezer size looking bags of wheat cents.. Then their is the world money.. Don't get me started on that.. lol.. www.coinnoob.com it's named appropriately I believe. Thanks again..
The ammo cans kind of implies that the collector was in WWII. Is that so? My uncles did that too. I have some stuff that my uncle brought back from the war. I have no idea what it is. Japanese and Nazi currency and coins from all over the world. I have a New York subway token from 1945 when he was coming home. It is a formidable task, but sort through it all. I like the stuff from WWII. But I dont know a thing about it! Except that Germany did not make coins after 1938. I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong
2X2s are great! 3 quarters of my collection are in them. I also recomend once you put the in 2X2s you should buy some plastic albums to put in binders they look like this:
I suggest sorting them in a way that makes it easy for YOU. Then if you continue collecting you'll already have a system in place. Take it from Mr. unorganized (akd clembo) do it NOW. I have thousands of coins like many others here. Problem is I don't know exactly where all of them are but I KNOW I still have them. On the plus side it's always cool when I stumble upon one or find one that I forgot buying.
Those are pretty cool.. What size are those album pages.. Edit: Duh.. 2x2 just count the squares.. lol ..
You can make an Excel spreadsheet pretty easily to inventory it all for you. Make a sheet to calc every type of coin (or however you want to do it) Then make a summary page to consolidate it all.
As you sort a given type (i.e. Lincoln wheaties), learn the key dates and valuable varieties before you start, and keep an eye out for those as you go. If you have ammo boxes full, the vast majority are probably not high end. So pull out the few good ones and seperate them.
pfft.. I could try that, but I can't read any of the asian coins to know where they even originate from not to mention half the world coins I have quickly glanced over..
Avoid CoinStar! Choose history! Thoughts: CoinStar☆ Is Evil! They take part of your money, or put all your money into a gift card, or whatever gimmick they've come up with recently to make you jump through hoops to get your money. My bank charges me nothing to have a teller count loose change on their machine. Is this not the case with most banks? If your bank charges you, get a new bank! Shouldn't that be illegal? It's legal tender! Shouldn't the responsibility for counting it be on the recipients, since they are legally required to accept coins as payment? (How do places get away with refusing $1 coins, for that matter?) Am I wrong about this; is there a legal limit on the percent of something you can pay for in small units? For example, buying a car with %50 $1 bills? (Some European board members have said this is the case over there.) If you don't have a bank account: that is just weird. If your money (spending money, not collection) is under a mattress, you are loosing even more buying power than if it is in the bank. (If your bank's interest rate beats inflation, you are sooooooo lucky, and I am sooooooo jealous. Speaking of Antiques Roadshow, a 'series' of coins like this is just the kind of thing their experts would love! If you could assemble theses coins (I'm talking to Eyesee here) so they told a chronological story—including the time in NY on the way home, maybe some US coinage when they got back, Mexican coinage from their vacation during the boom years, or whatever[FONT="]—and arrange family items, like letters, photographs, military paperwork, as well as newspaper clippings: that kind of thing would be seen as seriously enhancing the value of the collection. [/FONT]
Yeah..I'm surprised it took this long before someone notice the *coinstar* word.. But.. Is coinstar a franchise? Get one of them machines are you could search all day long..
Trees: I have a lot of that stuff. His photo album from the war. All of his metals and awards. His unit lighter (Ronsol never been used), engraved with unit and dated 1944. Newspaper clippings. Lots of foreign coins. Military script. Aerial flyover photo montage of his drop zones on D-Day Dated June 5th 1944 Landong Zone W. (he was a glider pilot). Original service records. Original unit roster. Even Ikes Order of the Day for D-Day. Had it autenticated by the Eisenhower Library in Abilene KS two years ago. Maybe I will start a tread on war memorabilia
