HEY ALL, I'm a new collector here. And having so much fun... Most all of my coins (pennies, mercury dimes, silver quarters, etc) are ALL low end. LoL. I'm a real newb with nothing special. But I do have a question. I've notice that there are two main websites I've found that give pricing: USAcoinbook and JMBullion. But they seem to have radically different pricing. JMBUllion always gives consistently lower pricing than usacoinbook. Just for example, with low-end pennies, usacoins still gives like .15 for G4 pennies from the 1940s... But JMBullion gives 0.0. Similar differences for all coins. Any insight you could give me as to why????
well, JMbullion is showing physical value for the wheat cents, as they are still legal tender worth one cent and are worth maybe 4 cents more if you sell them to someone who collects. Copper is crazy cheap, and assuming everything sold on Jmbullion is meant as an investment into the metal, the 0.0 value is right. I don't know the exact price of copper, but it certainly is fractions of a penny
I use ebay sales/the red book and NGC price guides to try to get an idea on the values of specific coins.
if your silver dimes and quarters are low grade commons then there basically worth melt i use ngc for coin melt values.
Welcome to CoinTalk and welcome to the coolest hobby in the world. JM Bullion is primarily a bullion trader. They would love to buy your silver from you but I most imagine they have little use for common wheat cents. I use the PCGS price guide. It is usually pretty close and is my regular go-to reference before I go to market. https://www.pcgs.com/prices/?gclid=...OsGO7g8M6f3_2ovWyAgkQ34uDKJ3Usi8aAlUbEALw_wcB
Welcome to CT Price guides are worthless unless they are based on unpicked auction records. It makes it much harder for new collectors to figure out what their coins are worth. One of the best price guides IMO is the sales records on PCGS Coinfacts (NOT PCGS Price guide). Although it's really just for coins worth $100+. I heavily recommend using eBay "sold" sales as a guide. It will help you start to get a realistic view of coin values.
Hey, Richard . . . trying to assign market values to common low-grade coins can be a frustrating exercise. As Potty Dollar said, for modern U.S. silver in low grades, it's probably best to just use bullion value. Even if you could sell them as numismatic coins to collectors, once you factor in costs associated with selling (postage, fees if you use Ebay, etc.) you're probably not going to net much more than melt. As for a Lincoln cent valued at 15¢ . . . well, yeah, in theory perhaps. But in reality, where is there a marketplace where it's practical to buy and sell a single coin worth just 15¢? In volume you can get more than face for old common date wheaties, but not much. A quick search on Ebay shows rolls going for $1-$2. Of course, none of that applies to rarities. If a coin is rare enough, even in worn condition it could be worth meaningful money. Hence, it's important to learn which coins are the rare ones.
Yes, this period for me is all about learning, reading, understanding. There's so very much for me to intellectually inhale, even to just get the raw basics of it all. LoL.
YES!!! I have the red Book, and several other books, including grading by photographs, the Bowers series (as many as I could afford), Greatest Coin Errors, and a USB microscope (and a little 5x glass).
Hi Richard and welcome to CT! Sounds like you already have a great start with your purchases. In your Red Book, at the beginning of each section, is a grading guide. I suggest you use that information to estimate the grade and value of each coin then post a good quality photo of the coin here on Coin Talk and ask for help with grading and value. CT members will be happy to help you learn. Good luck!
If you like books by Bowers, I suggest you read the ones available on the Newman Numismatic Portal. It's a library of free sources and Bowers has several books logged on there. It's also an excellent source for other things as well. https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/booksbyauthor/301
Please attempt to determine values before you post in a public forum where someone might think you know what you're talking about. An internet query I believe will state that $1 face Copper cents have a spot value greater than $2.40. JMHO
