I recently purchased a lot of tokens that included almost 30 early american(mostly) electrotype coins. Needless to say, I do not have much experience in these early counterfeits. I contacted Heritage to see if they could appraise and possibly sell, but they will only bother with the very high end electros. Can anyone point me in a direction of someone who can help me out? I am not particularly interested in keeping them, but have no idea where to start on an appraisal and possible sale. Thanks in advance!
It all depends upon what you have and how well executed they are. Really crummy electrotypes of common tokens are worth next to nothing. Well done pieces of something that is rare can be worth more, but no where near the value of the real thing. The highest number I have ever seen was a super well done example of a 1793 Chain Cent, which had the edge designs ("drop in" electroplate). It sold for about $1,100 in an EAC auction. I had a Libertas Americas electrotype. It was medium quality. This was over 20 years ago. I think I paid $45 and sold it for $55 a few years later. At the time the real thing was selling for about $1,500. Now the real thing, in really nice shape, can go for close to $20,000.
