Freakin' Mother Load...

Grandpa passed away, in his youth he ran a coin op machine business. Must have seen the writing on the wall and started stashing all the silver quarters and half dollars he could find.

I am talking about $4500 in quarters and $1500 in half dollars. The quarters range from about 1939 to 1964. The half dollars range from around 1939 (Franklin ones?)to the 1964 Kennedy pieces. Also he has, had, several hundred dollars in the the liberty head dollars(?0 ranging from the late 1800's to the early 1920's...


The names I have listed may be wrong, as obviously I am not a collector, but the coins are real and the amounts are true. My question is, are there any "Special" coins in these that I should be looking for? You know any that may be more collectible than the average ones? Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

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Greetings Zenarrrow and welcome to Cointalk! I am sorry to hear about your Grandpa, seems to be a lot of that going around lately.
He definitely did the right thing in holding onto that silver and you have quite the stash there! There are definitely key coins to look for and of course anything in really good condition would be worth pulling out but if they are mostly circulated they will primarily be worth "melt value". This site www.coinflation.com is a terrific resource to see what the melt values are. You were pretty close on the names but that site will help you will the newer ones. The older dollar coins produced from 1878-1921 are Morgan Dollars which are probably one of the most collected coins out there, plus there are a LOT of different varieties of Morgans, you may have a hidden treasure in there! Then the mint produced "Peace" dollars from 1921-35 which also have some key coins especially the 1921 Peace dollars, not to be confused with the 1921 Morgan dollars which are much more common. You may want to go out and get a "Redbook" coin guide as they will have lots of good info for beginners in there.
But just in melt value alone it sounds like you have over $100,000 there!!!

This place is a great resource for information - welcome!
John

 

Especially on eBay....

 

Welcome to the neighborhood! I'm very sorry for your loss.

At 20,000+ coins, you definitely have a lot to go through. Even in circulated condition, there are some Morgan dollars that can be quite valuable. Since these are the fewest in number of the various denominations that you have, it should be fairly easy to make a list by date and mintmark. From 1878-1904, the Morgan was produced in four locations: Philadelphia (no mintmark); New Orleans (O); Carson City (CC) and San Francisco (S). The 1921 Morgan was produced in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver (D). The mintmark can be found on the reverse (the side with the eagle) at the 6 o'clock position beneath the ribbon. If you can make this list and post it here, we can probably eliminate any where photos might not be required.

By the way, the Franklin half dollar was produced from 1948-1963. The Walking Liberty half dollar was produced from 1916-1947.

Chris

 

Right on, sounds like the perfect place to start, thank you John. I will look for that coin guide. And go from there. Like I said I am a complete noob on this.

My Wife wants to save these and not sell them, as not to carry on about ones situation , but the money is not needed. I had no idea that it could potentially be worth this much. My thoughts are that gold/silver prices are prime and may not always be this good. But, did I mention that she looks good in Levi's?

 

Thank you Chris, I will start making a list of what we have here. Just real curious on what exactly we have. Thanks, Joe.

 

Welcome to CT! Wow, lot of melt there!

 

Melt would be the best option? Kinda seems a waste, but you guys are the pro's. You know best.

 

" "

 

I'd go through it all looking for key dates and other rarities. It's a great parting gift to have bestowed upon you and your family, and I hope you guys treasure it as such.

 

Holy crap, that IS the motherload! Wow.

 

You might want to check out the ANA website and see where the closest coin dealer is to you. They can help you to determine which coins are worth melt and which are worth more than melt. You might have to pay for this service, but they will give you the best information in the fastest manner.

Be sure that you take a note pad with you and make a note of any of the collector coins that he pulls out... ask for a grade, write down the denomination, year, and mint mark. Everything else just put into bags... $100 or $1000 face value per denomination.

ANA find a dealer: http://www.money.org/ana_custom/dealer_search/dealer_search.cfm

 

Melt is kind of a slang being to sell for the value of the metal. It is not always actually melted. I reccomend buying the RED book, or "A Guide Book of United States coins", it will be in ANY bookstore. I guarantee you have at least a few worth more than melt with that amount of coinage.

 

I'll through out a different idea. Because you have SO much and the cash value isn't an issue, what about dealing directly with a melter yourself and having the coins processed into jewelry, pendants or anything that you could then keep or give to your kids, relatives etc. to remember your grandfather by?

Just a thought. Everyone is already steering you in the right direction with how to proceed.

 

Looking forward to you posting some pics of the ladies Zenarrrow, 'specially the one in Levis.

J/K of course. Welcome to the forum dear fellow.

 

This thread needs pictures.

 

Yes it does. Post some photo of this hoard and then go from there. IMO, you should get as much info as you can about each type of coin and go through them yourself, with your wife, and pull out the ones that are known keys or semi-key coins and keep the rest to look over again for more subtle differences. You'll want to look for VAM's and coins in mint state condition. Actually, with so many coins to go through, you have a very long and hopefully fruitful project (hobby) on your hands.

Good luck searching and be sure to ask as many questions as you need to here on CoinTalk. By the way... We love the photos.

Bruce

 

Just thinking about that makes me look forward to the day I'll be able to sit down and go through my girlfriends grandfathers 500 Morgan Dollar stash.

 

Thanks for all the advice. Just got home from dinner. Looked through the Morgan's seem to have mostly from 1878-1904 mostly blank plenty of o's and s's. No CC from what I have looked through yet. As for 1921 like John mentioned many Morgans but no Peace from 23 on I have plenty. I am going to get a hold of that Red Book and just peruse ebay to get an idea of what I am looking at here. Oh, I guess I should also mention that I have a very large gun collection as well.

 

Check out the local public library for that Red Book Zen. It may not be the most current copy but it will be helpful in your endevour....