How best to evaluate my collection?

Hi,

This is my first post as I joined to ask this question.

I have a canvas bag filled with 39.5 pounds of change. My best rough math has the face value of the coins between $550.00 - $700.00.

There is nothing special about my "collection." It is just all of the change that I've had for the last 10-15 years. I find it unlikely that I have any treasures, but feel it would be very irresponsible not to check each coin before rolling everything up and depositing it.

I need a plan. Something like a checklist for each denomination. If it was minted in a certain year or has other characteristics, put it aside for further evaluation.

I'd appreciate any recommendations.

Thanks.

 

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Wow, it is unlikely that you have any rare dates in the coins, however there are quite a few "error" coins with errors like Doubled Dies. I'm sure someone has saved these dates and can help you.

 

There could be some neat coins and possibly even valuable varieties.

You could buy folders and fill them with the nicest coins of each date.

There are several sites that will list specific valuable varieties. Even though it's unlikely you'd have any given variety the odds of something in a large accumulation are somewhat better.

This is a hobby for a lot of people. If you're interested then this would be a great place to start. If you have no interest then searching these is unlikely to have much payoff except in a lot learning.

 

I would take the bag to a bank, cash them out, then buy a few nice collectible coins.

 

No disrespect to the hobby, but I'm interested in pure financial gain. If I don't get any revelations here, I'll "Google" each year for the specific coins and denominations before rolling them up. I'll also read up on errors.

Ty.

 

Actually that's quite OK. Many of us got into this for pure financial gain and stuck around because it was so much fun. Some of us have made a lot of money, too.

There are simply many dozens of potentially valuable coins for each denomination.

I'll provide a few of the quarters to get you started.

Watch for nice lustrous '82 and '83 issues. There are '71-D and '72-D quarters with a little wder space between the E and S of "STATES". Watch for double die reverses on these as well. '04-D WI quarters sometimes have extra leaves on the left side of the corn. Some '70-D, '71-D (and others) are very thin. There are about 14 states coins with rotated dies (obverse and reverse don't line up). There are earlier ones as well. Watch for errors like cuds made by broken dies. There a valuable '76-D DDO (look at LIBERTY).

This is only a few of the potentially valuable quarters. You might want to pick up a "Cherry Pickers Guide" and other specialized books on the subject.

I still suggest making the collections since they will make a great reference collections to compare potential varieties to. You'll have it in the future when you get "odd" looking coins.

Good luck. There are lots of rarities and undiscovered varieties because people aren't looking.

 

Oh! And if any of the coins are nice Gems save them too. Especially those dated between '05 and '10.

High grade coins can be quite valuable now days.

 

No issue at all. Finances have a huge impact on our collecting. I’ll be blunt: numismatics is not a very lucrative business. Very few of us make much mlonger neu on collecting. Those who do profit from coins benefit from two things: knowledge and luck. Knowledge being the most important factor. If you are not interested in collecting at all, pull out any silver coins and send the rest to the bank. You’ll save yourself tons of time. If you want to learn more about pins, specifically ones that are valuable, we can certainly help, but it’s going to take a long time to learn about your collection.

What does the bulk of your collection have? Quarters? Pennies?

 

I have to agree,a lot of us have been doing this (coin collecting,selling) for a long time. The time spent looking thru and researching each coin is very time consuming.
Your chances of find anything that will compensate for your time and effort is, frankly slim.
Do what makes you happy, and please let us know if you had any luck.

 

@coindrag

Since you're in it, purely for the financial gain, I think you have started 10-15 years too late. Just take it all to the bank and get rid of it.

It's not going to take you hours and hours to learn what you need to know. It will take you years.

Chris

 

You could try John Wexler's website and coppercoins.

 

Just as a reality check, there's an entire sub-forum here dedicated to Coin Roll Hunting -- getting change from banks (or wherever) and searching for valuable coins. Some people there search through hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of change, and "finds" are few and far between. In terms of money gained over time spent, it pays a lot less than minimum wage.

If you don't enjoy the hunt for its own sake, it's probably a terrible use of your time. On the other hand, "getting rid of that nagging feeling that you're missing out" also counts for something.

Myself, I check every coin I receive for the obvious things -- obsolete designs (wheat or Indian cents, Buffalo nickels, etc.), because that's easy, and silver, because that's easy and lucrative. I don't do much checking for varieties or subtle errors.

Welcome to CoinTalk!

 

Then please, hop to it, but just understand there's a lot more to it than simply googling. Good luck.

 

I tend to agree. The time commitment involved to search them plus learning to find the errors combined with the low chances of finding anything of real value makes it not worth it in my opinion. Plus errors and varieties are a niche collecting market so if you do find something...then you have to find someone to sell it to which is not always easy.

I’d probably just cash them in.

 

@
Seattlite86
It looks like more quarters than other denominations. Since 40 pounds of quarters is $800.00, I estimated the face value of the coins to be between $550.00 - $700.00.

Also, regarding all of the posts telling me it is not worth my time to check each coin and to just deposit them: I appreciate the advice, but I couldn't live with myself not knowing, so I'm going to do the work.

 

Like I said, you've got to be able to live with yourself. And going through them is better than continuing to let them bug you for another decade or two.

 

Kudos!

Even if chances of finding anything truly worthwhile is fairly remote, if you've the time and are willing, I don't blame you in the least. First try to spend some quality time on the variety and error sites to hopefully familiarize yourself as much as possible with the different types, but also be sure to learn of the lookalikes as they are what you're most likely to come across. Once you've a fair understanding, dig in, and if confused or you get stuck, ask for help. Good luck!

 

it will take years and years take them to the bank me I check everything but I am a collector not in it for investment

 

Get the Red Book. Look for errors and possible key dates.

Consider getting an album - set aside the nicest coins per year/mint to fill the holes. Sell the rest. Sell the (hopefully completed) album if collecting doesn't grow on you.

 

Okay; I search all of my coins and i have hundreds of thousands at the moment, so I understand your undertaking.
Step 1 in knowledge building: look at every year variety and make a list ignore what to pull from your coins. PCGS has great photos of all varieties in their databases, so you know exactly what to look for. If you need help finding them, let me know. There are several good websites out there. I think you have them, but if not, let us k ow.

Step 1 for coin searching: sort them by year and mint mark. During that step, pull all silver coins and set them aside.