Back in 1999 when the coin bug first bit me, i made the novice mistake of buying a set of the first five statehood quarters(gold-plated) from QVC. I now know altered coinage is not a good investment, so looking at this set today is a bit annoying to me. My question is, does anyone think those five coins are worth holding onto or should i just go ahead and use the 1.25$ for parking or bus fare. The other option would be to give them to my 4yr old nephew to spark his interest in the hobby. The Bottom line is a 29$ lesson for a newbie.
Yeah, QVC is certainly a damaging factor to the hobby. I would probably go the second route prior to the first - if they can spark an interest in the hobby, in a young collector, they have produced some value. That's just my opinion. If not that, I would just put them in your closet, and forget about them. No sense in spending them for pocket change unless you have to.
I'd say using them to spark the interests of a young collector will outstrip any monetary worth they will ever have. Besides it looks like other have already been using them for parking meters and bus fair. Check out THIS thread just posted today
Thanks for the input guy's. I guess i'll go with the second option and pass them on to the kid. I wonder what the melt value would be lol.
Let's put it this way - the gold value of ALL of them would be less than the face value of just ONE of the quarters. I would also suggest giving them to the kid. Just be sure that when you do you explain to him that they are just pretty - not valuable - and why.
Or....ebay. If they are nicely packaged, sell them as a set. if not, break it up and sell them individually. I sold a GP Georgia quarter for a dollar or two. Or, keep them as a valuable lesson. Don't feel bad about $29. My souvenir MCI/Worldcom stock certificate was worth $30,000 at one point. I don't have the 30Gs, but I do have a nice piece of paper that I can hang on the wall.
I'd say put them in circulation and see if one of us finds them. What is they say, 3 degrees of seperation.
I will admit having a love/hate relationship with after-mint alterations on coins. I have a side collection of coins that have been purposefully altered by someone after having left the mint, such as elongated cents, lincoln cents with JFK's head stamped in it, hobo nickels, love tokens, those painted red quarters you find now and then, and gold plated coins. I only buy them second hand or find them in rolls of coins though, I would never encourage QVC by purchasing their overpriced garbage. I don't have any of their gold plated state quarters YET, but I do hope to find one cheap at a yard sale, a coin dealers junk bin, or better still, in a roll of quarters from the bank. I say if you learned from the purchase back when you were a newbie it was worth the $29.00. If I had the set I would break them open, stick one in my altered collection, and use the rest as conversation pieces. Have fun!
On top of all this QVC didn't even use nice mint state quarters for the plating. There are many nicks and scratches evident underneath the gold. Looks like they were pulled from circulation.
Well that's possible, but not likely. They come right from the mint that way - with dings and scratches
