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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;messydesk, post: 2502347, member: 1765&quot;]The first thing you&#039;ll probably want to know is value.&nbsp; To know value, you need a price guide and the condition.&nbsp; I would spend the $12 or so on the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Book-United-States-Coins/dp/0794843891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472168263&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=guide+book+united+states+coins+2017" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Book-United-States-Coins/dp/0794843891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472168263&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=guide+book+united+states+coins+2017" rel="nofollow">Guide Book of United States Coins</a>.&nbsp; It has an overview of all US coin series as well as retail (i.e., what you&#039;d expect to pay a dealer at a shop for a coin you want) price guide.&nbsp; Most of your coins being wheat cents in the &#039;40s and &#039;50s, probably aren&#039;t worth much, and the retail guide is very optimistic valuing those.&nbsp; You will see which dates and mints are particularly valuable, and if you have a large number of coins, chances are you have a couple of those.&nbsp; In order to get the correct value, you&#039;re also going to need to know how to grade them.&nbsp; For this, I&#039;d use <a href="http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/" rel="nofollow">PCGS Photograde</a>, which has great pictures.&nbsp; If you prefer books to online resources here, get the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Official-Standards-American-Numismatic-Association/dp/0794838243/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472168518&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=grading+standards+for+united+states" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.amazon.com/Official-Standards-American-Numismatic-Association/dp/0794838243/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472168518&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=grading+standards+for+united+states" rel="nofollow">ANA Grading Standards</a>.&nbsp; You might also want a 3-5x magnifier.</p><p><br /></p><p>How to sort these out?&nbsp; Sort them by type, date, and mint mark.&nbsp; The cents will probably take you the longest, but also have the biggest range of dates.&nbsp; You&#039;ll end up with lots of some dates and mints, not many of others.&nbsp; If you want to put a set together from these, buy a Dansco Lincoln Cent album (either <a href="http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-album-lincoln-cents-1909-1958.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-album-lincoln-cents-1909-1958.html" rel="nofollow">1909-1958</a> for just wheat cents or a <a href="http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-album-lincoln-cents-1909-date.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-album-lincoln-cents-1909-date.html" rel="nofollow">1909-2009</a> for a more complete run), perhaps also an Indian Cent album if you have a good assortment of those.&nbsp; Put the nicest coins in the albums.&nbsp; Extras you can put in tubes by date and mint as appropriate.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you like doing albums like that, then you can get them for other types as well.&nbsp; Keep in mind that this isn&#039;t an &quot;instant gratification&quot; hobby.&nbsp; You&#039;ll have to ease into it to learn the most.&nbsp; Hang out here and ask questions about stuff you don&#039;t understand.&nbsp; Most people here will be glad to help.&nbsp; Smartphones can take fairly decent pictures of coins if you want to show something you have or are wondering about.&nbsp; Don&#039;t try to clean any of the coins you have.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Edit:&nbsp; D&#039;Oh!&nbsp; I see you already have a Redbook.&nbsp; No need to get another one. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> )[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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