Not sure if this should be here or the "What's It Worth?" forum. I have two $5 gold coins which, I thought were described as Liberty Bust, but maybe it's Half Eagle. I don't yet have a snapshot of my own, but this is the image from an Ebay example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/121656908629?lpid=82&chn=ps I'm hoping to sell one of them, even though I admit I'm having a hard time trying to find an interested buyer in New York City (which surprises me). One is 1899, and the other is 1880 but that one also has a small "cc" under the eagle. The wear is probably about the same (I'm new at this, but maybe VF?). Does the "cc" indicate anything meaningful in terms of value/price? (And if you're going to float some numbers, could you let me know if those are retail prices, or what a dealer would offer me?) Thanks for any insight.
You will need to post pictures of the coins to get any sense of value. The value depends on the quality of the coin, and can range from $400-$4,000 for the 1899 and $400-$40,000 for the 1880 CC (Carson City mint). Just curious, what do you mean when you say you are not finding an interested buyer in New York. Did you try a coin dealer, a pawn shop? What did they say?
Retail on an 80-CC in VF is $1100. Should be easy to sell to a reputable coin dealer, as should the 1899, which is pretty much a bullion coin. Look at pcgs.com/photograde, then navigate to the $5 Liberty coins to get a better feel for the grade. One thing that can kill the value of the 80-CC is if the coin has been harshly cleaned or otherwise damaged.
And these almost always go for over bullion, so they are not just a bullion coin, unless they are in really bad condition
Okay, I'll do my best to respond, but keep in mind that I'm a total newbie, so I'm not up on the language, and my judgment is, well, questionable. I'm just guessing at the VF based on what I've read and been told about other coins. I posted in other forums here about, for instance, my frustration with trying to sell an Austrian coin here in NYC. I naively thought that there would be tons of reputable dealers in Manhattan, and tons of informal collectors with coin clubs that might advise me - but that's not the case. I've tried to do a little research - sitting in a Barnes & Noble with a half-dozen books in my lap - but it's not leaving me much smarter than when I began. The coins have definitely been circulated, but not damaged. I went experimentally to my first coin show at the beginning of the year, and if I remember correctly, I think I was offered about $300 or less for these. It if might retail for $1000, then $300 seems awfully low to me. I haven't shopped these around in NYC yet, but when I tried with the Austrian coin, the offers were even worse than the coin show. Not pawn shops, Beef1020, but a couple of dealers in the jewelry district on 47th, plus Brigandi where they were pretty curt and uninterested, and Paul Bosco, who's very reputable, who was courteous but not much interested, plus Stacks. They're mostly shrugging everything off as not worth much above bullion. Meanwhile, I guess the "cc" has no special weight in terms of making it more or less valuable?
The CC is the Carson city mint mark meaning that OSS where the coin was produced. There are many collectors who specialize in Carson city coins. They almost always carry a premium. As for value of the coins, try to post an image, that will tell us a few things: are the coins genuine and what is their condition. Without these, we can't really suggest what you can expect to get for your coins. We also have a buy/sell/trade section here that is free to use. You will need ten posts before you can sell there which can easily be done in this thread. Welcome to CT.
Whatever you do, don't be hasty. Even the shrugs you are getting don't mean much. It may simply mean they will wait for you to come back after a few other stops or even that they may not need them or figure they cannot move them soon enough. A lot depends on location also. Prices vary regionally depending upon need. Also, check your library for an copy of Photograde, this may give you some insight as to the actual grade. Knowledge is your best friend. Edit-sorry, used the wrong quote, this is for the OP.
The problem is that while they're worth more than bullion, they're not terribly desirable, they're not terribly rare and they're not terribly in demand. The high end coin dealers that you're naming have absolutely no interest in them because they have absolutely no buyers for them. The gold & jewelry sellers on 47th Street have no interest in them because they're worth more than melt so they have no buyers for them. Somewhere at that coin show or the next one is the same kind of dealer that you originally bought them from - somebody who sells what arr essentially low value - but better than bullion - gold coins for people to collect. Unfortunately that dealer isn't going to offer you a large percentage of the 'value' of the coin because it may take awhile to sell and he or she has to tie up cash in holding inventory. And finally most of the dealers at that coin show are going to fall into one of the other two categories: their either selling high-end collectible (expensive) coins or they're essentially bullion dealers selling coins and bars for a little more than melt and buying coins for a little less.
Tommy, I'm trying not to be hasty! I've been at this since January! But it's so frustrating. What's strange to me, apropos of the "shrugs" - it that in the past I've sold a couple of things in the jewelry district, and if those guys are interested, they do everything possible to keep you from walking out the door. It seems nuts to me to hope that maybe someday you'll return. It's not like any one individual has a lock on being the "best." Right, Burton, I think you summed it up sadly well. They're definitely worth something, but not hugely desirable - and not in perfect condition, either. But, okay, I'm going to try to post pictures. I don't have a camera, but I made color photocopies, then scanned the photocopies. Maybe you guys can tell me if you consider this to be a passable image, in comparison with what a camera would have done. All right...I'm guessing that I'm supposed to click on the "Upload a file."
It's really impossible to grade from photocopies. The detail just isn't there. I'll say they've definitely been cleaned and if I HAD to post grades, maybe VG DETAILS on the 1880CC and FINE DETAILS maybe VERY FINE DETAILS on the 1899. If I had to pull values out of a hat, 400 on the 1880CC and 350 on the 1899. Melt is somewhere around 280.
Yay! Thanks, Burton, that means at least I posted successfully. So, first you're saying that if I'd had a camera the image might have been better? I understand that values are only a guess, but may I ask if those numbers mean retail in a store or what I might expect to get? Jwitten, by "interested" does that mean as a potential buyer? I'm still re-thinking the best way to proceed. I was just thinking tonight that maybe I'd be smarter to focus on my European coins first. I'm still muddling it over. Anyway, so pleased that I got some kind of image up.
Even a smartphone or tablet camera will give better results than a scanned photo copy. Here's why... The photocopier is optimized for a flat sheet of paper on glass. That's the precise focus point for the 1000s of little camera & lenses used to scan the document. Strike 1 - coins are not flat The highest resolution copiers that I know of are 2400x2400 dots per inch (dpi). That creates a massive 513MP (mega pixel) image. Even a 600x600dpi scan is 32MP. So the file is MASSIVELY compressed. Compression takes adjacent pixels that are 'almost' the same color and merges them into large shapes that can be stored more compactly (from here to here it's all this single color). So the fine details are lost to compression Strike 2 The printing side of the color copier then puts ink to paper. The inks are never 100% perfect matches to the colors of the image Strike 3 Now you scan that paper with another scanner. If the resolution of the second scanner is lower than the printing resolution - more averaging. If the resolution is higher, you create false detail. Even if they are precisely the same, no matter how hard you try, the dots never line up perfectly. So each dot of the second generation scan is going to be the average of 2 side by side or 4 adjacent dots. Strike 4 Then that 2nd generation scanned image is compressed. Strike 5 Then of course it's displayed on a 72dpi monitor, but we can zoom it to get past that. Ball 1 In any league I've ever played, 1 and 5 is a losing count. You can prove this to yourself in about 90 seconds. Take a page of typescript and copy it. Copy the copy. Compare the two - gen 0 with gen 2 - you will see how the letters aren't quite aligned, the little jagged 'straight' lines are visible if you use a magnifying glass and the way the letters spread out a tiny bit. So take a look here: it's just my tablet sitting on a block of wood with the under counter fluorescent lights providing illumination. But that 8MP camera produced this image: Not a great one, mind you, but not a terrible one - that's this weekend's TNA show admission medal. DCAM Aluminum. Notice how the lettering is a bit washed out.
Please don't use my off the cuff (polite term for bull****) estimate as the basis for a deal between the two of you.
Thank you, Burton, for your lengthy overview, but the chances of my buying electronics is close to nil at present, and I can't find anyone appropriate to help me out with their cells. I was talking to one numismatist who told me he spent $3000 on equipment to take good pictures for his Ebay sales.
He spent way too much. You can put a kick *** system together with a $350 Canon T3i, a $450 lens, a $100 tripod and $50 in lights. That's considered a Cadillac system even if the equipment is a couple years old. If you are willing to do more effort, you can do the whole thing for 350.
