Newbie coin quesions....
 

Hello!

I am just getting started in my knowledge of gold and silver coins. I have collected paper money (just for me) and have a collection where i have acquired paper notes from a lot of the Tyrants/Dictators of the world. I have notes with Lenin, Stalin, coins with Mao, Nazi quarters, etc. I just do it for fun...

I have a butt load of coins, about half a 5 gallon water jug. I want to go through this and pull out any silver coins i have. Im not trying to get rich, just kinda a new hobby, and learn something as well. I have done some research and found this:

http://www.coinflation.com/

Is this a good place for info on what coins have silver? I just want to make sure i have a detailed list when i go through them. I dont want to do it twice!


Thanks in advance, and i appreciate all GIM'ers input. I know there are some damn smart cookies here...


PEACE!

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

If you do foreign coins, try www.worldcoingallery.com

Once you identify your coin's KM# or catalog #, click on the price guide for coins from that country and it should tell you the approximate retail value as well as actual silver weight (ASW).

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

It's a great place for determining melt value but coinflation doesn't tell you that a 1880 CC Morgan is worth many multiples of a 1880 O Morgan ;).

I'm fairly new to Numi's myself but here are a few sites that I've enjoyed browsing:

http://www.us-coin-values-advisor.com/
http://www.coincommunity.com/
http://www.collectons.com/

Hopefully other people will chime in with more links :D.

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

More info on coin values...

http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/fmv.shtml

http://www.pcgs.com/prices/default.aspx <--values are for PCGS graded coins last I checked, so raw coins are lower

Just remember, these are guides and not the final definitive word.

http://lynncoins.com/free-silver-guide.htm

http://www.silvercoinstoday.com/silv...r-coin-values/ <--basically same thing as coinflation but an alternate in case coinflation is down

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Don't forget:

http://www.pcgs.com/prices/default.aspx

:smile:

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Thanks so much guys....

Question, when it comes to 'graded' coins, is this like baseball cards? Mainly used for resale? In other words, if you are collecting for the actual value of the metal, and not the 'condition' of that metal, does grading even matter? Can a coin that is 'graded' higher than another, actually have more metal value than the other?

Thanks again,

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

No, not on that basis. It drives me nuts when I see a silver buffalo advertised as "uncirculated".

"Of course it's uncirculated you nimrod, it doesn't have a dollar value stamped on it so how would it circulate?"

By going the bullion route all you are worried about is the "spot" price when you buy. To that you add the "premium" or markup from the person selling it to you to determine a "good" price. If I buy 20oz at 308 and spot is 15.15 then I paid 2% over spot. (Killer good, don't expect that to happen too often.)

When you sell you want to wait till you can sell at a spot that covers the premium you bought for.

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

In terms of metal value, coinflation has what you need for information. In a nutshell:

Pennies: Pull out anything prior to 1982. (1982 was a mix of copper pennies and zinc. I don't bother with them. Some do.)
Nickels: Pull out all of them.
Dimes, Quarters: Anything prior to 1965 is 90% silver.
Halves: Anything prior to 1965 is 90% silver. 1965-1970 is 40% silver.

As for numismatics, condition matters a lot. If you want to check for these, get a coin book and find the key years for each coin type prior to your sorting.

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

hey Sparky

Can I ask why you are pulling all the Nickels? Is it the copper and nickel composition?

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Coin grading should only be used if you plan to resell your coin or you need to authenticate it. Remember, there are costs associated with sending it in and the grading fee itself.

As far a higher graded coin having more metal value than a lower graded coin, it will have slightly more because a higher graded coin has less wear on it. In general though, the standard is approximately 0.715 net troy ounces of silver per $1 face and it's done as a sum versus a coin by coin basis. So when buying bags of 90% silver (aka "junk silver" or "coin silver"), you will likely see the full extreme of coins in terms of wear.

Hope this helps.

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Yes. Admittedly it is psychological and based mostly on principle rather than some great financial opportunity. Same as pennies. If you pull out $50 worth of pennies and nickels, and someday the value increases 10x, you've made $450. That ain't gonna change your lifestyle.

Nevertheless, I can't seem to stop myself...:bear_cry:

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Love the NEW ICON!

HS

Things changed - they are hell of a lot worse....:signs14:

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

maybe .01% of them get carried around in people's pockets & their keys & paper clips, so they end up in AU condition ?

http://www.numismedia.com/fmv/prices...pricesgd.shtml

interesting - for the Roosevelt Dimes, the 49S & the 50S are the rare ones. i have a few 55S BU, i was wondering what they were worth.

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

don't forget the 90% silver commemorative dollars and quarters etc. after those dates too! always check the change :36_3_13:

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

What are 'halves'?

Like 1/2 dollars, etc?

I sorted last night for about an hour. I have only found pennies prior to 82'. Nothing in silver pre-64'......I thought i was gonna find at least a couple! Oh well.....still a bunch to sort!

This does get addicting!


:)

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

UPDATE:

I have gone through about 2 gallons of coins, here is what i have found:

-Pennies 82' and earlier = 110 (oldest penny= 1943)
-Nickels 45' and earlier = 0 (oldest nickel= 1966)
-Dimes 64' and earlier = 0 (oldest dime= 1963)
-Quarters 64' and earlier = 0 (Oldest quarter= 1965)

So after a bunch of hours of sorting, i have 110 pennies of real money. Hey, gotta start somewhere, right? I found like #15- 1965 quarters, so maybe me waiting until 2010 to start trying to find them was a bit late on my part. LOL

:)

Thanks to all GIM'ers who helped out and gave advice. Thanks again!

PEACE

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Because '65 was the first year of the new clad coins, they minted a dramatically high amount of them because they anticipated a massive hoarding of silver coins, so they needed to make a ton of these new clad coins to replace a massive amount of silver coins that were disappearing quickly. That's why there are still so many '65 coins still out there.

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Thanks madfranks!

That does make 'cents'. LOL

If i just like collecting, how much would i expect to pay for a 1964' or earlier quarter? There is a coin shop down the street, but i have never been there. I called once, and the lady had the 'mightier than all' attitude.

PEACE!

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

You know what is interesting SuiJuris...(to me at least). For years, I mean 15 + years, I've checked my change for silver quarters and dimes. I've found only a few. I never put it together though, the value of silver. I just knew to separated the old ones, from the newer clad ones. I knew it had value, but didn't put effort into focusing on that.

I've only been stacking silver the last year or two.

This makes me think, that there's a lot of folks like myself, my earlier self, that just separate the old silver ones from the new ones.

You aren't going to find them in circulation, unless you are lucky. Why is that? Because people know, subconsciously, that it's real money. Has real value. This reassures me that silver will always be money. It's just embedded, even if folks don't see it directly...

Re: Newbie coin quesions....
 

Yep, no doubt, there is a vague collective memory running just below the surface. But, it must not be universal.

I remember, as a 7 year-old kid, when clad coinage was introduced. All the kids in my neighborhood were aware that the old stuff was what you stuck in your piggy-bank, and the new stuff was what you used to buy candy bars. Our parents did this too. It didn't take long, maybe a year, before the real silver in circulation had virtually disappeared.

Then again, there are exceptions. My idiot sister ran away from home in about 1970 and stole the box of silver coins my Dad and I had been saving. It was only about $200 face, but was mostly obsolete designs like Mercury dimes, Walkers and Morgans... obvious standouts... and she knew we considered them a collection. She spent it all. Even then, I'm sure those coins got squirreled away pretty quickly by those lucky enough to recieve them.

Other than dumb moves like that, I cannot imagine that many silver coins have continually passed from hand to hand unrecognized for 45 years since clad coinage was introduced. I think when you do find the occasional piece in circulation it's because someone younger than my generation (or dumber than my sister) decided to spend the money found in a jar from an estate without even realizing there was a difference... else it wouldn't be there... and it doesn't last long when it is introduced back into circulation.