Coins Online

How much your coins are worth depends on what they are, what year they are from, and what condition they are in.

It is best to take your coins to a coin dealer to find out exactly what they are worth, although a free valuation might not be a valuation but an offer to buy.

Or, you might want to find a copy of the ‘Standard Catalog of World Coins’ for the correct century which may be found at your local library. Unless you’re a serious coin collector, it’s probably too expensive to buy but is available from Amazon.

Remember that the book price is not the price coin dealers will pay for your coins but what they sell them for. They might offer you around half the book price for them.

If you sell your coins to a collector, you might get something in between the dealer’s offer and the book price. You could try eBay, it would give you some idea of what people are prepared to pay for your particular coins but it isn’t a true reflection of their value. Some items can sell vastly over value or under value on Ebay.

Condition, or grading, is most important. Collectors prefer coins in mint condition rather than worn condition. The better the condition, the higher will be its assigned grade and the more it will be worth. An uncirculated coin that is in flawless mint state might be worth hundreds times more than the same coin in good condition but which has been circulated.

Scarcity or rarity is a major determinant of coin value. The rarer a coin the higher the coin value. Note that rarity has little to do with the age of a coin. Many one thousand year old Chinese coins often sell for no more than a few dollars because there are a lot of them around, whereas a 1913 Liberty Head Nickel may sell for over $1,000,000 because there are only five known specimens in existence.

Serious coin collectors will tell you that you shouldn’t clean your coin collection because they prefer that “natural look.” Unless you have no interest in ever selling the coins, and don’t care about lost value, absolutely do not clean them.

Professional coin dealers and collectors are very adept at spotting coins that have been cleaned. Don’t mistakenly think that the coin will be in better shape after you’ve cleaned it. Cleaning leaves clues on the surface of the coin and may affect the value from 25-75% or even as much as 90%.

However, sometimes pieces that are dug from the ground are in such poor condition that to even identify them they must be cleaned. This often happens with ancient Roman coins. One way to remove the dirt and grime without removing the patina (natural coloring) is to soak the coin in trumpet valve oil for two or three days and then brush them with a firm, yet soft, toothbrush. You may need to repeat this several times.

Coins should be handled by the edges to avoid putting fingerprints on the flat surfaces. Avoid silver and other metal polishes – even jewelry polishes. They are much too harsh and will leave tiny scratches on the coin’s surfaces.

Don’t let anyone handle your coin collection, just handling coins can reduce your coin in valuable. Keep them protected in protective cases.

Verify that your coin is not valuable. You can look the coin up in a coin price guide. For modern coins, you’ll need to know the date and the mint mark, if one is present. If you can’t make out the date, or if the coin is so stained or dirty that you can’t tell what it is, try looking at it with a magnifying glass. If you can’t tell if the coin is valuable, check with a coin dealer (or two, for verification) before cleaning.

Cleaning won’t improve their grading (the standards used by coin collectors and dealers to evaluate a coin), so you should usually let them be. If, however, you’ve just got some old coins around that aren’t worth much more than their face value, but which you would still like to make more presentable, you can usually clean them up pretty nicely without damaging their surfaces too noticeably.

Here are some methods you can use to clean your coins:

Vinegar and Salt

1. Get a glass of vinegar or lemon juice. Add about a teaspoon of regular table salt and mix.
2. Place your pennies in the vinegar or the lemon juice. Make sure they are not on top of each other.
3. Leave the pennies for around five minutes in the glass of vinegar or lemon juice.
4. Take the pennies out, and wash them off. Let them dry for around five minutes so they will no longer be wet.

Ketchup/Tabasco

1. Locate a cup and ketchup. This also works with Tabasco sauce.
2. Put enough ketchup in the cup to cover up the coin.
3. Put the coin in, and wait three minutes.
4. Wash pennies off in hot water.

Coca Cola

1. Get a can or bottle of Coca Cola.
2. Set pennies in a dish so that they are not sitting on top of each other.
3. Put just enough Coca Cola in the dish to cover the pennies.
4. Leave for about 5-6 hours (for better results turn the coins over halfway through the process).
5. Take the pennies out and wash them off with warm or hot water.

Eraser

1. Get a dirty penny.
2. Next get an eraser.
3. Rub the penny with the eraser as if you were trying to erase a mark on paper.
4. Then flip the penny and repeat steps 1-3. This will take about 10 seconds per penny.

Grading a coin is the process by which its value is determined and set. The grade of a coin is important to both sellers and collectors of coins. If you are a coin collector or have coins to sell, you should know how to grade a coin.

The primary purpose of grading a coin is to determine what the coin’s market value is based on how well the coin was originally struck, how well the coin metal itself has been preserved, and how much wear and damage the coin has suffered since it was minted.

A range of grades are used to describe the condition of coins. Valuation of a coin is impossible without a sound knowledge of the grading of coins. For this there is no real substitute for experience. However, the following is a guide to the main grading scheme used for UK coins (please note that the UK standards are higher than for US coins):

Poor: Inscriptions worn off, date illegible, only outline of design visible. (US: AG-3)

Fair: Date, legends and denomination (if any) legible, type recognisable. Very little detail visible. (US: VG-8)

Good (G): (A US grade, better described as Mediocre) Inscriptions and date considerably worn but legible.

Very Good (VG): A US grade, Fair in UK. Considerable wear over the whole coin, and high spots worn through. Coins in this or the previous grades are really only collectable if extremely rare. (US: VG-8)

Fine (F): Worn over whole area, but only the highest spots are worn completely through. (US: VF-20)

Very Fine (VF): Detail clear, but obvious evidence of very limited circulation. High spots worn but detail remains. Traces of mint lustre may linger amongst the letters of the inscription. (US: EF-40)

Extremely Fine (EF): Slight wear on high spots on close inspection, and all other detail clear and sharp. Much mint lustre may remain. May appear uncirculated to the naked eye. (US: MS-60)

Uncirculated (Unc): No wear at all, although it is possible for the design not to be fully struck up in the minting process. There may be bag abrasions. Older coins may be tarnished or toned.(US: MS-62 to 65)

There are two higher grades seen in dealers lists:

Brilliant Uncirculated (BU): Usually implies full mint lustre.(US: MS-67)

FDC (Fleur de Coin): Perfect mint state, with no abrasions or marks, and full lustre. Usually applied to proof coins only, or coins from sealed mint sets. (US: MS-70)

Proof: Not a condition, but the coin has been struck using specially prepared dies and blanks, and the minting process has been carried out usually twice with extra pressure to ensure the die is filled. Normally the fields are highly polished, with the design matte, however matte proofs where the whole coin is matte are known (especially the 1902 GB proofs), and sometimes even the design is polished (especially from the early 1970′s for UK proof sets). Proof coins usually have very sharp edges.

Many coins fall in between grades, and so terms such as ‘nearly VF’, ‘good VF’, ‘gem BU’ are encountered.

Coins should be stored individually. Storing coins together, in a jar perhaps, will cause the coins to scrape against each other. As well as marking the coins, they will also tarnish each other.

The cheapest way to store coins individually is paper envelopes. The envelopes should be made from acid-free paper. The acids in normal paper will discolour the coins over time. Acid-free 2″ x 2″ paper envelopes are available from coin shops.

Better then paper envelopes is plastic is plastic flips or re-sealable plastic bags because these allow you to look at the coins without handling them. If you use plastic envelopes, make sure they are made from mylar or another plastic that does not contain PVC. PVC will discolour or damage the coins over time. Plastic envelopes suitable for coin collectors are available from coin shops. If the top of the envelope is open, not sealed, to allow the coin to be inserted, this is only suitable for temporary storage because air and moisture can get in and corrode the coin.

More expensive are coin albums. These are available from coin shops with plastic album pages but the PVC-free ones can be expensive.

Still more expensive, the serious coin collector with a valuable collection can get their coins slabbed, or encased, in hard plastic. This is done by a professional who also grades the coins at the same time. This is really out of the scope of someone just starting a coin collection unless they happen to have a really valuable coin.

In conclusion, coins should ideally be stored in air-tight containers that are both acid-free and do not contain PVC. Exposure to the air oxidizes metal, changing its color. This might not reduce the value of your coins but does affect their appearance.

Placing packets of silica gel in coin storage areas will also help to control atmospheric moisture.

Ok. so i have this coin. I just wanna know what it is and if its worh anything at all! please help. Heres the image of what it is.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/773/wtfisthiscoin.jpg

a full soverign
1899 dated
told rare

I’m not much of a coin collector, but I have tried to collect a quarter for every year of my life. I was born in 1962 and that happens to be the only year I haven’t found yet. 1964 was also hard but there are a lot of 1963′s, 1965′s and 1967′s in circulation for some reason. Were the 1962 quarters minted?

I have a bag of old pre-decimal pennies, note on Ebay that they sell for all sorts of prices…… are there any that are really ‘valuable’ & worth keeping if I had one?I think a king was not on the throne for long once & so any coins in his reign should be worth something maybe…. not very good with history I’m afraid!

Im watching TIME TEAM …. This one person with a metal detecter found a massive gold coin,,,,,

im getting me self a metal detecter