I'm very new here. And certainly have the coin collecting itch now that my father surprised me by giving me a bunch of coins. I have cataloged a bunch of them over the last couple of days.
I don't know what is worth anything and what is not. I'll catalog a coin and something in a box will tell me that someone on ebay is selling it for $3.95 ... or maybe $223! Most of what I have are Canadian and US coins.
If there is anyone out there that can take a look at my collection so far, and give me some indication of any value, I would very much appreciate that. If a lot of the coins don't have more than face value, I'll simply deposit them in the bank (keeping one of each year). I believe I'm made my collection public so that anyone can view it.
I had a quick look at your collection. As for what to do with it, it's a question of personal preferences. You could keep on collecting by date or else, as you say, keep only one of each type and swap the rest. The first concern should not be "How much is it worth?" but "Do I like it?"
One thing is clear, though, you're grading many of your coins much too harshly. "G" (= Good) and "VG" are actually low grades, and it's almost impossible that your recent nickel coins would be so low in grade.
Thanks for taking a look. I very much appreciate your help.
I'll definitely look at how to "grade" my coins. I suspect I'll have to go through all of them again, and correct grading, and adjust quantities, etc. Thanks for the link.
Yes, of course I like the collection. And I want to make it grow, and expand. I think it would be cool to have one of each coin made in the US and Canada since 1900. That's a tall order, for me.
However, when I talk value, or "how much is it worth"?, I'm not really interested in keeping lets say 46 nickels all dated 1964, I'd only keep maybe 2, unless that coin is worth something more than face value. If I were to know that it really *is* only worth face value, I'll keep 2 and deposit the rest in the bank. Does that make sense? But if the coin is worth $2 lets say, then I'm interested in selling or swapping it. Really, who needs 46 nickels all dated 1964? That's what I'm getting at, and that's what I need help with. Determining the worth of a coin so I can make a decision to keep it or not.
So please keep your suggestions coming. I'm relying on people like you to help me understand something I obviously know very little about.
I do exactly the same, i.e. I keep a few coins of each for when I'll start to swap. For now, I've uploaded only 31 nickel dollars, but I'll have a lot more, including Victorian coins.
We get the commemorative 25¢ at face value, so it's easy to save a few in high grade to swap or give away as extra.
I would suggest to keep everything 1964 and back (i.e. Elizabeth's first portrait and before, unless the coin is damaged). For later years, I would keep only the nicest 5 or 6 specimens of each year at most.
I recently got a lot of 1600 wheat pennies. Obviously I'll have a lot of doubles to upload for swap once I make sure there is no rare variety in them. (I've actually gone through everything except the 1950-58 period.)
I'm dubitative. You want to swap all your coins but three countries, are U sure that you won't be interested by other countries in 10 years ? You swap your steel pennies without keeping one in your collection, you always refer to the value of your collection which is usually not the only driver for a collector, coin collecting is rarely an investment, same as keeping one coin of each year of the US penny, even though accumulating an high amount of pennies would be usefull to decorate your car
Anyway, I don't judge or blame, each collector is different, some are interested by the value of their collection, others don't care, but I've seen one common interest for all coin collectors I met : a certain interest in geopolitics and history. So apart from the pecuniary interest of your collection, what drives you to spend hours sorting your coins, what sense do you give to your collection ?
Quote: "DarrellA"Hello Members!
I'm very new here. And certainly have the coin collecting itch now that my father surprised me by giving me a bunch of coins. I have cataloged a bunch of them over the last couple of days.
I don't know what is worth anything and what is not. I'll catalog a coin and something in a box will tell me that someone on ebay is selling it for $3.95 ... or maybe $223! Most of what I have are Canadian and US coins.
If there is anyone out there that can take a look at my collection so far, and give me some indication of any value, I would very much appreciate that. If a lot of the coins don't have more than face value, I'll simply deposit them in the bank (keeping one of each year). I believe I'm made my collection public so that anyone can view it.
Thanks so much!
Darrell
Hello! First & Foremost welcome to Numista!
But as Camerinvs said, you are grading your coins very harsley. Modern circulating us coinage usually doesn't have that low of grade especially the state quarters, there are those rare chances you may find some really beat up new coins (That have been polished/holed/cleaned/or beat to hell) but those types of modern american coins aren't that common to come across. I recommend to help you grade your coins better you use this grading tool put together by a professional coin grading service. It can be very useful at times: https://pcgs.com/photograde
