Living in North America

Questions about Coins

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:29:29 +0000

Q) Do you have a price list?

A) I am not a dealer, I am a collector. No, I do not have a price list. One of these days, I may post a list of what I have to trade, but I do not have anything to sell.
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Q) I am not a coin collector, how can I find out how much my coin is worth?

A) The best way is to take it to a reputable dealer. In general, if a dealer has been in business for a few years, then he’s not ripping off everyone who walks in the door.
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Q) I have a coin that has Heads on both sides, is it a mint error?

A) No. (And the same goes if the coin has two “Tails” sides.) These coins are produced as novelty items, and can be bought in any magic shop for a couple of dollars apeice. They are made by hollowing out one side one coin, and milling down another coin and inserting it into the first. The joint can always be seen just inside the rim on one side of the coin (not on the edge).
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Q) Can you tell me how much my coin is worth?

A) Not accurately, without seeing it in person.
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Q) Do you enjoy waiting twenty minutes for your e-mail to download beacause of the picture I sent you without asking first?

A) Not realy. I would appreciate it if you asked me first if I care to see your coin or not.
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Q) Where can I find a coin price list.

A) There are several magazines that publish price lists, Coin World, Coins, and Coin Prices, to name a few.
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Q) Is there a coin price guide on the internet?

A) Actually, there is. It is part of the Colectors Universe site and can be found HERE
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Q) How much is my coin worth?

A) Don’t quit your job just yet. Most circulated coins aren’t worth all that much. Your average Wheat Pennies are worth between 1 and 2 cents each. Well worn Buffalo Nickels are worth less than a dime. Even silver dollars aren’t worth that much. Average circulated silver dollars are worth about 5 to 15 dollars.

Cleaning Your Coins

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:26:47 +0000

Many novice coin collectors, and even a few somewhat experienced ones, often ask the question, “Can I clean up my coins to make them worth more?” The short answer to this question is that cleaning coins the wrong way will reduce their value significantly. In order to understand why cleaning a coin reduces its value, you must first understand some of the factors which effect a coin’s value.
Most people realize that a coin in “newer” condition is worth more than an old, dirty one. Basically, the less the coin was used, the more value it will have to a collector. Unfortunately, the characteristic that most people see first on a new coin is it’s shine, or “luster”. Knowing that new coins are shiny, many people draw the incorrect conclusion that shiny coins will look new.
Actually, luster isn’t even a consideration when determining the value of most coins. Once a coin has circulated and begun to wear, its luster is lost and can never be brought back. Ignoring mutilations, holes, bends, scratches, etc., the most important part of a coin’s condition is wear. The more worn the coin is, the lower its value will be. The more of the original detail that is still present, the higher the coin’s value will be. Luster only becomes a consideration when a coin has almost no visible signs of wear.
So, you see, shining up a coin is doubly bad for its value. First of all, polishing shines a coin by removing metal from the surface. (remember, the more metal, the more value) You can’t polish details back onto a coin. Second, a worn coin should not be shiny, and one that is shiny looks wrong.
If you have a coin that is just plain dirty, you can soak it in water or rubbing alcohol for a while, then rinse it off, and gently pat it dry with a soft cloth. NEVER rub, scrub or wipe the surface of a coin. If you do, any particles of dirt that are on the coin or the cloth will scratch the coin’s surface. Scratches and other mutilations severely detract from the value of a coin. Also, never use any type of household soap or cleaner on a coin. These substances can chemically alter (tarnish, corrode) the surface of the coin.

I hope this little rant helps you understand some of the complex world of coin valuing. The simple rule of coin cleaning is: Don’t Do It! If you are looking to sell your coins, a coin dealer will see them for what they really are. Even if they don’t look so good to you now, they will look even worse to a dealer or another collector if they have been improperly cleaned.

Currency Storage

admin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:24:31 +0000

I store my paper money in inert mylar sleeves. These are readily available in two sizes, small US and large US currency. Most world currency fits is one of the two sizes. I do have a couple of bills that are too large for either of these. I keep them in sheet protector pages, made to hold an 8-1/2″x11″ sheet of paper. It is best for the currency you are storing to get these pages in an inert, archival grade, if possible.

Coins Storage

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:21:34 +0000

All of the coins in my circulated collections, US and Foreign, I keep in cardboard 2×2′s. These 2×2′s are cardboard with an inert plastic lining that you staple around the coin to keep air from passing around the coin’s surface. Keeping the air from moving across the coin’s suface is more important to the coin’s preservation than keeping it in a container that is air tight. The 2×2′s can then be kept in boxes or, my favorite, in clear plastic pages that hold 20 of them and fit in a three ring binder. After placing a coin into a 2×2, I like to use a pair of pliers to flatten the staples, being careful not to touch the coin with the pliers. I found that If I don’t do this, the 2×2 is harder to slide into the page’s pouch, and once in, the back side of the staple pokes at the page it is in, creating a dent. Worse yet, if you are keeping the 2×2′s in a box, the staple could poke at the surface of an adjoining coin, if not flattened. As I mentioned above, I keep my coins in three-ring binders. For my US coins, I slide the 2×2′s into the pages sideways, so that the “top” of the coins are toward the rings (the spine of the binder). Since US coins are minted “coin turn style”, this storage method allows the obverse and reverse to both be viewed right side up when you turn the pages away from you (like flipping the pages of a calendar, as opposed to flipping the pages of a book).

Foreign Coin and Currency

admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:14:42 +0000

I have a fairly wide variety of foreign money. Most of what I have, I received from family and friends who have traveled abroad. Some have come from the “16-for-a-buck” bin at the coin shop. I organize my world coin and currency by continent. Within the section for each continent, I keep the countries alphabetized. There are a few exceptions, countries that I have enough coins from to dedicate a whole page to them. From an aesthetics standpoint, I like the design of Swiss coins the best. I am also fascinated by “non-standard” coins, that is to say: bi-metallic, holed, and non-round coins. I enjoy finding coins that I don’t recognize. I have a lot of fun researching the origins of these coins in my Standard Catalog of World Coins. The hardest coin to identify that I have found so far was my 1913 Thailand 5 Satang. My world currency is not as varied as the coin side, but I do have a few interesting pieces. One of my favorites is a W.W.II – era 500 Franc note from Algeria that my grandfather got while in the Merchant Marines.

Canadian Coin and Currency

admin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:10:05 +0000

I don’t lump Canadian money into my “foreign” collection for a couple of reasons. Canada and the U.S. share a common monetary system (though not an even trade), and Canadian coins are found so often here in the U.S., that the money hardly seems “foreign”. Also, because it is so common here, I have so much of it that Canadian money deserves its own binder on my shelf. Unfortunately, what my Canadian collection has in size, it lacks in interesting content. The most notable pieces are a couple of large cents that my grandmother gave to me.

Coin Collecting

admin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:43:28 +0000

Every coin collector no exeption strives for a complete collection. What makes the hobby so interesting is the fact that no two collectors have the same definition of the word “complete”. One person’s complete might be, “as many 1956-D Wheat Cents as I can get.” Someone else may want, “one of every coin produced by the Nagybanya mint in Hungary.” The fun is in finding your own complete.

I began coin collecting when I was ten years old. Over the years, I had saved a few coins out of my change that had caught my eye. One day, while we were on a field trip, two of my friends were looking at a coin magazine. The page they were reading had a large picture of a coin on it (the photo was of the back of a Wheat Cent, I would soon learn). I spoke up, “Hey, I have a penny that looks like that on the back, but it’s a different color. Kinda grayish.” (or something to that effect) They proceeded to tell me about the 1943 steel cent that I had. I was fascinated. I have collected coins ever since. That Steel Cent now resides in a place of honor, right in the front of my US coin binder.

I like to collect coins made by the U.S. Mint that were intended for circulation. I won’t consider my collection incomplete if I don’t have a 1970 Kennedy half, an 1856 Flying Eagle Cent, or a 1937-D 3 Legged “Buffalo Nickel”.

The half dollar for 1970 was only produced for the proof and uncirculated sets, not for circulation, so they have their own place in my proof and mint set collection.

The 1856 Flying Eagle Cent was a pattern coin. It was produced for the sole purpose of testing the design of the small cent. Although some may find their way into circulation, pattern coins, in general, are struck in far too small numbers to really be considered a circulating issue. Since their purpose was not to fulfill the needs of spenders, I don’t include pattern coins in my collection.

The 1937-D 3 Legged “Buffalo Nickel” was, by anybody’s description, an error. The mint did not “intend” to make a coin with a 3 legged buffalo on it. Since “intent” is part of my definition of my collection, I give mint errors their own category. However, there is a fine line that divides “error” from “variety”. I have large date / small date varieties of coins in my collection. I do not, however, have any doubled die errors. The question I ask myself when debating whether or not to include a specific coin is this: Does this coin look like it was intended to look? A large date or small date, each by itself, does look as it was intended to, so each is a different variety of a coin. In the case of a doubled die, however, the coin was not designed to have a ghost image on its surface, so it was made in error.

I have completed many of the series in my US “circulated” collection. Flying Eagle Cents (all three of them ;->), Liberty Nickels, Jefferson Nickels (up to date), Mercury Dimes, Roosevelt Dimes (to date), Washington Quarters (to date), Franklin Halves, and Eisenhower Dollars are all done. Outside of series collecting, the next major milestone for my collection is going to be when I complete the 20th Century (1901-2000). I have a little over 150 coins to go. Compared to how many coins I already have, that doesn’t seem like very many, but some of those I still need, of course, are some of the rarest and most expensive coins of the 20th Century.