Coin collecting

Anyone have tips or things to look for when starting out brand new into looking for coins worth more than face value?

imo the only thing worth searching for in pocket change (guessing that's what you mean) is silver. 1964 and older dimes on up to dollar coins, wheats aren't worth much except a few key dates but are the most common in my area. The only thing I find on a semi regular basis is dimes. nickels only have silver from 42-45 these will be commonly called war nickels. if you are coin collecting in the typical sense. the cheapest thing to start with is a date run of wheats. I love all old coins but my favorite design is probably walking libertys and then morgan dollars.

I collect coins for/with my grandkids. Start with nickels. Lots of older ones still in circulation. You gan get all the Jefferson nickels rather cheaply. There is one rare Roosevelt dime the 1916D. I need it to finish that book but I will have to buy it on ebay.

I believe the 1916D dime is a Mercury dime.

Know your coins or start with something that is fun. You can get skinned real quick buying coins. Most dealers deal off a price sheet you may not be aware of. Get some literature coin world magazine or coinage, the “red book” or some guidance from an old seasoned collector.
You can find a few coins at flea markets, gun shows and auctions. You need some knowledge of coins before you start buying them. Circulated coinage of modern coins not worth much unless you luck into a rare find.
You might start with something simple like proof sets, or silver proof sets . It’s a fun hobby if your into collecting coins. Nothing like building a set of coins of a certain grade. Uncirculated coins are generally worth more money unless very old coin. MS or mint state 60 and up to MS 70 are uncirculated coins. The higher the grade the higher the value and the more rare as coins age.

Having collected coins for for over 40 years, I suggest the following:

1) Watch ebay as its educational
2) Start with cheap silver till you figure out what you like
3) Very little down side in cheap silver: low risk
4) Attend a show when you get a chance: listed in coin world
5) Dealers buy collectible material at 40 to 60% of retail
6) Big dealers sell at 90 to 110 of retail (Gray sheet) (Bid Buy Ask)
7) Collect what you like, its a hobby
8) When you change from collecting to investing: get a safe deposit box
9) If you decide to get serious $$$: collect the keys in in xf to UNC: certIfied by PCGS or NGC
10) Subscribe to coin world and buy a red book
11) There are millions of coins out there, do not be in a rush
12) Collect or invest in what other people want to buy
13) I collect mostly colonial from 1650 to 1830: its expensive
14) I have bought and sold coins on Stacks: its expensive
15) getting started in coins is like collecting traps, cars art or anything of value; you get out of it what you put into it.

Enjoy: no gave me advice when I started; but I still collected, bought sold and traded.
Jim

I appreciate all of the info but have a couple clarifying questions....is there a straight up date for any and all silver coins that should be kept? For example I sold enough honey yesterday to get a check for $55 from a fella. Upon cashing it the bank the teller asked and I requested coins. I found from several demonitaiona 6 nickels pre 1965. Based on info of all silver looking coins 1965 and prior. Is this the right way to go about things or no?

I'm quite the pre 1965 only applies to dimes, quarters and half dollars. Nickels were never silver, so the best of my knowledge.

Dimes, quarters, Halves 1964 and older are silver: Kennedy 65 66 67 are silver clad 40% sliver. After that there are silver proofs, most silver was cleaned out of circulation when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market and ran silver to $50. You will find very little in circulation. Go buy a read book and read it. War nickels from 142 to 1945 had some silver in them. Do not get involved in any TV promotions, buy a red book buy coin world and read. Nothing is free in the area of coin collecting, example the term you got clipped or you were shaved had to do with people filing, cutting or clipping off the edges of silver or copper coins in the 1700's. A copper penny was a full day wage in 1793. A Spanish reale was legal tender in the colonies, because England did not want the colonies to have legal tender, coinage. a Reale equaled 8 bits, therfore 2 bits 4 bits 6 bits a dollar: tats why a quarter was reffered to as 2 bits. A cowboy punching cows in the early west made a dollar a day: that was equivalent to a full days journeymans wage. A mug of beer as 5 cents, a steak dinner was 25 cents. Go read before you spend your hard earned money. The coins will still be there a month from now.

World War II prompted the rationing of many commodities. Nickel was highly valued for use in armor plating, and Congress ordered the removal of this metal from the five-cent piece, effective October 8, 1942. From that date, and lasting through the end of 1945, five-cent pieces bore the regular design but were minted from an alloy of copper, silver and manganese. It was anticipated that these emergency coins would be withdrawn from circulation after the war, so a prominent distinguishing feature was added. Coins from all three mints bore very large mintmarks above the dome of Monticello, and the letter 'P' was used as a mintmark for the first time on a U. S. coin.

$.8687 is the rounded silver value for the 1942-1945 silver nickel on July 20, 2018. This is usually the value used by coin dealers when selling these coins at melt value.

Morgan dollars are one of the most collected coins. They trade very easy buy and sell. Rick Tomaska is a author and has a good book on Morgan dollars. It describes each coin in the entire series of coins. It will tell you the mintages of each coin. The rareness of each coin. These coins vary in price from a couple dollars to $100,000 of dollars, based on quality, rareness, mintage, luster, demand, common date etc...
Any coin shop will have several of these on hand go look at them raw, slabbed, uncirculated , circulated in the same date and mint mark and then price them it is a good way to start to understand what might make one coin worth more than the next.
Demand for rare exceptional coins is very high and always will be. There are folks who will pay millions for the best rare coin in a series as usually only a few of them are known to exist.
This is one coin series that is highly collectible and much has been written on the coin so it is fairly easy to start where there is much info.
As I said earlier and others have said as well get a current 2018 “red book” and find someone who has one 20 years old and compare a few coins

Great advice WHSKR, silver dollars are fun and traded very easy, with the opportunity to collect quite a bit of silver. Good job.

Some of the newer coins to look for or [purchase MS 60 or better]that I think will become more valuable in time in pennies are the 1982 small date copper,82 small date coated zinc,82-D large date coated zinc. In the nickels the key date is 1950-D and the 2009'S fewer were made so they are hard to find. I went through 10,000 nickels before finding the 2009-P for my book. So MS graded coins should be put away. In dimes the 1982 with no mint mark the1982-P &1983-P in MS60 or better.
Silver has fallen to the mid $15 range so it might be a good time the buy some to put away.

All right... I got my red book and found a couple of the coins listed directly above out of regular bank rolled coins. Is it worth this to continue to do while I learn? Also is there places to look other than banks without out right buying coins to start? Finally I do not know how to grade coins but is it worth a persons time to attempt to collect all state and park quarters from circulated coins? Thanks guys

I've got a guy in my Church that deals in coins for a living.

I could ask him next time I see him if ya want

Let me first state that this coin is no longer in my possession. It would be very interesting to me to know a reasonable sale value of a half-disme that had been badly beaten up by being run over often by iron wagon wheels. Great-Grandfather found it walking to to his wedding lying on the gravel road that bisects our farm. How it disappeared is somewhat of a mystery.

Dirt hole, here is an example of what I would look for if I were interested in collecting or trying to find a rare coin in the statehood quarters. On page 185 of the 2018 red book you will find the Wisconsin state hood quarter with a flaw mentioned. In a circulated coin commonly circulated by the millions. In AU 50 (almost uncirculated) a extra leaf high is listed worth $ 75 and in MS 63 uncirculated it’s $175 and in MS 65 it’s $200. Also a extra low leaf is mentioned.
It would be possible to get quarters from the bank, laundromat, grocery store or any place you want and look through them and find AU 50 Wisconsin quarters to search for this coin.
Use the book to look and see what stands out.
I just spent 10 minutes and found this tonite and did not know this 15 minutes ago and I collected these rolls of coins from the banks by the dozens when they came out in uncirculated new rolls. I got them for face value .25 cents each. Now I am going bust the rolls and look for this coin in uncirculated rolls. Then roll them back up and they are still uncirculated.
I may even start gathering quarter rolls and look through them this winter when the weather sux and I am home bound for a few days.
Hope this helps

Most Disme sales are through Heritage or Stacks, you can access them on line and review historical auctions. Old colonial was usuall beat up compared to today's material. Disme in any condition were expensive, just as a pine tree or oak tree shilling.

Collect what you enjoy. Best advice yet from above. Have fun!

Just checking back in here... we have found several silver dimes, several war nickles, a silver quarter, a buffalo head nickel, a mercury dime, and wheat pennies. I am having trouble finding rolls of silver dollars or 50 cent pieces to try and find one of each with some silver in it. We did find a gold plated Ohio quarter.... are they worth holding onto? Thanks again.

Pre-1982 pennies and some 1982 pennies have 2.4 cents worth of copper in them. They sell machines that automatically sort the copper pennies from the copper clad zinc pennies. It's illegal to melt pennies down, but I bet it happens.

Keith

The only problem with melting down pennies for the copper is that pennies are about 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc, that alloy is a type of bronze. It's essentially "dirty" scrap and would be worth less than copper.

I got a bag of old coins my uncle gave me that he plowed up on the farm back home.They date from 1741 to 1805.

I like this Canadian silver dollar cause it's got a couple trappers on it.

That is cool

I really don't collect but have saved some through the years. I a lot of silver dollars and a few are worth some money but most are worth not much. I have a few 1889 CC silver dollars I know they have a better value.

I've got some old coins my grandad gave me, but nothing as cool as BOCO's picture. I've never given coin collecting much thought, but this post has been very interesting.

I have all my spare change in big pickle jars. Barring an emergency, I plan on burying it and leaving a treasure map for great grandkids to search for!

Finding banks with half dollars should be relatively easy. None of the banks you tried had any? The vast majority will be clad(copper/nickel) varieties but there are still enough examples of silver halves floating around you should be able to score some. Did you ask you regular bank if they would order some? They can, they maybe won't. It will cost you $500.

The large dollar coins aren't as easy to get from banks and the odds of pulling silver are very slim. Your bank can order those too but they wont. Doesn't hurt to ask though.

The gold plating on the Ohio quarter was done post mint and will not have any value beyond the .25

Canada made some pretty neat silver coins back in the day. Well other than the king or queen on the obverse lol. In the USA they are generally easy to find for melt or near melt value, at least in my experiences.

Here are some other examples of Canadian silver coins that are easy enough to acquire.

Silver dollars besides the iconic Voyageur reverse.



Half dollar


Quarter.



Non silver nickel

Now those have the Cool factor!

henpecked , is there a site or seller that you can trust , I always wanted confederate money just a couple bills and coins but I wouldn't know if it was even real , not really looking to collect but just wanted a couple bills. Thanks

My bank did not have them nor did four or five others. A BB&T did have them and sold me a box of $500 kids and I burned through them. Not a one prior to 1971. So idk if we do another box or two after turning this one back in or just call it quits for now. Thanks for the info all.

Okay Boco, I'll have to admit it, Canada does have some pretty cool coinage; lots of great animal images that any trapper would appreciate. Still though a couple of the most beautiful coins imo are the U.S. Saint Gaudens double eagle $20 gold piece, and the Walking Liberty half dollar.

Here are a few old ones in my Collection.
1859 Fatty Indian, 1926 Buffalo

1781 Spanish 1/2 reale and a 1851 Large Cent.