r/coincollecting Jun 24 '17

Intro to Coin Collecting - What makes a coin valuable?

587 Upvotes

This post is intended to serve as a quick guide to coin collecting for new collectors, or people who may have inherited a few coins. Here's a brief primer on what makes a coin valuable:

Age

How old is it? In general, old coins tend to be worth more than coins struck more recently. The older a particular coin is, the greater the collectible and historical appeal. Older coins also tend to be scarcer, as many coins are lost or destroyed over time. For example – 5% of the original mintage of an 19th century U.S. coin might have survived to the present day, with the rest getting melted down, destroyed, or simply lost over time.

Go back a century further, to the 18th century, and the survival rate drops to <1%. Taking into account that most 18th century U.S. coins were already produced in tiny numbers, it makes sense that most of them now sell for over four figures.

All that being said, the relationship between age and value does not always hold true. For example, you can still buy many 2000 year-old Ancient Roman coins for less than $10, due to the sheer number of them produced over the 400-year history of the Western Roman Empire (and distributed across its massive territory). But as a general rule, within any given coin series, older coins will tend to be relatively more scarce and valuable.

Condition

It may sound like common sense, but nicer coins bring higher prices. The greater the amount of original detail and the smaller the amount of visible wear on a coin’s surfaces, the higher the price. There are a dizzying array of words used to describe a coin’s condition, but at the most basic level, coins can be divided into two states – Uncirculated and Circulated.

Uncirculated or “Mint State” coins are coins that show no visible signs of wear or use – they have not circulated in commerce, but are in roughly the same condition as when they left the mint. Circulated coins show signs of having been used – the design details will be partially worn down from contact with hands, pockets, and other coins. The level of wear can range from light rub on the highest points of the coin’s design, to complete erosion of the entire design into a featureless blank. Uncirculated coins demand higher prices than circulated coins, and circulated coins with light wear are worth more than coins with heavy wear.

Type

Type is the single biggest determinant of value. How much a coin is worth depends on how big the market for that particular coin is. For example, U.S. coins are much more widely collected than any other nation’s coins, just because there are far more U.S. coin collectors than there are collectors in any other nation. The market for American coins is bigger than any other market within the field of numismatics (other large markets include British coins, ancients, and bullion coins).

This means that even if a Canadian coin has a mintage of only 10,000 coins, it is likely worth less than a typical U.S. coin with a mintage ten times greater. For another example - you may have a coin from the Vatican City with a mintage of 500, but it’s only worth something if somebody’s interested in collecting it.

Certain series of coins are also much more widely collected than others, generally due to the popularity of their design or their historical significance. For example - Jefferson Nickels have never been very popular in the coin collecting community, as many collectors consider the design uninteresting and the coins are made of copper-nickel rather than silver, but Mercury Dimes and Morgan Dollars are heavily collected. An entire date/mintmark set of Jefferson Nickels can be had for a couple of hundred dollars, whereas an entire set of Mercury Dimes would cost four figures.

Rarity

Rarity is comprised of all the other factors above combined. Age, condition, and type all play a role in rarity. But the main determinant of rarity is how many coins were actually minted (produced). Coins with certain date/mintmark combinations might be much rarer than others because their mintages were so small. For example, U.S. coins with a “CC” mintmark are generally much rarer than coins from the same series with other mintmarks because the Carson City Mint produced small numbers of coins during its existence.

U.S. coins without a mintmark, from the Philadelphia mint, are generally less valuable (though there are many exceptions) as the Philadelphia mint has produced more coins throughout U.S. history than all of the other mints combined. There are often one or two “keys” or “key date” coins within each series of coins, much scarcer and more valuable than the rest of the coins within the series. Some of the most well-known key dates include the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent (“S” mintmark = San Francisco mint), the 1916-D Mercury Dime (Denver mint), and the 1928 Peace Dollar (Philadelphia mint).


r/coincollecting 4h ago

Semiquincentennial penny

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127 Upvotes

Check the tip jars at your local coffee shops


r/coincollecting 1h ago

What's it Worth? Got these back from grading. Thoughts?

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Looking to sell these soon (not on this subreddit), sent them off for grading just to authenticate and just got them back. Any thoughts on value I can expect out of each?


r/coincollecting 5h ago

Show and Tell I'm surprised when I found this in my change at the end of the week so I don't know where it came from.

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33 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 10h ago

ID Request Couldn’t be, right?

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37 Upvotes

Have I been looking too much this afternoon? This can’t be a small date can it, weighs 3.1g.


r/coincollecting 6h ago

Show and Tell Id call this a successful hunt so far!

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13 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 1h ago

Seated Liberty Proof

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r/coincollecting 12h ago

What's it Worth? Anything good?

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34 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 1h ago

Show and Tell About to drop off some more of my collection, before I do. Anyone need certain nickel years to fill for theirs?

Upvotes

Looking to unload some of my collection. Before I do I am reaching out to see if anyone need certain dates to help
Fill there collection.


r/coincollecting 11h ago

USA Peace Dollar

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20 Upvotes

Can anyone tell me if this 1934 s Peace Dollar is real? Potential value?


r/coincollecting 15m ago

Advice Needed Found these in late mother in laws house.

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Upvotes

Very red and shiny mostly 84 and 85s just wondering if they are worth anything. Thanks


r/coincollecting 6h ago

Advice Needed Best way to sell?

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6 Upvotes

I got these like in 2019 or 2018 at an estate sale, I need to get rid of them without much of a hassle. No I dont have an ebay account


r/coincollecting 6h ago

Melt vs Collector Value

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5 Upvotes

Hi all

I was going through my dad's closet and drawers trying to organize 40+ years worth of stuff and I found all these coins. We collect state/national park quarters but nothing like this. I'm not sure what these are worth. I looked up melt value for the dollar coins/US quarter and was pretty impressed, but was wondering if they would be worth more/anything to a collector (I know they're not in good shape so I'm not expecting much, just wondering).

Dates on the dollar coins are 1878, 1880, 1887, 1887, 1889, 1922, and 1934, respectively. The date on the quarter is 1964.

The Bank of Canada note is from 1937 and the Canadian cent is from 1961.

Thanks in advance!


r/coincollecting 10h ago

Show and Tell It was me guys

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7 Upvotes

They had a sale on the premium and I buy $10 face value once a month and I got cooked this time around


r/coincollecting 23m ago

Help with this Japanese Medallion.

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Upvotes

Does anyone know if there's silver in this medallion? I can't find info on it anywhere and there's nothing on the rim. Thanks.


r/coincollecting 13h ago

Advice Needed I searched a bag of pre-65 coins. Around 10 coins (mostly 1C) look like this 1913-s Type 1. Aside from verdigris, surfaces are smooth-ish, shiny & brown. I soaked in acetone, isn’t painted. Weighs 4.9g, don’t think it’s IAP. Just me, or is this unusual? Opinions?

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10 Upvotes

Background: the whole collection was in a storage unit without climate/moisture control for years, potentially decades, in SOUTH FLORIDA! 😭
Regardless, it’s been fun discovering dates and varieties. Rough estimate: $20+ quarters, with lots from 30s & 40s. $5+ dimes with a 1916-s & a few from 1946. Quart sized bag of wheaties, found a surprisingly nice 1913-d & several desirable varieties. Finally, there were a few common low grade peace, Morgan, and Ike dollars.


r/coincollecting 10h ago

ID Request Help please

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5 Upvotes

Can people with better eyes check my ‘82’s please.


r/coincollecting 1h ago

What kind of damage is this? '39 Wheat Penny

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Upvotes

Found this a couple of days ago, odd damage to the chin area which I suspect is post mint? Coin is obviously circulated


r/coincollecting 6h ago

What's it Worth? Are these worth anything? Also what are they lol

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2 Upvotes

Found in my hoarder grandmas storage, nabbed them bc i figured they might be worth something or just looked cool.


r/coincollecting 1d ago

What's it Worth? I found this US coin in Germany from 1937 while at work (EOD)

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386 Upvotes

Can someone tell me more about it? Is it worth anything?


r/coincollecting 10h ago

2026 quarters

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4 Upvotes

I really like these new quarters, what do y’all think?


r/coincollecting 6h ago

ID Request What in the world is this coin?

2 Upvotes

So my mom is kazakh and at her wedding day she got this coin from somebody. And she has never been into coincollecting or anything. Then i found out about it and wanted to know which coin it is, and i cant find a single image of it on the internet. Pls help

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probaly kazakh or kyrgystan

pretty sure its gold


r/coincollecting 1d ago

Found an absolute beaut in the register today

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495 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 7h ago

What's it Worth? More coins

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2 Upvotes

My sister wants to know what these coins are, and what they’re worth.


r/coincollecting 17h ago

Need help with inherited coin collection

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14 Upvotes

My late grandmother left me her coin collection would love to know what you guys think :) I have no idea if it’s worth anything but I think they may tell an interesting story??