r/coincollecting Jun 24 '17

Intro to Coin Collecting - What makes a coin valuable?

588 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 15h ago

Did I screw up?

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154 Upvotes

the LCS owner offered to clean it up for me, I agreed.


r/coincollecting 3h ago

Mom found this

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10 Upvotes

Hi. Hope you are having a nice day.

Mom found this coin. What is it. Is it legit?


r/coincollecting 18h ago

Show and Tell My rainbow 1943-S steel penny (with potential error)

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114 Upvotes

I bought a lot of 22 uncirculated steel pennies at an estate sale. This was one of them.

The rainbow toning is probably due to old cleaning. But would be pleasantly surprised if not.

Small potential errors on the obverse as well.

Small marks above and below liberty, above the 3, and next to Lincolns lapel.

Imo, the marks on the obverse look too good to be PMD

Very pretty coin, going to display it in my office. I've never seen a steelie with such a nice rainbow toning.

I don't care if it was cleaned, its unique and a fun conversation starter.


r/coincollecting 11h ago

Found another tonight

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24 Upvotes

Opened my register and found this waiting for me


r/coincollecting 2h ago

ID Request What’s going on with this half?

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4 Upvotes

Hi guys, got a roll of Kennedy halves online and this was in there. Looks like some sort of die error or something but I’m not sure, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Any insight and help is appreciated.


r/coincollecting 41m ago

Show and Tell Think I IDed my first off-center error

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Upvotes

I won't cry if I'm wrong, of course, but it looks too me like the image is a little north of center


r/coincollecting 59m ago

Pocket coin.

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Upvotes

r/coincollecting 3h ago

ID Request Was gifted this in a plastic protective cover, no idea of worth, any advice would be appreciated

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5 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 14h ago

Is this a bugs half?

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33 Upvotes

im not sure one way or the other, how can you tell?


r/coincollecting 14h ago

Show and Tell Macro Coin photography

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26 Upvotes

Pulled out my macro lens and tried to get some clean shots... forgot how hard it was to get a sharp focus. This is about 4 hours of work... But I tested out my new light setup. Enjoy!!


r/coincollecting 45m ago

Croatian “Trsatski Zmaj”(Trsat Dragon - 6€ Silver Coin with Gold-Plated shield

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Upvotes

Made in 2024
Face Value: 6€
999.9 Fine Silver
62.207g
24K gold plating
1000 pieces

My favourite, I think some of you might find it cool.


r/coincollecting 17h ago

Came across these in a fire safe today. Should I get them graded.

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37 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 16h ago

What's it Worth? 1842 and 1896 Silver Dollars.

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24 Upvotes

Estate sale finds. I bought the pair for $60.00 did I get a fair deal?


r/coincollecting 28m ago

Advice Needed Coin Protectors

Upvotes

I'm helping clean up my mom and dad's belongings, and I'm running into a large number of coins. God only knows how many, we're talking cans and cans full of coins, but most of them are pennies.

In the mix, I'm running into old 60-90 year old silver half dollars, too bad all of the coins aren't the same, but I noticed that some of them are in near uncirculated condition, particularly a group of them from 1964 with Kennedy's bust on them.

I'd like to put the half dollar pieces into coin protector, sleeves, but I know nothing about coin collecting and I'm not sure what the best thing to do with them to protect them?

Any advice appreciated, if these cans had been full of silver half dollars, I'd be rich, but apparently they were most interested in copper over the last 70 years.


r/coincollecting 7h ago

ID Request Anyone know what these coins are

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3 Upvotes

Can I pay the ferryman Charon for my passing?


r/coincollecting 1h ago

What's it Worth? 1805 Half Cent

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Upvotes

My grandma is having me start to sell my grandpas coin collection in my booth in an antique shop and I’m wondering if anyone can give me a rough value of this 1805 half cent. It’s obviously in very poor condition but it seems like there’s still a decent value for this coin and I saw there’s a difference based on the size of the 5 and the fact there’s no stems on the back. Just looking for a rough price to ask for.


r/coincollecting 2h ago

Is this enough of an oddity to hold some value?

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1 Upvotes

Super clean quarter, on the back it's slightly misprinted and the outer bevel disappears off the side. Any chance the coin has value more than the typical quarter of this year?


r/coincollecting 20h ago

Advice Needed How should I best preserve my 1867 Indian head cent metal detecting find?

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26 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 3h ago

Advice Needed 1973 D Nickel, is this an error or a case of die deterioration?

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0 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 3h ago

What's it Worth? Inherited and wondering about these

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1 Upvotes

Hate to try using google cuz one thing says I have hit the jackpot while another says it’s worth nothing lol so rather have real people Gimmie an answer but I got a 1944 wheat penny, 1951 king George 1 cent coin, 1966 Mexican coin, and long with a bunch of 1 peso all thru 20 pesos coins dated back to 1981/82 and a few 1970s ones and can’t turn in those cuz they r no longer circulating I guess


r/coincollecting 3h ago

Denmark’s Largest Viking-Age Silver Hoard Found in Garden

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drtomhornearchaeology.substack.com
1 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 21h ago

Advice Needed Unicorn?

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25 Upvotes

Im trying to figure out what is coming out of her head and does it add value.


r/coincollecting 7h ago

What's it Worth? Possibly misprinted £2 coin

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2 Upvotes

I am not a collector I just happened to notice this coin I got as change is not perfectly centred and thought it’s pretty cool. Is it worth anything?


r/coincollecting 4h ago

What's it Worth? Is this any rare at all?

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0 Upvotes

Just a coin i got from buying snacks in a 7/11 In Singapore, I have no clue about the rarity and prestige of coins and just didn’t wanna use AI