100 pounds of silver Roosevelt dimes. Novice needs lots of advise.

[LouisianaMan-migration]

Hi guys,

 

I have 4 bags weighing about 25lbs each of Roosevelt dimes. Bag 1 contains rolls of pre 65 dimes. Bag 2 contains loose pre 65 dimes. Bag 3 contains uncirculated 1964 dimes. Bag 4 is a mix of Rooseys and about 1000 mercurys that I poured out on a towel where I seperated the two types. I've done nothing to the first three bags yet.

I am a novice with coins, but the same rule that I hear repeatedly on this forum is the same with antique care. 1st "DO NO HARM". Very Wise. Thanks.

 

My problem now is I'm worried about damaging the coins, especially the uncirculated. I only assume that the slightest movement-sliding, shifting, etc. of the coins against each other, grit, the table, the towel they are laying on or the sack they came in will cause damage.

 

I need to safely conserve, move, sort, scan and document each coin. Even placing coins on a scanner, touching, sliding them on any hard or even soft surfaces is scary. Maybe that is a good thing.

 

I would like to know what you guys would suggest .

Oh yea! How many silver dimes make 100lbs???

 

ps- Not interested in selling until they are conserved and possibly graded, if then.

 

Thanks. Can't wait for your comments.

[DaveG]

I need to safely conserve, move, sort, scan and document each coin

 

Just out of curiosity, why are you doing this?

 

Are you looking for extremely high grade uncirculated coins? errors?

 

Although I don't collect Roosevelt dimes, as far as I understand, dealers only pay a little bit more for rolls of "average" uncirculated 1964 dimes than they do for circulated Roosevelt dimes (for which dealers essentially pay the going price for silver bullion).

 

The Mercs may be worth looking through, depending on their condition, for desirable dates and mintmarks, though.

 

It is true that sliding the coins on hard surfaces will leave some scratches behind, but then, the coins have probably been banging against each other in the bags, too.

[Bruceswar]

Frist off welcome to the forums. 2nd Be carefull in your handling of the coins. I am not sure how long they have been in the bags, so they may have toning on them. Enjoy the coins, but do so with modesty. Do not attempt to preserve the coin in any manner until you know what you are doing with them. Since they are all dimes, I would recommend getting some 2x2 Cardboard flips for dimes and putting them in there should you choose to do so. This would nor be recommend for all the dimes as there is far too many and it would be a wasted cost. But pick out the best ones and see how it goes from there and put those in. Also get a redbook to check for key dates if there are any. The redbook will tell you all you need to know to search for them.

[MunkyMan95]

After a whole lot of calculating, I've come up with about 20,000 dimes. At current silver spot, if all were silver, then you'd have about $15,000 worth in silver, or around 1450 ounces. I could be TOTALLY wrong, but those are the figures I came up with.

[pendragon1998]

Dang...the Racoon is right. That could buy a lot of kibble

 

100 lbs dimes X (16 oz/ 1lb) X ( 90% silver/dime) X (~$10.75 / oz) = $15,480.

 

Let silver spot hit $15 and it'd be more like $21,600!

[MunkyMan95]

Woohoo!!! Yay that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

[pendragon1998]

Aw, I like Racoons!

[Hoot]

Don't forget to look for 1964-D DDRs. These are tough to come by and worth a fair premium in Unc. Easy to spot too - check out the doubling in DIME:

 

 

Hoot

[astrostu]

2.5 gms x 1 oz/28 gms x 1 lb / 16 oz

 

100 lbs x (16 oz / 1 lb) x (28 gms / 1 oz) x (2.5 gms / 1 dime) = 112,000 dimes. That's a lot.

[Regis44]

Wouldn't that be about the weight of a $5,000 face bag?

 

Someone suggested spreading them out searching for good ones....good is not necessarily shiney. Learn to spot all the details (e.g. in flame) and mint luster so you can seperate uncirculated coins.

 

I had a couple 1/2 bags and I went through them a little tooooo hasty. If you are not in hurry, learn key dates and how to grade.

 

Enjoy,

 

Regis

[zrlevin]

Hey guys,

 

I hate to burst your bubble, but his dime's weight is in avoirdupois pounds, and spot price is in troy ounces. A troy ounce is a bit bigger than an avoirdupois ounce, so the silver would be worth about $13931.23

 

1 Avoirdupois pound = 453.59237 Grams

100 Avoirdupois pounds = 45359.237 Grams

1 Dime = 2.5 Grams

4539.237 Grams = 18143 dimes

18143 dimes = 40821.75 Grams of Silver

40821.75 grams of silver = 1296 Troy ounces of silver

1296 troy ounces of silver @ 10.75 per ounce = $13931.23

 

Zach

[WaxonWaxov]

Back to LousianaMan's question...

 

I would suggest you go to a coin shop and...

 

1) Do NOT tell them what you're doing. They might try to talk you out of your dimes.

 

2) Get a Loupe... that's one of those hand-held magnifyers that jewelers use.. that way you can get a good look at the dimes, especially when looking for the 64-D Double Die Reverse.

 

3) Get a 2007 Red Book: It will tell you which dates/mints are more scarce than others. It will also have pictures of known varieties like the 64-D DD reverse.

 

5) Get some latex-free gloves. The purple ones doctors wear (from the pharmacy) this will make sure you don't jack up the coins with the oils from your fingers.

 

5) Get a bunch of dime tubes like these:

 

 

That way you can sort the coins.

 

All of this stuff can be bought on-line from Brent-Krueger

 

 

Once you have all of them sorted by date and mint mark, then start looking for known varieties like the 64-D Double-Die.

 

Then you'll know which ones are only worth their silver weight, and which ones are worth more.

 

Once you have the "worth more" ones, THEN consider if you want to submit them for grading.

[TomB]

I don't know what your motivation is on these coins, but unless you are willing to learn an enormous amount about grading and are able to spend hundreds of hours hunched over the coins, I would suggest you simply sell the Roosevelt dimes and search through the Mercs for better dates.

 

Think about it, Roosevelt dimes have no key issues unless you are talking about doubled dies or other errors and they are easily moved as silver. Unless you know how to grade at an extremely proficient manner, you will lose most of your money by having any of these coins certified or "conserved". Also, why would the coins need conservation? This is generally only done to damaged pieces such as PVC, verdigris or saltwater corrosion.

 

You should give us more details as to your motivation behind this and then you will get much better help.

[HaydenTubbs]

Woohoo!!! Yay that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

 

 

Is that how you feel when you're wearing that,......oh,nevermind

[spiny]

Don't forget to look for 1964-D DDRs. These are tough to come by and worth a fair premium in Unc. Easy to spot too - check out the doubling in DIME:

 

 

Hoot

 

I found one of those in a roll from the bank a few years ago. Definitely worth looking for. Here's some close-ups.

 

[MunkyMan95]

Woohoo!!! Yay that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

 

 

Is that how you feel when you're wearing that,......oh,nevermind

 

it Hayden!!! That's the second time today!

[HaydenTubbs]

Cool find

 

How much do they typically go for?

 

 

Hayden

[spiny]

I don't really know, but I'd guess $100+ in AU.

[pendragon1998]

Hey guys,

 

I hate to burst your bubble, but his dime's weight is in avoirdupois pounds, and spot price is in troy ounces. A troy ounce is a bit bigger than an avoirdupois ounce, so the silver would be worth about $13931.23

 

Stupid dead king's toes...just another reason why metric is the best way to measure anything.

[Hoot]

Great photos, Spiny. I found the one I posted in my childhood collection.

 

Hoot

[LouisianaMan-migration]

Post deleted by LouisianaMan

[MunkyMan95]

Roosevelt dimes, if you're planning on selling them for melt, don't need to be graded, conserved, or even preserved. We needed to know your motivation... Maybe you thought you had really high grade dimes, maybe the dimes has some sentimental value. If either of those were true, our opinions would have changed on how you should go about the matter of conservation, etc.

[TomB]

I'm not sure why it's so important for you to know my motivation for wanting to learn more about my coins.

I'm not curious what your motivation is for my personal well-being, I'm curious what your motivation is for your personal well-being.

 

If you are interested in coins and want to use these dimes to get a good sum of money fairly quickly so that you can use the money to purchase other coins, then I would suggest you get quotes from several local dealers and sell the Roosevelts as bullion and the Mercs as generics.

 

If you are interested in coins and want to get a decent sum of money quickly while maximizing the return on a smaller portion of the coins, then I would suggest you get quotes from several local dealers and sell the circulated Roosevelts as bullion while offering intact BU Roosevelt rolls on ebay and search through the Mercs for better dates.

 

If you are interested in coins and want to use these dimes to start a collection, then I would suggest you buy a used Whitman or Dansco album and search through the Roosevelts and Mercs to find nice examples to fill up your albums and then sell the remainder to buy other coins.

 

If you are interested in coins and want to use these dimes to get a younger member of your family interested in coins, then I would suggest that you make a gift of used Whitman or Dansco albums to the youngster and search through the coins with this person to help fill them out over time.

 

If you are interested in coins and want to use these dimes to diversify your collection to include bullion, then I would suggest you sell the Roosevelts in any way you like, as above, and keep the Mercs as bullion since they will always have additionally numismatic value.

 

If you are interested in coins and want to use these dimes to get an education on searching for varieties, then I would tell you to buy the Cherrypickers' Guide and a good loupe and to take your time while being braced for disappointment.

 

I'm sure there are other scenarios, it's just that there are quite a few people who come to the coin boards with an interest in coins that is tenuous and their lack of direction, which is completely normal, can be frustrating and may drive them away.

 

So, you see, I was actually trying to be helpful.

[DaveG]

LouisianaMan,

 

As SilverEagles95 has said, circulated Roosevelt dimes aren't really worth much more than melt (i.e., their silver bullion value). Even mid-grade uncirculated Roosevelt dimes are only worth a smidge more. Exceptions to this general comment would include wildly toned coins, very high grade uncirculated coins and mint errors (although you would need to ask a specialist about these).

 

Mercury dimes, depending on date, mintmark and condition, could be worth a lot more.

 

To start off with, refer to either a Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins) or any other pricing guide to help you pick out the pricier Mercury dimes. An introductory grading guide (such as the PCGS or ANA grading guides) will give you an idea of what to look for in a high grade uncirculated Roosevelt dimes.

 

There are probably some guides to Roosevelt mint errors, too.

 

You might want to look at the books at Brooklyn Gallery to get an idea of what's out there that might be of interest to you.

 

You may find that you learn all you need to (or want to) about your coins within an hour or two - which is why we asked about your motivation (to save you from many hours of minimally productive labor).

 

edited to add: Tom posted before I was finished typing. He gave you some very good advice (and phrased it better than I ever could).

[LouisianaMan-migration]

Really! You mean that if I were planning to melt them, there is no need to grade, conserve, or preserve. WOW!!!!!!!!!! You must have gone to college.

[TomB]

Why did you delete your second post?

[MunkyMan95]

Really! You mean that if I were planning to melt them, there is no need to grade, conserve, or preserve. WOW!!!!!!!!!! You must have gone to college.

 

Nope, never been to college, not at least for another few years

[WaxonWaxov]

Really! You mean that if I were planning to melt them, there is no need to grade, conserve, or preserve. WOW!!!!!!!!!! You must have gone to college.

 

that was uncalled for.

[MunkyMan95]

Very much so. Don't come in here asking us for help, and then get all angry at us... Gosh!

[sindieboo-migration]

Don`t forget to check ALL your 65`s. I hear a silver 65 has a nice premium too! But, I also think that`s a rare one too, huh?