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Introduction and a few questions.

Started by CatherineKayser-migration,

49 posts in this topic

CatherineKayser-migration

CatherineKayser-migration

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Hello, My name is Catherine. I'm 37, married, Financial Advisor and I am new to the board. I have spent the last few days trolling (in a good way) around and reading everything and decided to become a member this afternoon.

 

I have a large collection from my grandfather and father. Girl Scouts Honor!! Its been in the basement for years at my mom's house. She finally called me 2 months ago and said come and get it or it's in the trash. (She wasn't kidding.) As my fathers daughter who was never into coins, and grew up to be a financial advisor, I knew the following:

1. Money has to be worth face value at least, don't throw away!

2. Gold is worth a lot per ounze, don't through away. I was shown gold as a child!

3. My father has a lot of [embarrassing lack of self control] in those boxes, probably worth more than my 401K, don't throw away!

 

My purpose was originally to liquidate it ASAP. But now.., now my goal is different. What can I say. I am my fathers daughter? It runs in the genes? The shiny things distracted me? I'm obsessive? My precious..........

 

Anyway, I started going though the collection knowing nothing about coins/medals etc. With the help of a few good books and the internet. I found that my pile of "maybe I should keep this", was over taking my den and the sell piles were rather small and limited to just a few topics.

That's when it hit me..., I am a collector, or at least on my way to being one.

 

So look me up on eBay, catherinesclutter maybe something you like, maybe not. Right now I'm selling off Bronze, Silver and a few gold space medals, that I'm not interested in.Pictures arn't so great but they are getting better with practice.

 

Then I went and bought a "LOT of random US coins" (Just one lot) To play with and judge, idntify, that kind of thing.Things that didn't matter if I touched or scratched or what ever. I'm confused now. My brain hurts.

 

Ok enough about me, now I have some questions... VERY simple plain English answers welcomed.

 

Is toning good, bad or dependant on the collector? (Looks like the rainbow from gasoline you see in water)

 

How do I know if a coin is worth sending off to be graded? I would hate to pay $25.00 to grade a coin and it be worth $15 bucks. Like on the Morgan's. It seems they are either worth a new house or a happy meal at Micky D's. I want a new house really!!

 

How do you know what the Key Dates are? I have a few books, but they only talk about Key dates and don't explain what they are or where to get more info.

 

Is The Franklin Mint really Bad?

 

Are "So-called dollars" simply dollar size medals? Can any dollar sized medal be a so-called dollar?

 

What is the best way to store all these coins and medals? Right now they are in LARGE plastic tubs, in plastic baggies, in little card board covers. In the middle of my den. (That's how they came to me, not in the den, but that's as far as I was willing to carry them all.)

 

Can I clean a coin/medal with soap and water if its dirty? You know the gunky stuff on it? (Like soil) Can I wipe it with a silver polishing cloth after I handled it? (If it's silver) Do I really have to wear plastic surgical gloves? I have them and use them, but they are icky.

 

I have read that MOST collectors collect specifics on type and grade etc. But this collection seems to have some of everything.., space medals, art medals, foreign, coins, Ancient, colonial, post colonial, war time, commemorative after commemorative. There is no rhyme or reason just item after item. That's not really a question.

 

Was Grandpa off his rocker when he bought 500 each Gold, Silver and Bronze National Bicentennial medals?

 

Do you think Wells Fargo will honor a Norwest bank token good to open 1 savings account for $5.00 from 1976? Kidding.......

 

I'm stopping now.... I could just go on and on and on .. But your time and answers are greatly appreciated.

 

Catherine

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Bruceswar

Bruceswar

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Is toning good, bad or dependant on the collector? (Looks like the rainbow from gasoline you see in water)

 

Not all toning is good, but in general it is good. Do not mess with toned coins until you know what your doing.

 

How do I know if a coin is worth sending off to be graded? I would hate to pay $25.00 to grade a coin and it be worth $15 bucks. Like on the Morgan's. It seems they are either worth a new house or a happy meal at Micky D's. I want a new house really!!

 

Learning to grade will be the only way to tell what you should submit and what you should not. Also learning to detect problems, such as a scratch.

 

How do you know what the Key Dates are? I have a few books, but they only talk about Key dates and don't explain what they are or where to get more info.

 

Key Dates are usally coins with low mintages and high demand, such as a 1909 S VDB cent.

 

Is The Franklin Mint really Bad?

 

The Franklin mint is a private mint. Most of the coins and medals they made are only worth scrap values.

 

Are "So-called dollars" simply dollar size medals? Can any dollar sized medal be a so-called dollar?

 

There is a whole list of so called dollars givin with an HK number system. There are books dedicated to them They do come in different sizes.

 

What is the best way to store all these coins and medals? Right now they are in LARGE plastic tubs, in plastic baggies, in little card board covers. In the middle of my den. (That's how they came to me, not in the den, but that's as far as I was willing to carry them all.)

 

There is really not a best way to store coins. It is all personal prefernce. Just make sure you store your coins in a way not to ruin them. Keep them dry and from banging around.

 

Can I clean a coin/medal with soap and water if its dirty? You know the gunky stuff on it? (Like soil) Can I wipe it with a silver polishing cloth after I handled it? (If it's silver) Do I really have to wear plastic surgical gloves? I have them and use them, but they are icky.

 

Do not clean any coins, until you know fully what you are doing. I will still not clean a coin and I am 16 years into it.

 

I have read that MOST collectors collect specifics on type and grade etc. But this collection seems to have some of everything.., space medals, art medals, foreign, coins, Ancient, colonial, post colonial, war time, commemorative after commemorative. There is no rhyme or reason just item after item. That's not really a question.

 

This will give you a chance to see alot of types of coins and find what you like the most and persue that.

 

Was Grandpa off his rocker when he bought 500 each Gold, Silver and Bronze National Bicentennial medals?

 

He was not off his rocker. He invested in gold and silver. If the gold medals are pure then you have something. If they are plated then they are worth much less. Same for the silver and bronze.

 

Do you think Wells Fargo will honor a Norwest bank token good to open 1 savings account for $5.00 from 1976? Kidding.......

 

Thats a cool piece. Some people collect things like that.

 

I'm stopping now.... I could just go on and on and on .. But your time and answers are greatly appreciated.

 

Catherine

 

 

Welcome and good luck!!

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Stanley

Stanley

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Welcome Catherine smile.gif

There is a lot of information available on these boards and there are some knowledgeable members as well.

One of the first things you want to remember is do not try cleaning your coins in anyway. Do not even wipe them, better to leave them as you find them until you learn more. This simple little rule will make more sense to you later.

 

Edited to add: Posting some images if you can would help greatly thumbsup2.gif

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cladking

cladking

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Welcome to collecting. It is extremely addicting if you have the gene and doubly so if you have a little obsessive compulsive tendencies.

 

You mention space medals a few times. Don't be in a hurry to dump these as some are quite valuable and might sell for a fraction of their value if sold in the wrong venue. I can think of only a single one of these made in gold and it's fairly common and part of a three piece set from 1988. If you have others then I'd suspect they are most likely sterling silver that are gold plated. Most of these are a little tougher but won't bring a large premium because they outnumber the collectors for them. If there are more than about 80 pieces of these then it's safe bet that there are a few valuable pieces. Most space medals were made in quantities of 1,000 to 10,000 pieces but a very large number were made in quantities in the single digits.

 

Be careful.

 

I'm hardly an expert on these but can identify most of the common ones and a few of the scarce pieces.

 

This is a very underappreciated collecting specialty and is sure to grow over the decades.

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CatherineKayser-migration

CatherineKayser-migration

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If you would like to see a few and I mean few of them look on Ebay... catherinesclutter.

 

The gold are most definatly gold ones. I just put one ther for now though. I had 2 whole sets (6 medals each) that I sold to a dealer... was ..51 troy ounce total weight and I got 500 for each set.

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TommyBoy

TommyBoy

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Catherine,

 

Iam sorry for your lost. Your post is very interesting. Your initial question states that you are a financial adviser, have inherited a coin collection and desire to know what it is worth (value). Your second post is one of selling off bronze pieces.

 

Do you wish to fully realize what your father left you or what? If you desire to know what you have and what it is worth, then please accept this post from a fellow "inheritance" person, this is the place to determine this. If your goal is to determine what the value of the coins you have inherited, then please check out either ebay.com or heritage.com (free registration).

 

I hope that you desire to determine what your coins are worth, not just the value (there is a difference).

Bob

 

yay.gif

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cladking

cladking

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OK, I have no reason to believe they aren't gold except that I've not seen them before. If you're sure they are then they probably are.

 

The others are more familiar except the "Rockwell International" piece doesn't ring a bell.

 

You got an exceptionally good price on the three piece sets.

 

I gather there are a lot more?

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CatherineKayser-migration

CatherineKayser-migration

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The color is off because of the lighting. I think I did ok for taking pictures though... I was reading about it and tried it out on a few morgans I know they LOOK gold but they are really very nice silver, some very shiny too.

 

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2006_1023d10029.jpg[/img]

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World Colonial

World Colonial

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I have a few comments for you on submitting coins for grading.

 

If you are not familiar with the grading services, NGC (the host for this site) and PCGS are the two largest, usually the most highly regarded and defnitely the best in terms of marketability. ANACS and ICG are considered the next best but are second tier in my opinion.

 

The grading fees depend upon the value of the coin although in my personal experience this has only been based upon the valuation I provided on the submisison form. (I do not know if they would change the grading tier if they knew that someone intentionally undervalued the coin. But this could be risky because if the coin was lost in transit, you would not be able to collect the full insured value.)

 

You will need to develop some skill in identifying "no grade" coins or find someone who can do this for you. NGC has a booklet with their "No Grade" list in it, downloadable from this site. "Improperly cleaned" coins referenced in these other responses are one example. If you send in a coin that is not eligible, it will be rejected but you will still be charged the fee. Reference books are available that can assist with this identification but it takes a lot of experience to become proficient at it. (You can have the grading service preview the coin for you at a coin show, but this is no guarantee that it will not be rejected. ANACS "net" grades coins but these may be less marketable depending upon the coin.)

 

If a coin is not eligible for grading, you can have NCS, an NGC affiliate, conserve it or just authenticate it without a grade. Conservation may also improve the appearance of the coin in addition to removing surface residue that could cause further damage.

 

Whether to submit a coin for grading is a matter of personal preference. If strictly for economical reasons, then you obviously need to determine the coin's value to make this assessment. "Key" dates in a series (at least for US coins) are widely recognized and any experienced collector or a dealer can point these out to you. If you have a price guide such as the "Red Book", you can usually identify them because they are almost always worth a lot more than the "non-key" dates and mints.

 

The price variances you are describing exist due to the market preference for very high grade coins versus average circulated coins. In the case of Morgan Dollars, most of these expensive coins are generic conditional rarities.

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CatherineKayser-migration

CatherineKayser-migration

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Catherine,

 

Iam sorry for your lost. Your post is very interesting. Your initial question states that you are a financial adviser, have inherited a coin collection and desire to know what it is worth (value). Your second post is one of selling off bronze pieces.

 

Do you wish to fully realize what your father left you or what? If you desire to know what you have and what it is worth, then please accept this post from a fellow "inheritance" person, this is the place to determine this. If your goal is to determine what the value of the coins you have inherited, then please check out either ebay.com or heritage.com (free registration).

 

I hope that you desire to determine what your coins are worth, not just the value (there is a difference).

Bob

 

yay.gif

 

My desire is for monitary gain as well as a learning experiance and having a collection of my own tastes. My fathers will told me to go buy a house! You will notice all I have for sale are the Space medals and 1 gold and 1 silver Western Samoan (spelling on that) at the moment. As I have determind I do not want to collect those.

I know enough now, that I wants to collect US coins, not medals. I am keeping 2 of each medal though for my children so when I pass they each will get an identical set. A collection for each of my girls if you will, and yes that includes the space medals. My biggest problem is space you see. This is a 3rd generation collection. There has to be over 15,000 coins.

So I guess the answer is some of both!!

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