Coin Dealers

Picture of the Day for 7/1/2014. My sister Paula and I visited a coin dealer today to get an assessment of the value of the coins that were in our parents' safety deposit box. Despite the fact this shop had come highly recommended, I decided to get a second opinion afterward and boy am I glad I did. The first guy quoted half of what the second dealer did. It made me so mad the first dealer tried to cheat us. Needless to say, we sold all the coins to the second dealer.

It's been an interesting process learning about coins and their value. Here are some interesting facts:

1- Kennedy half dollars contained 90% silver through 1964. In 1965, the percentage of silver was reduced to 40%. In 1971, silver was eliminated from the mix altogether and the coins produced from this year onward have been a mixture of copper and nickel and are pretty much worth just the face value, regardless of the year minted.

2- Washington quarters were 90% silver through 1964. After that, the coins were minted with a mixture of copper and nickel. Like the Kennedy half dollars, any copper coins clad in nickel are worth just the face value for the most part.

3- There were only a few really interesting coins in the collection. We had four Morgan silver dollars. These coins were minted from 1878 through 1921 (the year my dad was born). We had one coin from the first year of issue, one from 1886, and two from the last year of issue. These were worth about $20 apiece. 


4- There were also two Peace silver dollars from 1922 in the collection and these were worth approximately $20 apiece as well. 


It would have been fun to keep some of the old silver dollars, but in the end, none of us three girls are really all that interested in coin collecting so we decided to just go ahead and sell them.