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Newbie Needs Help: Inherited Too Many Coins
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12 posts in this topic

Hi All, I've inherited the problem of managing coins in numerous jars, bags, and boxes that have been collected by a small rural business owner since 1960.  Due to the overwhelming large amount of money that must be sorted by my old eyes, I am asking for help developing the most effective process to organize at least 200 gallons of money.  The owner wants me to do it personally since he/she has trust issues.  Please provide suggestions.  Stage one was moving all of the coins into one room and that is still in progress.

 

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Welcome to the board. 

I would start by sorting by denomination/like coins.  And remember that any half dollars, quarters or dimes 1964 and before are 90% silver and are worth at least the melt value of silver. 

Once you have them sorted by what they are we can get a better understanding of your next steps.  

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Also look out for nickels dated 1942 through 1945.  Those with a large mint mark on the reverse above Monticello are a silver alloy and worth way more than a nickel.  

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SandraHill,

First, nonsense!  There's no such thing as "too many" coins!  :)  Are the coins already separated into logical groups, or just random?  How old are they? Do not sell them to an untrusted stranger!

Second, I would follow the advice of Morpheus.  I would separate them by types. Separate the Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters dated 1965 and older, and Kennedy Halves 1971 and older.  Separate the Jefferson nickels with a mintmark on the back (like CBC says).  Separate any coins older than 1965 that look "new" carefully, and put them into plastic coin flips for protection.

Next, stop there. I would get someone who knows something about 20th century coins to help you. It sounds like you have a long ways to go to get that far.

 

By the way, this is probably not the correct forum for this topic, it may get moved.

 

Good luck!

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On 2/6/2021 at 8:01 PM, BlakeEik said:

SandraHill,

First, nonsense!  There's no such thing as "too many" coins!  :)  Are the coins already separated into logical groups, or just random?  How old are they? Do not sell them to an untrusted stranger!

Second, I would follow the advice of Morpheus.  I would separate them by types. Separate the Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters dated 1965 and older, and Kennedy Halves 1971 and older.  Separate the Jefferson nickels with a mintmark on the back (like CBC says).  Separate any coins older than 1965 that look "new" carefully, and put them into plastic coin flips for protection.

Next, stop there. I would get someone who knows something about 20th century coins to help you. It sounds like you have a long ways to go to get that far.

 

By the way, this is probably not the correct forum for this topic, it may get moved.

 

Good luck!

Thanks for the specifics! So far, I've found coins dating back to 1940 and I'm only 10% into the project.

 

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Price of copper has doubled in the last year.  150 pennies dated before 1982 weigh exactly 1 pound.  Copper melt value is $4.20 per pound right now. All your pennies dated before 1982 are worth almost .03 cents each!!   eBay listings sell 10 pounds of old pennies as scrap for $40.. that is every 30 rolls or 1500 coins = $40 - 50 dollars now

The war nickels are 35% silver I believe.. and the only nickels that have the mint mark on reverse about the Monticello (extra info after reading thread.)

Silver halves from 1966 - 1969 are 40% silver and some 1976 bicentennial coins are 40% silver.

It takes about a year of exposure to this on a regular basis before you just remember without having to look up each coin

Edited by uhadme
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On 2/23/2021 at 9:15 PM, uhadme said:

Silver halves from 1966 - 1969 are 40% silver and some 1976 bicentennial coins are 40% silver.

It takes about a year of exposure to this on a regular basis before you just remember without having to look up each coin

1965-1970 on the silver halves. 

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I have to agree with Morpheus......

Come up with a denomination-based breakdown of what you will be working with. At the same time "Maybe", depending on your understanding / research of coinage, Micro-manage the sortation within the denomination. If you look at it by dates you would be managing them into groups based on "Silver" or whatever metal content you would be working with.

After that gets completed. Take the one that you feel would be the lease overwhelming. Best way to get discouraged is trying to jump into something "Too Much". As you work on the smaller batches you can tweak how things get done, hopefully, find/develop some shortcuts/methodology that will make the progression to the larger batches easier.

Hope this helps... Good Luck

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