Selling Metal Detector Finds For Building Coin Collections

Published by Larry on Tagged Selling Detector Finds, Relic Finds, Coin Jewelry, Metal Detecting Tips

That Plymouth Volare Sports Sedan with four speed stick shift looked real good at $2800.00 to a young married man who had just sold his 1969 Camaro with over 110,000 miles on it. I did not want to have a car payment and opted to sell some of my metal detector finds to purchase this little beauty with less than 20,000 miles on the odometer. It took selling 100 pieces of my gold and silver jewelry and eighty two dollars in silver coins to make that purchase. It was at the coin & jewelry shop that day that I learned the dealer wanted more of my finds for the valuable coins that I could purchase from him. This started a relationship that continues to this day a period of nearly 30 years.

Selling metal detector relic and jewelry finds is a great way to build a coin collection(s). I have concentrated my efforts in building my 20th century coin sets as well as upgrading them. A difficult set to find many higher grade coins with a metal detector is the Standing Liberty Quarter set. I have dug up more than 400 of them most being in lower grades. My set today has all but three of the coins and every single coin in the set is VF to BU. I have sold large numbers of extras in my silver finds and many broken and or damaged silver and gold finds to build this set. A WWI gas mask located at about 4 ft deep in a sealed metal box earned $150.00 and the money purchased a 1914 D Lincoln Cent. Relic finds are my favorite items to sell for purchasing coins. Antique items like keys, locks, marbles, toys, Cracker Jack/cereal novelties, thimbles, watch fobs and silver/gold collectibles have added several thousand dollars to my cash flow for buying coins. An elementary school yard took up its old sod and I got permission to hunt before new sod was laid. I found 36 Mercury dimes and a 1921 Silver Dollar(in a sterling bezel) in a period of four hours alloted to me to hunt. Removing the 5-6 inches of grass and yes, playground dirt opened up a new, but short-lived detecting site. Besides taking almost 200 coins I also dug up move than 30 toys, novelities and silver jewelry pieces. Two of those finds were pristine Roy Rogers badges and along with selling a Captain Midnight decoder novelty, I was able to purchase a VF 1922 D Lincoln Cent. The chains below were found at a local beach and sold for more than $200. 00 to buy several Standing Liberty Quarters.

Finding buyers for your dug-up finds is easy. Relic hunters in one of the treasure hunting clubs that I belong to gladly purchase many of my finds. Low grade/damaged silver coins can be sold to most coin dealers and most are glad to purchase your silver and gold jewelry regardless of condition. I usually sell my sterling silver scrap and novelty items when I get two or more pounds. I usually receive between $100.00 to $200.00 each time I take it to my coin dealer. The differece in amounts received for that silver is that the national buy price varies widely. When I purchased the car, I sold silver at $47. per ounce and gold at $900. Recently gold has been $750.00 and silver at about $13.45. Both are great sell prices. That puts silver dimes at a little over a dollar, quarters at about $2.50 and halves at $5.00.

Advertisements in newspapers and coin newspapers have readers who seek to buy various collectibles. Antique magazines are also a good source for better finds. The hottest market for selling your finds is ebay. Prices pulled for common relics and coins advertised as being found with a metal detector will many times bring a higher than average return, particularily if it has a story to tell (see my post The Story A Coin Could Tell). A gentleman from the west coast sells his silver beach coin finds using this technique. Recently he got more than $25.00 for a silver dime in just fine condition. I can buy this coin from dealers everyday for $10 - $12. Establishing an ebay account is easy and help for successfully being an ebayer abound. The costs for selling on ebay are climbing but still a great way to both buy and sell coins. Selling rolls of “unsearched” coin finds on ebay is a good method of moving large numbers of common coins. Wheat cent rolls for example earn $3.00-$5.00. Buffalo nickels with full dates about $25.00 a roll and clean Indian Cents $40-$50.oo a roll. Many sellers are selling combinations of coins and relics in the same offering as that is the normal way they are found.

I have had a great time of building my coin collections using metal detectors. Everytime a glint of silver or gold comes out of the land or water or in just digging up a common date wheat penny or a relic, I still feel the excitement of the find. Big or small the finds, they can still make a difference in building your coin collection. Here’s to “diggin” it. Larry