What’s It Worth?
Published by Larry on Tagged 1700's Coins, 1800's Coins, 1900's Coins, Ancient Coins, Biblical Coins, Coin Collecting Basics, Instuctional, Relic Finds
Everytime I dig-up an older coin, relic or jewelry piece, I naturally think of one somewhat complex question. What is this find worth? All of these items are preceived as stores of value and the ability to quantify that value is a primary function of the marketplace. We call this function pricing.
Accurate, honest and fair pricing is essential to the protection of both those who purchase and those who sell these items. To get good value, overpaying must be avoided. If you overpay you lose or at least postpone the chance to reap financial gain.
Let us focus on coins knowing that the priniples for determining value are bascially the same for relics and jewelry. The value of any coin is determined by three primary factors: grade, supply and demand. Any one of these three can be the dominant factor in determining the value of a coin under a given set of circumstances.
GRADE: A coin’s value tends to increase as the level of preservation goes up. This is what grade is all about. for example a coin in good condition might bring $10.00, in fine it could increase to $15.00 and in mint state 66 or 67 it could be worth $100.00 or more. The higher mint state coins usually increase in value geometrically.
SUPPLY: By supply we refer to the number of coins available in a given level of preservation or grade. While this is not easy to determine, in recent years grading services have issued population and census reports letting us know how many and what grade levels they have certified for each coin. The only problem with this is that many dealers will resubmit the same coin to several grading services to attempt getting a higher grade. Certain rare coins might be significantly rarer than the census reports indicate.
DEMAND: The term demand refers to the numer of people who want a particular coin at a given time. There were 42,000 of the 1916 Standing Liberty quarters minted and there are at least a million collectors vying for this coin. That makes it very rare and worth more than $20,000.00 in any mint state grade. On the other hand, I have a collection of Agricultral coins in mint state grades (dated 1978) with more than 20 of those coins having less than 10,000 mintage. I could not sell that set today for more than $1000.00 even though two are gold and a number of them are silver coins from many countries of the world. The demand is not there now though many of them have less than a quarter of the mintage of the 1916 SL coin. In fact, that quarter in fair grade is worth as much as my complete two book set in mint state.
Suppy, demand and grade are the three controlling factors in determining an accurate value of a coin or collectible, but there are other variables as well. I have coins that value is “special” to me because of the story they tell, the circumstances in which I obtained them, the special mint flaw or error, and or the uniqueness of the situation that I found them with a metal detector. The 1861 Indian Cent found on Hangman’s Hill, the 69 AD half shekel dug-up in the same city are both pricless to me. The 1882 S Morgan dollar with doubling on both sides, the counterfiet 1796 Eight Reales are of personal worth far more than their accurate value determined by the market. All four are metal detector finds with their own story to tell. Look at these beauties! What are they worth?
August 21st, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Hi Uncle Larry, just wanted to let you know that I finally had the opportunity to visit your site and have totally enjoyed it. Thanks.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hi Joe!
Glad you enjoyed site. I will investigate your tokens. They are new ones to me but I have a MD club in that part of the world that might help. Allow me a few days to check them out. Send photos :larry@metaldetectorforcoincollecting.com