How to Sell Coins

Most people selling coins are not collectors. They have inherited an accumulation, they do not know what is in it, and they are about to walk into a shop at a serious disadvantage. Nearly all of that disadvantage can be removed in an afternoon.

Know what you have first

Sort the coins by type and date. Note the mint mark on each, remembering that it moved to the obverse in 1968 and lived on the reverse before that, and that no circulating coin carries one at all from 1965 to 1967. See mint marks on coins.

Then grade honestly. When you are torn between two grades, write down the lower one. Optimism about your own coins is universal and it costs money, because a dealer who has to talk you down from a fantasy will discount the whole transaction to save the argument.

Finally, look up what those coins have actually realized at auction recently, at that date, mint mark and grade. That number is your reference point. A printed guide gives a retail asking price, which is not what anyone will pay you.

Do not clean anything

The single most expensive thing a seller can do between the attic and the counter. The United States Mint's own guidance warns that polishing and cleaning can reduce a coin's value, and that coins showing deep age coloration are more desirable than coins whose surfaces have been stripped. Grading services cap cleaned coins at MS-62 or lower, whizzed coins at AU-50 or lower, and label them with a details grade that removes them from the market that pays real money.

A dealer who sees a freshly polished scarce coin sees a coin that has just lost most of its premium. See how to clean coins.

Leave sets intact

Modern proof sets and commemoratives should be bought and sold in their original cases and capsules, with the certificate of authenticity and information card that came with them. A set stripped of its packaging is worth less than one that still has it, and the coins are easier to damage loose. Resist the urge to tidy.

Understand the spread

A dealer buys wholesale and sells retail. The gap between the two pays for the shop, the knowledge, the capital tied up in stock that may sit for a year, and the risk that a coin turns out to be a problem. That gap is not a swindle; it is the business. It is widest on common material, where the dealer's time is worth more than the coins, and narrowest on scarce coins that will sell themselves.

Which suggests the obvious strategy. Get more than one offer. Two dealers in the same town will value the same accumulation differently, because they have different customers waiting.

Auction, dealer, or private sale

An established auction house publishes realized prices, which makes its market transparent, and reaches collectors nationally. It also takes a commission and takes time. A dealer pays today and pays less. A private sale to another collector can pay best of all, and requires you to know exactly what you have, which is where this began.

We do not appraise coins, buy coins, or sell coins, and we publish no prices. What we can tell you is that the seller who has done an afternoon of homework is treated very differently from the one who has not.