r/coincollecting Jun 24 '17

Intro to Coin Collecting - What makes a coin valuable?

588 Upvotes

This post is intended to serve as a quick guide to coin collecting for new collectors, or people who may have inherited a few coins. Here's a brief primer on what makes a coin valuable:

Age

How old is it? In general, old coins tend to be worth more than coins struck more recently. The older a particular coin is, the greater the collectible and historical appeal. Older coins also tend to be scarcer, as many coins are lost or destroyed over time. For example – 5% of the original mintage of an 19th century U.S. coin might have survived to the present day, with the rest getting melted down, destroyed, or simply lost over time.

Go back a century further, to the 18th century, and the survival rate drops to <1%. Taking into account that most 18th century U.S. coins were already produced in tiny numbers, it makes sense that most of them now sell for over four figures.

All that being said, the relationship between age and value does not always hold true. For example, you can still buy many 2000 year-old Ancient Roman coins for less than $10, due to the sheer number of them produced over the 400-year history of the Western Roman Empire (and distributed across its massive territory). But as a general rule, within any given coin series, older coins will tend to be relatively more scarce and valuable.

Condition

It may sound like common sense, but nicer coins bring higher prices. The greater the amount of original detail and the smaller the amount of visible wear on a coin’s surfaces, the higher the price. There are a dizzying array of words used to describe a coin’s condition, but at the most basic level, coins can be divided into two states – Uncirculated and Circulated.

Uncirculated or “Mint State” coins are coins that show no visible signs of wear or use – they have not circulated in commerce, but are in roughly the same condition as when they left the mint. Circulated coins show signs of having been used – the design details will be partially worn down from contact with hands, pockets, and other coins. The level of wear can range from light rub on the highest points of the coin’s design, to complete erosion of the entire design into a featureless blank. Uncirculated coins demand higher prices than circulated coins, and circulated coins with light wear are worth more than coins with heavy wear.

Type

Type is the single biggest determinant of value. How much a coin is worth depends on how big the market for that particular coin is. For example, U.S. coins are much more widely collected than any other nation’s coins, just because there are far more U.S. coin collectors than there are collectors in any other nation. The market for American coins is bigger than any other market within the field of numismatics (other large markets include British coins, ancients, and bullion coins).

This means that even if a Canadian coin has a mintage of only 10,000 coins, it is likely worth less than a typical U.S. coin with a mintage ten times greater. For another example - you may have a coin from the Vatican City with a mintage of 500, but it’s only worth something if somebody’s interested in collecting it.

Certain series of coins are also much more widely collected than others, generally due to the popularity of their design or their historical significance. For example - Jefferson Nickels have never been very popular in the coin collecting community, as many collectors consider the design uninteresting and the coins are made of copper-nickel rather than silver, but Mercury Dimes and Morgan Dollars are heavily collected. An entire date/mintmark set of Jefferson Nickels can be had for a couple of hundred dollars, whereas an entire set of Mercury Dimes would cost four figures.

Rarity

Rarity is comprised of all the other factors above combined. Age, condition, and type all play a role in rarity. But the main determinant of rarity is how many coins were actually minted (produced). Coins with certain date/mintmark combinations might be much rarer than others because their mintages were so small. For example, U.S. coins with a “CC” mintmark are generally much rarer than coins from the same series with other mintmarks because the Carson City Mint produced small numbers of coins during its existence.

U.S. coins without a mintmark, from the Philadelphia mint, are generally less valuable (though there are many exceptions) as the Philadelphia mint has produced more coins throughout U.S. history than all of the other mints combined. There are often one or two “keys” or “key date” coins within each series of coins, much scarcer and more valuable than the rest of the coins within the series. Some of the most well-known key dates include the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent (“S” mintmark = San Francisco mint), the 1916-D Mercury Dime (Denver mint), and the 1928 Peace Dollar (Philadelphia mint).


r/coincollecting 4h ago

Learn from my mistake son!!!! Thanks eBay!!!

Thumbnail
gallery
72 Upvotes

Tip of the day!!!


r/coincollecting 1h ago

What's it Worth? My mom sold these 3 for 80 was that a good price

Post image
Upvotes

She sold the ones highlighted


r/coincollecting 5h ago

(META) Mods, whenever there is a question about some coin, half the comments are woefully incorrect (take a look at the recent 1955 DDO thread as an example). What if there was "Pro" flair that some users could earn/be awarded, so that people could weed out the good advice from the chaff?

30 Upvotes

I'm not sure how it would work - that would be a topic for discussion on how someone would be "vetted" to be able to earn and use the "Pro" flair - I haven't thought that far out yet, and perhaps others may have some ideas.

But mostly, it just bothers me when someone comes to this sub, asks a question and half the advice they get is either flat-out wrong, or laughably incorrect. And it seems to be getting worse.

One could say, "well, the upvote/downvote buttons kinda do all that for us", where correct advice should theoretically be upvoted to the top as the best/correct answer. Which would be nice...except so many times the wrong answers end up with lots of upvotes, too.

Maybe a mechanism where a post could be tagged for 'flaired users only' where only those with "Pro" flair would be able to respond? I dunno, just spitballing ideas.


r/coincollecting 1d ago

Is this genuine? Is it worth anything?

Post image
789 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 2h ago

ID Request Coin Question

Thumbnail
gallery
10 Upvotes

Wondering if this coin is worth anything. I’m new to coin stuff so any help would be great.


r/coincollecting 12h ago

Show and Tell 1962 Franklin Half

Thumbnail
gallery
72 Upvotes

10 these were under melt so I had to grab them.


r/coincollecting 4h ago

1943 Steel penny

Thumbnail
gallery
10 Upvotes

I know they're fairly common but I thought it was a cool find in the wild. Surprisingly good condition too.


r/coincollecting 13h ago

Show and Tell ***COUNTERFEIT ***

Thumbnail
gallery
39 Upvotes

I seen where several people had got scammed on Ebay. If you suspect you got a counterfeit coin or Bullion report it to

Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (ACEF) / Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force:

Phone: (817) 723-7231

The primary industry task force working directly with law enforcement on fake coins and precious metals. Reports can also be submitted online at acefonline.org.

​U.S. Secret Service (USSS):

Local Field Office Directory: secretservice.gov/contact/field-offices

Federal agency with jurisdiction over counterfeit legal-tender U.S. coinage and currency. Contact your nearest regional field office directly.

​U.S. Secret Service (USSS):

Local Field Office Directory: secretservice.gov/contact/field-offices

Federal agency with jurisdiction over counterfeit legal-tender U.S. coinage and currency. Contact your nearest regional field office directly.


r/coincollecting 4h ago

Mecury Dime Bands

Thumbnail
gallery
6 Upvotes

So many of the online pictures look the same when trying to decide between grades. The bands on the back of this 1928-D Mercury dime show a split, but there is enough wear to make me doubt how clean these lines are and where it falls in grading.

Appreciate any thoughts from better eyes than mine.


r/coincollecting 1h ago

ID Request Found this in my garden as a kid

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

I don't think its real but still wanted to ask, I'm having a hard time finding the exact same online.

It is made of metal but still very light.


r/coincollecting 2h ago

Storing Pennies

3 Upvotes

Have a couple thousand Wheat Pennies, what’s the best way to sort and store that many?
Appreciate any help.


r/coincollecting 1d ago

First post to understand the value of my dad’s coin collection

Thumbnail
gallery
300 Upvotes

My dad passed away a few years ago and left me his coin collection. He spent a lot of time and energy putting it together. While I will sell it eventually, I’d like to understand a little about the value before I sell it. He’d be 100% ok with me selling it. He will haunt me for eternity if I get ripped off!

It’s too big to photo all at once, so I’ll do a few posts over the coming weeks.

One picture in this post will have a photo of rolls of quarters. All are new in the bank wrapper (does that mean uncirculated- or is that the wrong use of the terminology?) Each state has one roll of d and one roll of p.

Please let me know your thoughts!


r/coincollecting 3h ago

Is this an error?

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

No clue

This dime appears to have a wheat penny back to it?


r/coincollecting 3h ago

ID Request Coin

Thumbnail
gallery
3 Upvotes

No clue

Going through some coins I found this I have no clue as to what it is? Probably twice as thick as a normal coin


r/coincollecting 1h ago

need help identifying coins and value

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

dad gave me some old coins, js wanted to see value and identify them


r/coincollecting 13h ago

Should I open these?

Post image
16 Upvotes

My dad gave me his old coin collection. Slowly I am going through it to see if I want to sell anything. However I have these rolls.

Are they okay to open?

Or should I keep them in rolls? Logically I think I should open them to see if there is anything decent in there. But I am unsure. Thank you.


r/coincollecting 21h ago

Show and Tell How did I do?

Thumbnail
gallery
56 Upvotes

I bought 7 dateless SLQ, 1 walker, 1 Franklin, 1 barber dime, 18 mercury dimes, 2 buffalos, and 9 Indian cents for $223.

Notable keys: In the mix was 1 1970 Indian cent

While I did have a small heart attack the 1916 merc was unfortunately not a Denver issue just a Philly.

Notable varieties: N/A


r/coincollecting 8m ago

Is this worth anything or just a cool keeper?

Post image
Upvotes

r/coincollecting 17h ago

Advice Needed I believe this guy was scamming people on TikTok,

Thumbnail
gallery
19 Upvotes

I believe that this is a scam, I love to buy coins but this is the first time I’ve ever encountered something like this. The dates don’t match up and they had a couple coins that where just to crazy for someone to have like a 1800 dollar coin, seems like a scam but wanted confirmation. Thank you.


r/coincollecting 5h ago

2025 Williamson Diamond Brooch Pure Gold Coin - Doubled in Value

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 2h ago

Share Deb G Buster, how she loves gold by debgbuster

Thumbnail
whatnot.com
1 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 2h ago

Share Deb G Buster, how she loves gold by debgbuster

Thumbnail
whatnot.com
1 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 7h ago

It might be a stupid question, but how did collectors actually get their hands on uncirculated coins if they are “uncirculated” AKA have never hit people’s pockets or cash registers?

3 Upvotes

r/coincollecting 2h ago

How much kaya value nito? Any collectors here?

Thumbnail
gallery
0 Upvotes

Just found it sa drawers ng parents ko.