How to Sell Coins

Although I am located in Palm Beach County, I will on occasion travel throughout Florida and the Southeastern United States to buy coins. More often than not, when someone inherits or is gifted coins or a coin collection, they don’t know where to start if they wish to sell the coins. By following the steps below, you will easily be able to document the coins that you have and offer them for sale. When you are ready, you can call me anytime at 561-200-9002 or reach me through my Contact Us page.

Never Clean Coins

The quickest way to cut the value of a coin in half is to clean it. Although it seems harmless, cleaning a coin actually damages the coin by leaving behind hairline scratches and removing the patina that took generations to develop. Collectors know when a coin has been cleaned, so even if your coins look “dirty” leave them exactly as they are.

Separate Your Coins Into “Like” Groups

Although it may be time consuming depending on the size of the collection, this is a very easy step for you to take. The vast majority of United States coins have the denomination on the coin, for instance, “One Dollar” or “Five Cents”. Your first step is to separate the coins into groups of the same denomination. After you have successfully done that, create groups of coins that look the same within each denomination. As you can see below, the design of the different coin denominations has changed over the years. A “One Dollar” coin from 1878 looks nothing like the same denomination from 1925.

Document Your Coins

Now that all of the coins are separated, do your best to come up with a list of what you have. This list could be as simple as: (1) 150 dimes from 1916-1948; (2) 200 dimes from 1895-1904; (3) 20 half dollars from 1952-1956; and so on. The list that you create will serve multiple purposes. First of all, it is important to keep records of coins that you sell. The list of coins will also allow for me to have a general idea of what you have prior to meeting. Depending on what you have, I may ask for additional information or a photo of certain coins.

Selling Your Coins

By the time you decide to sell coins, we have usually had at least one phone conversation. Depending on what you have, I may be able to give you a ballpark valuation over the phone. For instance, if you have 100 rolls of 1964 Kennedy Half Dollars I will not need to see all of the coins individually. On the other hand, if you have a variety of gold coins or a mixture of coins from the mid-1800’s, I will have to do a much closer inspection. Depending on your comfort level, I do not mind making house calls, meeting at a bank, or even a police station. At the end of the day, it is a very smooth process.

Typical Coins that I Buy

I typically purchase United States coins from the 1700’s to modern day. It would seem that every coin has a place in my collection! Although not a complete list of the coins that I buy, I put together the images below to serve as a reference for those planning to sell coins. The coin images should help with the documentation step above.