twodogsnacat
Greenie
- Aug 28, 2012
- 14
- 3
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
In 2009 my dad gave me a box full of old coins that my 87-year-old aunt and late uncle had accumulated over the years. It had old silver dollars, half dollars, old foreign coins, and wheat pennies. I sold some of the silver dollars, and also found out the hard way that polishing your silver coins to make them pretty and shiny is frowned upon in the coin collecting world!! So much for that. Then, a former business-partner/friend stole the rest of them, leaving me the old foreign coins and the wheat pennies.
All of that was a pretty negative experience, so I steered clear of the coin box because I figured the majority of the value had disappeared along with the silver coins. Looking to sell some of our things, 3 weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided to sort through the wheat cents, etc., and discovered 2 separate wheat pennies buried under the other coins. They ended up being 2 1909-S VDBs! We took them to 4 local dealers and yes, they are authentic.
Now we are looking at every single penny we see, and last night we were going through the change jar because I remembered that about a month ago I had a wheat penny mixed in with some other change, and knowing nothing, just tossed it in with the other change. When he came into the room, I said "I found the wheat penny!" and he said "What year is it?" Since i didn't have my glasses I said I couldn't see the year, so he picked it up and said "Guess what year it is, just guess!!!" it was ANOTHER 1909-S VDB, in great, maybe even better condition than the first 2! (It is also authentic.)
We now have THREE 1909-S VDB wheat pennies! The 4 dealers who have scrutinized them, made offers on them, etc are giving us some information and we don't know what or who to believe as far as grading, etc., goes. Initially, the first dealer misled us by trying to downplay the quality of the first 2, and then made a big production about how the coins were questionable--- however, he made an offer to buy them, then when we called him back the next day he upped his original offer-- "willing to take them off our hands and take the risk." When I asked him if it would be a good idea to have them evaluated by a reputable company, he insisted there was no need for that since he claimed to be the Wheat Penny King or something like that!! This was Day 2 into our new coin collecting adventure!
The third dealer was actually pretty helpful and made a much higher offer than the first 2 characters, and encouraged us to have the first 2 graded. The 3rd and 4th dealer have seen all 3 coins. The fourth dealer was also seemingly upfront, but said grading was not something that would necessarily raise the price since he said he graded coins for PCGS and he was even more knowledgeable than the Wheat Penny King I believe. He offered us more than the third guy, but not as much as I have seen them go for on Ebay, etc.
We want to send them in to be graded, but first would like to get an idea on their quality. We want to sell them-- in fact we need to sell them but don't want to blow it. We are 3 weeks into our coin collecting adventure now, and although I have been learning everything I can find, it doesn't make up for lack of experience!!
We are hoping some of you experienced collectors can look at the photos just to give us an idea on their grade so we will know what to do and how to sell them before sending them out to be graded.
I have taken tons of photos so please let me know if you need more. Note the color changes are due to lighting, none are enhanced. Any help, suggestions, advice would be more than welcomed and appreciated.
COIN 1:
COIN 2:
COIN 3:
ALL 3:
All of that was a pretty negative experience, so I steered clear of the coin box because I figured the majority of the value had disappeared along with the silver coins. Looking to sell some of our things, 3 weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided to sort through the wheat cents, etc., and discovered 2 separate wheat pennies buried under the other coins. They ended up being 2 1909-S VDBs! We took them to 4 local dealers and yes, they are authentic.
Now we are looking at every single penny we see, and last night we were going through the change jar because I remembered that about a month ago I had a wheat penny mixed in with some other change, and knowing nothing, just tossed it in with the other change. When he came into the room, I said "I found the wheat penny!" and he said "What year is it?" Since i didn't have my glasses I said I couldn't see the year, so he picked it up and said "Guess what year it is, just guess!!!" it was ANOTHER 1909-S VDB, in great, maybe even better condition than the first 2! (It is also authentic.)
We now have THREE 1909-S VDB wheat pennies! The 4 dealers who have scrutinized them, made offers on them, etc are giving us some information and we don't know what or who to believe as far as grading, etc., goes. Initially, the first dealer misled us by trying to downplay the quality of the first 2, and then made a big production about how the coins were questionable--- however, he made an offer to buy them, then when we called him back the next day he upped his original offer-- "willing to take them off our hands and take the risk." When I asked him if it would be a good idea to have them evaluated by a reputable company, he insisted there was no need for that since he claimed to be the Wheat Penny King or something like that!! This was Day 2 into our new coin collecting adventure!
The third dealer was actually pretty helpful and made a much higher offer than the first 2 characters, and encouraged us to have the first 2 graded. The 3rd and 4th dealer have seen all 3 coins. The fourth dealer was also seemingly upfront, but said grading was not something that would necessarily raise the price since he said he graded coins for PCGS and he was even more knowledgeable than the Wheat Penny King I believe. He offered us more than the third guy, but not as much as I have seen them go for on Ebay, etc.
We want to send them in to be graded, but first would like to get an idea on their quality. We want to sell them-- in fact we need to sell them but don't want to blow it. We are 3 weeks into our coin collecting adventure now, and although I have been learning everything I can find, it doesn't make up for lack of experience!!
We are hoping some of you experienced collectors can look at the photos just to give us an idea on their grade so we will know what to do and how to sell them before sending them out to be graded.
I have taken tons of photos so please let me know if you need more. Note the color changes are due to lighting, none are enhanced. Any help, suggestions, advice would be more than welcomed and appreciated.
COIN 1:
COIN 2:
COIN 3:
ALL 3:
