Buying silver and coins.

[cyberdan]

Tomorrow I will be visiting one of my usual banks. One of the tellers wants to sell me all her old coins. Mostly silver 90% & 40% (I know what I will offer for those) But she also has nickels and cents.

What should I offer for: (so that I can make a fair profit on resale)
all coins will be common circulated, she has been finding these as a teller over the years

shield nickels
V nickels
buffalo nickels

indian heads
wheats

 

[USMCLion]

Obviously it depends on the condition of the coins. For average circ below is what I pay.

Buffalo common dates .75-1.00
Common Wheats .04- .05
V nickels 1.00
Indian heads (post CW) 1.00
pre- CW 2.50-5.00
Shields 3.00-5.00

For better grades and dates see the blue book, thats what you would expect to get from a dealer. I usually try to do a little better than a dealer would do. Gets you more coins in the future. When someone offers to sell you coins most likely they have already taken them to a dealer and if they find out you low balled them your name will get drug through the mud. Especially if your from a small town like I am.

H/H Ryan

 

[bazinga]

For common date coins I would not offer more than 1/2 of what USMCLion would pay.

Heck, at what he pays I am tempted to try and sell him a lot of my coins.

You can buy wheats for 2-3 cents each on ebay, or even cheaper. I think coin dealers pay about 1.25 to 1.50 cents each for wheats.

 

[Immy]

Whatever you decide Dan, make sure she's 100% happy with your offer. I'm not implying you'd rip her off but I've frequently encountered the disappointed reaction people have to the news that their coins are worth a fraction of the $$$ they thought. Plus you don't want to alienate a good bank source.

 

[jim4silver]

Tomorrow I will be visiting one of my usual banks. One of the tellers wants to sell me all her old coins. Mostly silver 90% & 40% (I know what I will offer for those) But she also has nickels and cents.

What should I offer for: (so that I can make a fair profit on resale)
all coins will be common circulated, she has been finding these as a teller over the years

shield nickels
V nickels
buffalo nickels

indian heads
wheats

I would get a quote from a local coin shop, and beat their price by a few cents on the silver. That way she knows she is getting a good deal and you will be getting her silver for less than you would pay from the dealer (plus you would be making your teller happy which can help you with your CRHing down the road).

I am not so sure I would jump at the non silver stuff unless you know what it is worth and believe it will go up in price. You don't want to get soaked yourself trying to do right by the teller.

The silver is probably a safe bet (maybe she got it for face at the bank??) for you to buy, but that other stuff, who knows??

Immy is right though. Don't pi$$ off your bank personnel.

Jim

 

[sfwusc]

For common date coins I would not offer more than 1/2 of what USMCLion would pay.

Heck, at what he pays I am tempted to try and sell him a lot of my coins.

You can buy wheats for 2-3 cents each on ebay, or even cheaper. I think coin dealers pay about 1.25 to 1.50 cents each for wheats.

Show me an ebay auction with wheats going for 2-3 cents after you figure in shipping. I would say they usually go for 4 cents plus. The dealer in town pays 2.5 cent each for wheats. He selling them for 4 cent each if you buy them by the roll.

Those other prices aren't bad either. I wouldn't pay that much myself, but I would say that it was more fair. I would want to have a little more mark up myself.

Buffalo common dates .50-.75
Common Wheats .03
V nickels 0.60-0.75
Indian heads (post 1887) 0.60-0.75
Before 1878-1887 2.00-3.00
Before 1877 $5 or more
Shields 3.00-5.00 (red book has the most common at $18 in G4 so I think this one is fine)


I bought 6 WL and 4 seat dimes for $48 this week. 117% of melt or 14 x face. The Walker were 1918, 1919s, 1923s, 1934, 1935, 1936. The dimes were 1875, 1876, 1876, 1888.
Or around 50% of the red book price.

 

[bazinga]

For common date coins I would not offer more than 1/2 of what USMCLion would pay.

Heck, at what he pays I am tempted to try and sell him a lot of my coins.

You can buy wheats for 2-3 cents each on ebay, or even cheaper. I think coin dealers pay about 1.25 to 1.50 cents each for wheats.

Show me an ebay auction with wheats going for 2-3 cents after you figure in shipping. I would say they usually go for 4 cents plus. The dealer in town pays 2.5 cent each for wheats. He selling them for 4 cent each if you buy them by the roll.

Those other prices aren't bad either. I wouldn't pay that much myself, but I would say that it was more fair. I would want to have a little more mark up myself.

Buffalo common dates .50-.75
Common Wheats .03
V nickels 0.60-0.75
Indian heads (post 1887) 0.60-0.75
Before 1878-1887 2.00-3.00
Before 1877 $5 or more
Shields 3.00-5.00 (red book has the most common at $18 in G4 so I think this one is fine)


I bought 6 WL and 4 seat dimes for $48 this week. 117% of melt or 14 x face. The Walker were 1918, 1919s, 1923s, 1934, 1935, 1936. The dimes were 1875, 1876, 1876, 1888.
Or around 50% of the red book price.

I guess I should be selling my wheats. I didn't pay anywhere near those prices that they are getting on ebay now. I paid about half that for 5,000 on there about 2 years ago.

I still wouldn't pay 2 cents a piece for common date wheats, though.

 

[Goes4ever]

many times I have bought buffalo's off ebay 3 for .99 just common dates. My coin dealer sells all common dates Indians, V's, and buff's for $1.00, so I'd pay less than that.

 

[sfwusc]

I guess I should be selling my wheats. I didn't pay anywhere near those prices that they are getting on ebay now. I paid about half that for 5,000 on there about 2 years ago.

I still wouldn't pay 2 cents a piece for common date wheats, though.

Why not? If you could get enough of them, then you could double your money. If you have a market that you know you can sell something for double, then why wouldn't you buy it. You wouldn't be tying up the money for more than 2 weeks.

-SWUSC

 

[jrf30]

For common date coins I would not offer more than 1/2 of what USMCLion would pay.

Heck, at what he pays I am tempted to try and sell him a lot of my coins.

You can buy wheats for 2-3 cents each on ebay, or even cheaper. I think coin dealers pay about 1.25 to 1.50 cents each for wheats.

Shoot, on ebay a $50 bag of memorial copper cents is selling for about $120 as an average. So that is 2.4 cents per penny. Why would someone sell a wheat, worth a little more than a memaorial, for 1.5 cents.

Wow.

I bet even common wheat dates woul dfgetch $150 for a $50 bag. 3 cents per penny. Just a guess. I'm still collecting all mine. Pull out about 100 wheats a week when I work some pennies.

 

[TxTim]

Mixed date unsearched wheats have been going for $320+ a $50 bag.

 

[cyberdan]

UPDATE>>> Well I went to the bank today and the teller that was going to bring her coins did bring them but she just wanted me to look at them and make an offer. She still wants me to call her again in a week. I could not tell how much she had but the box was heavy (4-5 pounds??) when she set it on her tellers window. There were a bunch of clad IKE dollars that I told here were only worth a dollar. But there were a LOT of common silver quarters, dimes, halves (some 40%) and a Morgan dollar. Again I made her and offer a bit better than three weeks ago and pointed out that silver lost over $1.40 in those three weeks.

She is also the bank manager and did not want to do the transaction on bank property. She is a silver hunter, just like us, but does not know anything about silver coins. She pointed out a few of the coins and said she just got them from a teller yesterday. Funny thing is she offered $200 in halves from the bank vault in Brinks sealed rolls. So she has no idea about CRH. (of course I bought those)

 

[USMCLion]

The prices I listed above were not intended to be buying in bulk. Most folks that want to sell coins don't have a huge collection. Most of the time its a small box or a coffe can with some coins in it. I have built a pretty impresive collection over the years through CRHing and buying at flee markets and from personal deals. I always offer a fair price on the cheaper coins and pay very close to what a dealer would pay on the key dates. After all that is where the good investments are in coins, Key dates. I bought a 16-D merc last year VG+ for $500. Same price the dealer offered the guy, but I payed him 1.00 each for the 50 other common date Mercs that he had dealer offered .50. I got a great deal, he got more than he would of from the dealer and we were all happy.