tigerbeetle
Full Member
- Jan 2, 2009
- 166
- 275
- Detector(s) used
- Many -- Fisher, White's, Minelab, Cobra, others
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I've been digging coins since the mid-1960s (homemade Jetco from the back of a magazine).
Back in the day, I would walk into a coin dealer's shop to sell prime-date large or half cents I had dug and would literally be asked to leave; that's how undesirable dug coins were.
Then came eBay and all that crap about dug coins being worthless flew out the multi-bid window -- along with that BS coin dealers wanted buyers to believe -- and still want them to believe. Truth be told, dealers now know their oft-crappy specimens of "desirable," i.e. undug, coins are being instantly outclassed by detectored coins. Savvier dealers are climbing on the bandwagon and readily considering prime-date dug coins as very desirable buys.
Haling from South Jersey, where the likes of large and half cents often come out of the ground in astounding condition, I've easily been selling once "Get outta my shop" coins. My prize sale (recent) was $1,400 for a 1793 LC -- discretely sold to a buyer I met through eBay.
Importantly: Quality still matters to the hilt, even in a dug coin -- and by "quality" I mean date, detail and, most of all, overall display-appeal. I think that the concept of "display appeal" is where dug coins instantly overcome the stigma of having been excavated.
Somewhat ironically, many dug coins, if restored properly, are actually no worse for wear than coins that never hit the ground but were simply heavily used or were often exposed to the human environment, sometimes for centuries.
Well-known fact: In recent years, some of the highest priced/sold coins on record have been dug.
I bring all this up to alert detectorists to ignore the still-cheeky naysayers badmouthing "environmentally damaged" coins. If you want to move a good coin find, auction it and let the bids fall where they may. Bidders have never been so anxious to see a coin for its attributes and not its roots, so to speak.
And, yes, sometimes detectorists sell found objects -- often to get even cooler detectors and stuff. There's no crime for cashing in now and again.
My most valuable sell was not a coin but a Washington Inaugural button: $3,500. It was hard to part with it. Of course, I just happen to have five more, including three matching "Long Live The President" vest buttons found within a four-foot radius of each other.
Back in the day, I would walk into a coin dealer's shop to sell prime-date large or half cents I had dug and would literally be asked to leave; that's how undesirable dug coins were.
Then came eBay and all that crap about dug coins being worthless flew out the multi-bid window -- along with that BS coin dealers wanted buyers to believe -- and still want them to believe. Truth be told, dealers now know their oft-crappy specimens of "desirable," i.e. undug, coins are being instantly outclassed by detectored coins. Savvier dealers are climbing on the bandwagon and readily considering prime-date dug coins as very desirable buys.
Haling from South Jersey, where the likes of large and half cents often come out of the ground in astounding condition, I've easily been selling once "Get outta my shop" coins. My prize sale (recent) was $1,400 for a 1793 LC -- discretely sold to a buyer I met through eBay.
Importantly: Quality still matters to the hilt, even in a dug coin -- and by "quality" I mean date, detail and, most of all, overall display-appeal. I think that the concept of "display appeal" is where dug coins instantly overcome the stigma of having been excavated.
Somewhat ironically, many dug coins, if restored properly, are actually no worse for wear than coins that never hit the ground but were simply heavily used or were often exposed to the human environment, sometimes for centuries.
Well-known fact: In recent years, some of the highest priced/sold coins on record have been dug.
I bring all this up to alert detectorists to ignore the still-cheeky naysayers badmouthing "environmentally damaged" coins. If you want to move a good coin find, auction it and let the bids fall where they may. Bidders have never been so anxious to see a coin for its attributes and not its roots, so to speak.
And, yes, sometimes detectorists sell found objects -- often to get even cooler detectors and stuff. There's no crime for cashing in now and again.
My most valuable sell was not a coin but a Washington Inaugural button: $3,500. It was hard to part with it. Of course, I just happen to have five more, including three matching "Long Live The President" vest buttons found within a four-foot radius of each other.
