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November. Two more months before 2023 becomes just another year on a coin. Exciting stuff, right?
Plenty of updates this week, including a NEW video on OLD coins - or how to value them, at least.
But first, pop quiz, hotshot (answer at bottom of email): What was the first United States coin to sport a “P” mintmark from the Philadelphia Mint?
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Picture the scene. You’re in your childhood home. You think, “Maybe I’ll finally go through all of the stuff left in the attic, finally.” So you climb up into the tiny space and poke around.
Among the broken toys awful Christmas sweaters you’d rather not speak about, you find a bag of old coins discarded in a corner.
So now you’ve got a bag of old coins, but how do you know if they’re worth anything?
Well, in my latest video, I go through 3 different ways to get your old coin valued, so you can find out whether or not that old bag of coins is better left in the attic.
Check it out:
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This week, a question from Reddit:
A good question.
I myself bought a collection that had been damaged in a fire. And I believe my philosophy there holds true here: Unless you’re an expert numismatist, the best thing to do is to leave the collection alone, and let the collection you sell it to decide how best to clean the coins.
Generally, the rule is that you don’t clean coins. A coin that’s a little dull, or has some tarnishing should be left alone, as tampering with it would destroy the value. Instead of a mid-grade coin, you’d have what’s known in the biz as a “problem coin” - a coin that’s been cleaned or damaged in some way.
There are some exceptions. Metal detector finds buried in the ground need to be cleaned so you can even see what they are. That said, you should clean those coins very gently, and only at the hands of an expert.
The same is true for shipwrecked coins glued together by minerals, salt, etc., or coins damaged in fires, or indeed floods.
So if you’re a new collector who isn’t an expert, sell the collection as is, and let the buyer take care of it.
If you ARE an expert, the goal should be to remove as much caked on dirt without disturbing the original patina of the coin or the surface of the coin. This means not using any abrasives or chemicals - your goal here should be just to see what the coin is, but not to clean it or make it look shiny and new.
Pop quiz answer: Well done, those of you who got it - you go straight to the top of the class. The answer is, of course, was the 1942-P Jefferson Nickel. See you next week!