Here’s an article I ran across from the December 2003 issue of ACCent, the newsletter of the Anchorage Coin Club, by Mike Nourse.

As coin collectors, we are all aware of the success of the state quarter program in terms of getting people to look at their change. Supposedly, 100 million people are ‘collecting’ state quarters, though I suspect that the folks that arrived at that number are using a very loose definition of the word collecting. I personally doubt that any more than 10 million people, mostly kids, are actually making any serious effort to collect all of the state quarters in a map or other inexpensive holder.

However, let’s err on the side of caution and assume that my number is too high as well, by a factor of two, and the actual number of people that are somewhat seriously pursuing a collection of state quarters is only 5 million, or merely one out of every 55 people in the United States. That is still a HUGE number, folks! Go grab your Redbook, and I know that yours is within arms reach right now, and take a look at the mintage figures for a variety of series. You will notice that there are an awful lot of coins listed in that book that have a mintage of under 5 million pieces. We also know that mintage is only half of the story, as what is really important now is how many of those old coins have survived loss and meltings to survive to this day.

What we, as collectors of coins that are no longer in circulation, are interested in is how many of those millions of people will join us in the pursuit of older coins in order to form a collection. It seems logical that many of those potential new collectors may first consider the possibility of continuing their Washington quarter sets going back in time. The first thing they will likely discover is that the composition of our quarters changed from silver to copper nickel clad in 1965, and that quarters may be found in circulation all the way back to that date. It will be quite a challenge to fill in all of those holes in the 1965 to date Whitman folder. Eventually, it is likely that a few of the clad dates will evade our new collector despite their best efforts to fill all those spaces. That is when our new collector may be drawn to a local coin shop or internet coin dealer, and be directly exposed to those old silver coins that will never be found in circulation.

Continue reading…

Many people have asked me to buy their coins, so before we go any further let me clarify that I’m not a dealer. I don’t buy and sell coins. Coin collecting is my hobby, not my business.

Now, I’ve already talked about how to buy coins, now I’ll discuss how to sell them.

Let’s say you have some coins you want to sell. You may have a collection from a parent’s or grandparent’s estate, you may have found some old coins in the attic or you may have been a long time collector who has decided you no longer want to collect coins. Whatever the reason, the time has come for you to sell them. It really doesn’t matter how you got them because the end result is the same: you want to get the most money for your coins as quickly and conveniently as possible.

Now let’s shift to the perspective of a coin dealer. You’re in the business to enjoy a hobby you love while at the same time make a decent living. When you buy coins, you need to be able to sell them for more money than you paid in order to make a profit and keep yourself in business. You most likely travel to shows around the country to buy and sell coins and may run a shop somewhere to house your inventory.

So, we have a bit of a problem because the coin collector will often go to a price guide (like NCGS’s coin price guide) to see how much their coin is worth. Then they’ll take it down to a dealer or contact one online and ask them how much they’ll pay for the coin. When they hear the price, they think they’re getting ripped off. The truth of the matter is that a dealer is only going to pay the wholesale price for the coin, not retail.

Lesson number one is, “You’re almost never going to get a coin’s retail price at a dealer.”

I mean nothing else by that statement except to give you a fair expectation so you aren’t disappointed. That’s how coin dealers stay in business.

Selling your coin to a coin dealer is not your only option. You can sell your coins on eBay or Overstock coin auctions to try to get retail values for your coins, but it’s not nearly as easy.

The best way to sell coins online is to have photographs of them and getting high quality photographs of your coins can take time. You could offer all your coins at once as a bulk lot, but you run the risk of selling a valuable coin at far less than its real value.

In the end, it’s up to you what you do with the coins you want to liquidate.

In summary, if you want to sell them as quickly and easily as possible, find a reputable dealer (being a lifetime member of the ANA is a good sign), and ask them to give you a price for the whole lot.

If you want to get as much as possible for your coins and are willing to put a little elbow grease into the process, selling your coins on eBay may be the way to go for you.

Whatever you decide, make sure not to clean the coins. It’s a sure fire way to reduce the value of your coins.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 28, 2005–Superior Galleries, Inc. (OTCBB:SPGR) announced today that it has begun marketing rare coins through Overstock.com® Auctions™ (NASDAQ:OSTK).

Silvano DiGenova, CEO of Superior Galleries, said, “We are excited about our relationship with Overstock and we believe that both our and Overstock Auctions’ growing presence in Internet auctions and commerce will assist us in expanding our online revenues.”

Currently, Superior has over $3 million of rare coin product available through Overstock.com Auctions. Among the rare coins currently up for auction is the famous 1794 Flowing Hair Dollar. This coin is the USA’s first dollar and a symbol at the time of our viability as a nation. Not only is this one of the finest coins capping any collection for the serious collector, it’s also an important piece of American history. Mr. DiGenova further commented that “coins are, as in the quote from the James Earl Jones video, ‘like holding history in your hands.’”

All known strikes of this romantic issue were made on October 15, 1794. The designs were by Robert Scot, hailing originally from England, who also personally cut the dies. This remarkable specimen is ranked as the 9th Finest Known in existence by Martin A. Logies in his recent book “The Flowing Hair Dollars of 1794, A Historical and Population Census Study,” published August 2004. Provenance should also note that the coin was once donated in 1926 by Louis B. Hungerford to the Connecticut Historical Society, where it remained until 1983. This specimen is the finer of only two 1794 dollars in any PCGS About Uncirculated grade, the other example (AU-53) traded dealer to dealer within the last year for a reported $350,000. Accordingly, the value for this finer example is estimated at $400,000 - $600,000.

“The rare coins category is one of the most popular and successful categories on Overstock Auctions,” said Holly MacDonald-Korth, vice president of auctions at Overstock.com. “Superior Galleries is a great addition to Overstock Auctions’ community and one of the many fine sellers that are helping Overstock.com Auctions grow into a thriving marketplace for coins and other rare objects. I encourage anyone who collects or is interested in rare coins to take a look at Superior’s impressive collection.”

When buying coins online, Mr. DiGenova advises collectors to ensure the coins have been graded by the Professional Coin Grading Service or the Numismatic Guarantee Corporation. He also suggests that collectors buy from dealers that are members of the Professional Numismatic Guild (PNG), an ethics body that accepts only bona fide coin dealers.

Here is the original article.

My two favorite quotes from this article are, “Jean Fitzgerald calls her husband ‘5 Cent,’ rapper style” and “I do admit that in private moments I Google myself,” (said by Fitzgerald).

By William L. Hamilton, The New York Times March 28, 2005

Though corporate America turns to Martha Stewart or Michael Graves for a little wow in what it sells, the U.S. Mint at the Treasury Department turned to Joe Fitzgerald.

In the world of coins, Fitzgerald, 54, is an overnight sensation. Beating out the mint’s in-house designers and a group of 23 others who constitute the mint’s Artistic Infusion Program, inaugurated last year, Fitzgerald won two commissions for a new nickel.

His portrait of Thomas Jefferson, which is uniquely and controversially off center, with a new larger nose that critics have compared heatedly with Bob Hope’s, appeared on the obverse of a nickel introduced to the public by President Bush on March 1. And Fitzgerald’s design for the reverse (replacing a bison by Jamie Franki) will have its debut in August, making the nickel pretty much Fitzgerald’s personal turf and bragging right, design-wise, whether you agree with his thinking or not. Talk about excitement.

“This is ‘American Idol’ in metal,” Fitzgerald said, sitting at home in suburban Maryland earlier this month with his wife, Jean, and their pug, Fabio. Jean Fitzgerald calls her husband “5 Cent,” rapper style.

For a nickel’s worth of fame, Joe Fitzgerald can afford to boast. Roughly a billion coins bearing his designs will be minted in the next year, circulating as widely as any pop CD. Because the designs are scheduled to be retired in 2006, the Fitzgerald nickel could be one of the most collectible and widely hoarded coins, experts in the field speculate, in American history.

Not bad for the chief of graphics at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Md., who keeps a coat tree of leather motorcycle jackets in the front hallway because his wife, who works as an archivist with the Smithsonian Institution, thinks he’s too clumsy to own a motorcycle and won’t let him buy one.

“I do admit that in private moments I Google myself,” said Fitzgerald, who is also a painter.

Read the rest of the article at Rocky Mountain News.

Jerry Soukup is proud to be a numismatist.

The 72-year-old retired math teacher spent this week teaching Humke Elementary third-graders about numismatics - the hobby of coin collecting.

During classes, students learned about coins and tried their hand at designing their own.

Several students wanted to start collections.

“There could be older coins that are rare,” said Lexi Brost, 8.

Austin Winch, 8, wanted to collect coins, so he could sell them and “get more money.” Soukup, a Nekoosa resident, has been a coin collector since 1966.

“I collect all American coins. I collect foreign coins,” Soukup said. “My specialty is in the error circulation.” An “error coin” is an improperly produced coin that was overlooked in production and later released into circulation. The coins often are considered valuable.

It’s important for students to learn the history of coins, Soukup said.

Read the entire article