old coins??

Question

How do you find out if you have any old coins worth anything? I have been collecting coins for sometime but have never really checked to see if they were worth anything. I have a $1.00 silver certificate and a lot of paper money from around the world also.

Answer 1

Unfortunately there are no real free places to check on coins or world paper money. The silver certificate value depends on what series it is and what grade it is in. Most worn ones from series 1935 and up to 1957 have little value if any, other than a dollar. The star notes command a premium as well as uncircluated ones. Most modern world paper money from the late 1960's up has little value. They sell them for 100 different ones, at $10 to $20. There are exceptions though. For U.S. coin you can get a coinage or Coins magazine and look at the trends prices, they are a sell price but usually dealers try to sell for less and of course pay less. Maybe a library near you has a book on world paper money with pricing. I have a lot of books and can usually help when there are just a few items, I don't have the time to look up large lists. Hope this helps some.

Answer 2

Several people have suggested using acidic things to clean the coin up, and that's about the worst thing to do. Anything acidic might get rid of the dirt, but will also etch the surface of the coin, and kill any value it might have. The traditional way of getting rid of dirt and grime on a coin is to soak it in olive oil for about a week--and you can change the oil if it's getting particularly nasty. After a week, rinse, and pat dry. Anything that doesn't come off after a week's soak is actually now part of the coin surface, and progressing any farther takes someone with a lot more experience to do it without damaging the coin. If you can't ID it after the soak, take it to a local coin dealer to see if they can attribute it.