Behind the Scenes at a Coin Shop - Coin Appraisal

Wow, look at all this. Yeah, that's just it. It's a real mix of stuff. And this is actually William Shakespeare on the coin. Yes. And so these are the G.S.A. Morgans. These are very popular. Buy your gold and silver online from S.D. Bullion. New customers get gold or silver at spot by visiting sdbullion.com slash new. I've always wondered how you guys do coin appraisals. And it's just my lucky day because you got a box of coins in. So can we go over it? Sure. Yeah. I mean, we get people that send us stuff from all around the country. And it's always fun to open a box. It's it's like Christmas. You know, you open a box, you don't know what you're going to find in there. Sometimes you do because you have to insure it. That's another thing. If you're going to send us a box, make sure you insure it and you address it properly. And Richard, would you mind showing how we have boxes addressed to us? Sure. So you would probably get somebody's name from the shop or you could put an abbreviation of Harry's Coin Shop H.C.S. This is Harry's Shop of Coins. Yeah. But you want to do that because you don't want coin shop on the box. Oh, that's right. You never want to say silver in the mail, gold in the mail. Yeah. Just generic. Correct. So just an abbreviation or a name. So can we look in the box? Absolutely. And the cool thing about this box is we get boxes from people all the time who want to sell us their collections because maybe they're not close to a coin shop or they just don't trust their local coin shop. But this is actually from a guy who works with dealers. So these are dealers who don't have the market for foreign coins or they just don't know how to deal with them. So they trust us to go through it and buy it for them. So it just gives dealers another place to go with things because as a dealer, you're always looking at a way to sell things, right? So if you're not an expert in world coins, you might know U.S. coins very well. But you're like, hey, look, I don't know where to go with these world coins. We get people that send us their stuff since we have world coin experts. We actually have two, I would say three maybe here at the shop that are world coin experts. So we're able to tell people, hey, look, this is a valuable piece. This is what we'll pay. Or, you know, this is just the poundage stuff that we buy. Wow. Look at all this. Yeah. It's a real mix of stuff. We got Thin Neck Lizzy here from 1974. Crossfit Lizzy as I call her. Yeah. Crossfit Lizzy. It's not a dollar. It's a thaller. Yeah, no doubt. So when you say buy things by the pound, you're saying literally you're buying them by weight. Yeah. So when people bring in common foreign coins, we usually weigh them up. If there's just a few pieces, we'll do a per piece sort of thing. We also sell this sort of stuff by the pound as well. Awesome. So this is just a small bit of the box. There's a bunch of other stuff in here, right? Yeah. I mean, just going through it, I saw a Condor token too. Can we see that? Yeah. Let's find out which ones. What is a Condor token? Do you know what a Condor token is? Yeah. So these were tokens that were made in the United Kingdom, usually. Kind of like trade tokens most of the time. So they weren't officially created by a government. They were more like, I would say, kind of like a hard times token almost. Yeah. Where it describes, you know, certain vendors and things. I know there's somebody out there that would probably be more averse on them, but it's kind of like the hard times tokens for Europe. So when people send you the world coins, I mean, you guys would take anything. Yeah. We buy all coins. Yeah. Even currencies you can see here. A lot of people ask us about that. I mean, some of this is going to be for the exchange value. Some of it's going to be for the collectible value. So nothing's off limits, huh? No, we buy it all. And you guys have to go through like every coin in here. I mean, it's going to take a long time. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm saying with Bill and Richard. They're going to have their work cut out for them. And, you know, we all help with where we can, but we want to make sure the experts look at it. Yeah. How long do you think this box is going to take to appraise? Anywhere from half an hour to an hour. If more than one of us is on it. If just one of us, maybe an hour and a half. My goodness. So it says half penny from... 1792. 1792. Wow. That is such an old coin. But the condition is actually pretty good, wouldn't you say? Yeah, yeah. How much would something like this be worth? That one, I would have to look up. I know generic ones can be as low as 20 or 30 dollars. I actually found this one. This is one made in Middlesex. It has Shakespeare on it. And this one sold for 26 Canadian dollars. That's 18 bucks. So my price range of about 20 to 30 on the retail was accurate. I think that is a coin we'd probably pay 15 dollars for. 15 bucks. Okay. And this is actually William Shakespeare on the coin? Yes. So we'd pay 15 and then retail it for 18. Wow. That's a crazy cool piece. So you got a lot of cool stuff in here. I know it's going to take you forever to go through it. But there's a few other coins over here that I wanted to take a look at. Yeah. So these are just some cool things that have come to the shop. And we've had, you know, certified. And so these are the GSA Morgans. These are very popular. Usually you'll see them in the government holder. So Carson City, it'll say them in here. And usually where the label's at, it'll either say uncirculated or silver dollar. So what is the GSA holder? What's so special about this one here? Yeah. So this was a hoard that the government came across. They were put out through the General Services Administration. They're the ones that deal with, you know, any overstock or, you know, just goods that the government has that they want to sell. So these would come in a box with a blue interior velvet. I think it was Richard Nixon that put the program together, if I'm not mistaken. They were put out through a bidding, through mail. So you would send in a bid. I think Richard said it was a minimum of like $12.50 or so. That's what I've heard. There was a minimum bid for people to put a bid for these dollars. And a lot of really nice coins came out of this, you know, GSA stack. That seems kind of crazy that the government was actually involved in selling these directly to the public. I mean, I know the U.S. Mint does that today, but... Yeah, but here's the thing. I mean, they got to find a way to sell them, right? And what else than to go to collectors and to people that want to buy this thing. I think it's pretty cool. Yeah. So the minimum bid was like $12.50. But what are these worth today? Oh, I mean, for example, the 78cc. This one's about $1,050 for this one. And this one's also CAC graded. So it's a MS61 CAC. So it's a beautiful coin, nice surfaces. I mean, these things sell so fast. I mean, I understand why they're just beautiful pieces. And, you know, to have the CAC grading is a huge bonus. What about this one? This one would be... It's a higher grade MS64. This is about an $1,150 coin. Very cool holder. It shows you both sides of the coin. And, of course, the CAC certification. So having the band go around makes it, you know, tamper evident. So if anybody were to swap out the coin or anything, you can tell. That's crazy. Yeah. So they're both over $1,000. Yeah. Yeah. And to think that somebody potentially got these for around that $12.50 market. It's cool. Just shows you that over time, things do appreciate, especially numismatics. Yeah. There's a market for them. Definitely. So it's always good to fact check. Even if you've been told information by people who are like, Oh, yeah, I was alive then. But here we got the original General Services Administration bid form. And you can see the minimum bid for a random year is $15. If you wanted the specific year of 82, 83, or 84, your minimum bid was $30. And then, of course, the 80, the 81, and the 85cc, which are tougher years. They didn't have as many. The minimum bid was $60. $60. Wow. So yeah, they paid $60 for this. So I guess they weren't $12, but also that was just the minimum bid. These could have gone for $100 or even more. Exactly. Yeah. So just so cool to see that. And I hope they find another stash so we can put in some bids. Yeah, that'd be great to get them at that price. But I mean, these are just cool because you hold a piece of history, not only the coin, but also the holder. And you were able to put in those bids, and they're just not making them anymore. And it's something that's very cool to have, for sure. Yeah. Is this something that you would collect? Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. I do collect them. Yeah, they're something that we always like to keep in stock because they're just very popular. What about these other ones over here? These are graded coins that we got in from a collection. Just to show you the variety of stuff, we don't deal with just, you know, U.S. and world coins. We also deal with certified coins as well. No coin really scares us off, I'm sure. Some organ collectors out there already honed in on this one. This is a semi-key date in 1892. In its state 62 grade, this coin is worth several hundred dollars. This was one we offered $425 for, and that's what we got for it. We'll probably retail it for a little bit more than that. Wow, that's a very cool piece. What about these ones over here? And these are commemorative half dollars, the U.S. Mint did commemoratives from about 1892. What they would call the classic commemoratives from 1892 to 1952, I believe. All right, well this was fun. It's always nice to get a little behind the scenes at the coin shop. Some of the different coins, some of the fun stuff, and kind of what you guys do. So I appreciate the insight. Of course, yeah, thank you very much. Good to see you. Good to see you, King Richard.