[ Identifying a Coin ] [ Grading Coins ] [ Coin Prices ] [ Altered States ] [ Grading Mint State Coins ]
In the resource center, you will find useful articles and links that will help you with your coin collecting. We hope to help you understand how coins are valued, what grading is all about and a bit about the history of your coins.
One question that is often asked is what is my coin worth? There are several questions that will need to be answered to determine the value of your coin.
First a little bit about terminology. The front of the coin is referred to as the 'obverse'. The back of the coin is called the 'reverse'. The flat surfaces are called 'fields' and the images are referred to as 'devices'. The 'grade' refers to the condition of the coin. To some point, there are hard and fast rules that will qualify a coin for a certain grade. In the higher grades, the lines become hazy and are subject to interpretation and opinions.
The date of the coin can be found on the obverse, usually under the devices. The exception to this is the new State Quarters, where the date is on the reverse.
To start find the year your coin was minted. Next identify the type of coin. Is it a penny or a silver dollar? If you can determine the condition of the coin. Is the date visible? Are the surfaces flat and worn?
If possible, the denomination of the coin will be needed. This will normally be found on the reverse of the coin with the exception of the State Quarter, where it's shown on the obverse. Also note the Mint mark. If there is none, it was probably minted in Philadelphia. This will narrow down our search when looking for the coin. We can use the date and just search each category until we find the picture that matches our coin. While this could be a lot of fun, it would be a bit time consuming. Now that I think about it.that is how I do it ;)
With these three pieces of information, we could get a feel for what our coin is worth. Let's assume we have a silver dollar with a date of 1884. We would pop over to Coin Universe's web site and use their Coin Guide. Looking for the date of our silver dollar, we find that it is a Morgan Silver dollar and that these were minted from 1878 through 1921.
Next, we can go to the pricing pages and try to determine a value for the coin. A silver dollar minted in 1888 would prove to be a Morgan Silver Dollar and it would be valued from $11 to $150, assuming it was minted in Philadelphia as it doesn't have a mint mark. That is quite a variance so we'll need to narrow this down, or we could assume it's worth $150 dollars and go to sleep happy with our find!
Now comes the fun part.grading. To some degree, there are certain standards that are followed when grading a coin. The American Numismatics Association (ANA) has a set of standards that I like to use. Review these to determine the grade of your coin.
Additional grades that will be of interest are the Uncirculated Choice (MS65) which shows no trace of wear except for a few surface mars. The Uncirculated Perfect (MS70) grade is only given to coins found to be Flawless.
To add to the confusion, additional terms are often used. Brilliant Uncirculated or Uncirculated refers to coins that grade from Mint State 60 (MS60) to Mint State 62 (MS62). Choice BU refers to coins graded MS63 to MS64. GEM BU coins are graded MS65 to MS66. Superb BU refers to coins graded MS67.
Now we can get a better feel for the price of our 1884 Morgan. It definitely shows at least light wear but all the features are sharp. It is probably an Extremely Fine (XF, EF) or Very Fine (VF) grade. This would place the value of the coin at $11 to $12 based on Coin Universe's price list. With a little extra work we could determine whether the coin is an AU, which would be worth $15 but that's another story.
