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What should I collect?
Check out the articles in the Collector Info
section at left for some suggestions.
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What is it worth?
First you need to identify the coin in question.
Then you must identify its condition. Finally you can check out the sources
listed below to get a rough idea of the price. Each coin is different and
these sources seldom agree on price however you can still get a rough idea of
value by researching.
There are many price guides.
The weekly newspaper Coin World
publishes a comprehensive price guide. You need to subscribe to access this
information.
"A Guide Book of United States Coins", commonly
known as the Red Book because of its red cover, has lots of information
including pricing. This book can also help with identification and grading and
is highly recommended as a first coin book. Please check out
Links for a full list of recommended books.
The
Collectors Universe on line price guide.
Collectors Universe is the parent of PCGS. This guide seems to have prices
that are too high on average. However they are freely available and convenient.
The Coin Dealer Newsletter is used by coin dealers. They publish price guides
commonly known as the Grey Sheet for sight seen pricing and the Blue Sheet for
sight unseen pricing. Samples are fairly cheap and can be purchased from their
website: Coin Dealer Newsletter.
A coin is only worth what someone will pay for it. You can research auctions
to find sales of coins that are similar to yours.
EBay allows you
to search completed auctions. Other auction sites also provide information on
completed auctions.
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Are all certified coins of the same grade worth
the same?
Grading companies do NOT use the same standards.
Not all grading companies guarantee their grades. There are several services
that consistently give out high grades. One should never consider labels from
different companies equivalent.
The "Coin Dealer Newsletter", also known as the
Greysheet, ranks several grading services according to average prices coins in
a certain grade bring. They have PCGS and NGC bringing the highest value with
some services bringing well less than half that value.
Some modern proof coins are very valuable if they
have Deep Cameo contrast. We find it painful to watch someone paying huge
prices for a coin that is in a Deep Cameo holder but would never get the PCGS
Deep Cameo or the NGC Ultra Cameo designation. The same thing happens with PR
or MS 70 coins.
We have seen many unscrupulous sellers offer a
high grade coin from a service with low standards and state that this coin is
worth the same as a coin in a PCGS holder. It is almost never worth the same.
There is no Santa Clause in the coin business.
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Do you buy coin collections?
Yes, Carl's Coins buys PCGS certified coins. We
are interested in type coin. We are able to make offers on PCGS Type Registry
set. If you are interested in
selling please contact us to make arrangements.
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Which third party certification services do you
recommend?
In our experience
Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS)
and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation
(NGC) are the most consistent and marketable services. These companies
guarantee their grades. These companies have high standards even though they
are not exactly the same in all series.
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What does "buy the coin, not the holder" really
mean?
While the grading services are very consistent
they are not perfect. Some coins don't fall easily into one particular grade.
Many characteristics contribute to a single grade. Strike, luster, surface
preservation and desirability of any toning all are considered. Some things
might be more important to you than others. So make sure you really like the
coins you are buying.
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What is a coin Registry?
A coin Registry is a web site where you can list
coins from your collection. People sometimes also include photos and/or
descriptions of their coins. The web site ranks sets based on grade and
scarcity. Browsing other people's sets can be interesting and educational.
The
NGC Registry allows collectors to register their NGC and PCGS graded
coins. The PCGS
Registry only accepts PCGS coins.
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What books do you recommend?
"A Guide Book of United States Coins", also known
as The Red Book, is packed full of useful information. It lists all U.S. coins
with mintages and approximate retail values. This is the book to get if you
only buy one.
We also recommend Walter Breen's
"Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins" to more advanced
collectors. Breen goes into detail about varieties.
Krause's "Standard Catalogue of World Coins" is
the must have book if you are interested in World coins.
Please check our
Links page for a more complete list of recommended
books.
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What should I look for when buying coins on
eBay?
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Check the seller's feedback. The seller should
have completed many transactions with close to perfect feedback.
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Check the return policy. Never buy a coin that
you can't return if you don't like it. Photos help but are no substitute for
seeing the coin in person.
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Look closely at the photographs. If they are very
small or blurry it is reasonable to assume the seller is trying to hide
something. Don't bid if there are no photographs.
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Check out the shipping costs. Add them to your
max bid. That is what the coin really costs.
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My holders are scratched, how can I fix that?
You can send coins back to the grading services
to be put in new holders. However it is much easier and cheaper to buy Brasso,
a brass polish, and use that. It is easy and works very well. Brasso is
available at your local supermarket.
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Is there an easy to remove sticky
residue from labels?
Many coin dealers
stick labels on coin slabs to keep track of them. Sometimes a sticky residue
is left after you peel off the label. A product named Goo Gone really works
well for removing this residue. I highly recommend it.
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What does PQ mean?
PQ stands for Premium Quality. Some people use that term to mean coins that
are high end for their grade. Others seem to call everything they sell PQ so
the term sometimes seems overused.
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Can two coins of the same grade
look different?
Yes, absolutely. A grade is
really a single number that describes several characteristics of each side of
a coin. We look for coins that have better than average eye appeal for their
grade. This does not necessarily mean they are upgrade candidates, just that
they look really nice.
How do you photograph coins?
I have a digital camera that takes good close up (macro) photos. A solid, non
moveable support is required. I use a tri-pod, many others use copy stands. I
have many different lights to experiment with. Some lights work better with
some types of coins. I find indirect sunlight to work well for colorful toned
coins. For accurate photos you need to get the white balance set right on your
camera.
How do you prepare coin
photographs for display on the web?
Beginning photographers find their photos are of different sizes, usually not
the desired size. The photo files are huge and take a long time to download.
So photos need to be cropped, sized and then compressed. I use
Adobe Photoshop
.
Photoshop Elements contains all the features necessary to do the job. You may
have different software that might have come with your camera.
First crop out all but the coin. Next size the image. Finally save the file in
JPG format. When saving you should have a choice about how much you would like
to compress the file. I choose about %60 or medium. This reduces a file of
several hundred thousand bytes to 50K or so.
Experiment and have fun!
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