A.C. Dwyer's Coin Stories

News, Stories, Pricing, and Information for Coin Collectors

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Coin Prices
 
 

Free Price Guides

 

PCGS Price Guide

The nice thing about the Professional Coin Grading Service's (PCGS) Price Guide is that it doesn't require you to register with them before allowing you to access it. I also like how it is organized by coin type making it quick and easy to look up your coin. The one thing I think would improve this guide is to include prices for all the grades, such as AU-58. AU-55 is the highest circulated grade that I have found in the guide.

 

Numismedia FMV Price Guide

What I really like about the Numismedia FMV Price Guide is that it has prices for all the grades and not just a select group. If you are a member of the NGC Registry, you have access to this guide through NGC's site. However, you can also access this guide for free by clicking on the link above.

 

Free Auction Archives

 

Heritage Auction Galleries

Of all the auction archives, Heritage is the king! If you have certified coins in your collection, then the Heritage archives are the best tool out there for keeping track of the market for your coins. The best part is the archives are free. But to view prices, you must first register with them (it's free too).

 

Teletrade

If it's certified lower grade rare coins or more modern U.S. coins that you collect, then Teletrade has the archives you want. While Heritage is king for rare coins, Teletrade takes the crown if it's an Eisenhower dollar or state quarter your interested in. Free registration opens up the full archives to you including prices realized.

 

Stack's

One nice thing about Stack's archives is that it doesn't take any registration to view the prices realized. Although I would rate Stack's archives second to Heritage for certified coins, they are clearly number one if you are interested in raw coins.  They also put out some of the best auction catalogs that are better than most coin books and the top rate Numismatic Sun magazine. You can ask for a free trial subscription to the catalogs or a free sample copy of the Numismatic Sun.

Valuing Coins using Price Guides

A recent price guide is an easy and convenient way to quickly look up your coin and determine its value. Right?

Unfortunately it's not so simple. Read more . . .  

How much is my pile of pre-1965 90% silver coins worth?

 

Are you like the millions of Americans that have old silver coins stashed away somewhere? My wife has old dimes, quarters, and half dollars taking up space in our safety deposit box. Nothing rare - just 90% silver. So what is it all worth? 

Read more . . .

  

What you need to know before you buy or sell your coins via an auction! 

 

While I'll admit that some people have profited handsomely from the rise in values of their rare coins in recent years, I believe the rare coin market favors the people that market, auction, and deal in rare coins. The average collector (and I am including investors when I use the term "collector") is at the mercy of these people.

Many collectors don't take into consideration all of the costs and fees that are going to take a bite out of the value of their collection. You must think of rare coin collecting as investing in a mutual fund with a very large front-end load, 12b-1 fees, and a very large back-end load. My purpose with this article is to look at some of these fees as they relate to building a rare coin collection and how you can minimize or even eliminate some of them.
Read more . . .