Hello everyone! I am new to coin collecting but thought it would be a great hobby since I am 100% disabled from the Iraq War. My grandfather passed away a month ago and left me with his entire coin collection. I honestly haven no idea what to do with any of it other than hold onto it nor do I have any understanding what the grading means (MS 65, 66,67 etc.) I currently have (5) 1972 proof sets from the U.S. Mint, unopened with the original tape and seals in a blue mint box from the Department of Treasury, an 1890 Morgan Silver Dollar w/error (but have no idea where the error might be or what it would look like, only that it was mentioned in the will), (4) Certified Peace Dollars graded MS 67, and a bright 1901-O Morgan Silver Dollar, VAM-3 error. A friend of mine who knows a little bit about coins told me to never open the box even though the Certificate from PCGS said that the Coin sets have a potential value of $1,875,000 if errors and/or cameos were found. (btw, what is a cameo?) anyway, now that I have the box what do i do with it? If i open it will I lose whatever value it has or had? Or should I just leave it sealed and let it collect dust? Any information concerning this would be great. Thank you.
Before you do anything, if any coins looks "dusty" or dirty, always ask advice and don't attempt to clean it unless we specifically tell you to do so! You do seem to have something neat but I don't really know much about US coinage. Wait around and someone will come around telling you a better value. Welcome to cointalk by the way
To start off with, your 72 proof sets are worth very little. Dealer Grey sheet bid is $3.25 each and usually dealers only pay half of that. Just no demand for that stuff. Just sits and collects dust. There is no recorded 1890 Morgan Dollar error coin. It may be a fake. You can take it to your local dealer and get an opinion there. If it is, for some chance, and error coin, it will need to be certified by a professional grading service, we only recommend 3. PCGS, NGC, and ICG. Your ms67 cert. Peace dollars..depends on who certified it and dates. 1901-O Morgan dollar is a common date. Not sure what box you are talking about not opening either so not sure what to say about that one. Cameo mean the coin had a more frosted finish on the head. Hope that helps
I'll second that. My recommendation is to get a redbook from the library. Doesn't have to be current as your purpose is to 1: learn about the coins and 2: to get an idea if any of the coins you have stand out in value. While an out of date redbook won't give you current values (even a current book becomes out of date quickly), you will be able to see which ones are valuable by looking at the value listed relative to the other coins of similar date/mintmark. When you start going through this collection and you come across something that stumps you, feel free to start a thread specific to that coin. Starting a thread to tries to address the entire collection or entire swaths of coins will get you general advice and not help you as much with learning about the specific coins. Good Luck and welcome to the hobby.
Sorry to hear about your grandfather. For the mint sets you can always look on ebay and heritage to see what certified 72 coins actually sell for. Plus you can check ANACs, PCGS, ICG and NGC to see what it would cost to get them graded. I have not looked to see what MS 1972 coins sell for, but with a little more knowledge you could open the sets to see if any are worth the grading fees. Never pay attention to what PCGS says the prices are - look at realize auctions. As for MS it stands mint state - then depending on bag marks, mint luster, etc. on what they coins might grade. If I was you - for now I would leave them closed and learn more. Feel free to ask more questions. As for the Peace and morgan dollars if you can post pictures people could give you an idea of what they grade. Enjoy the coins and Welcome to the forum!
You should be able to get full bid for most modern mint products if you're patient. Arizona Coin and Jewel is usually buying this sort of thing. There is a premium for unopened boxes but the premium for the '72 isn't very high. These are hard to resist the temptation to open. I don't even try to resist. Cameo is caused by sandblasting of the details and lettering. The sufaces will be smooth and the high points will look like a frost or snow is on it. Don't get too excited if yours have the frost since this isn't rare on the '72's. If a coin is near perfect and has heavy frost on both sides it's worth a premium.
My first question is What is this "Certificate from PCGS" that claims the coins could have a value over 1.8 million dollars? PCGS, the grading service anyway, does NOT issue any such kind of certificate. So if there really is a certificate that says that it is worthless. As mentioned the typical 1972 proof set is worth VERY little. Yes it is possible that you might be luck enough to have a coin in one of the sets that could be certified at PCGS as a PF-70 with major cameo contrast between the devices and the mirror fields, and that coin could be very valuable. The problem is your chance is about the same as being struck by lightning. That 1.8 million dollar figure comes from the assumption that all 25 coins in those set will be one of those "Struck by lightning" coins. Your chances are better at winning two consecutive $300 million dollar lotteries. The 1890 we really can't say anything about until we know what the "error" is. Cladking said there are no reported errors for 1890, but I'm sure he is wrong on that. What he probably means is that there are no major high value varieties reported for that year. But by "error" whoever had it could be referring to a die crack, die chip, clash marks, clipped planchet, partial collar or one of many other possibilities. None of these would be a "reported" error. It could also refer to a VAM variety. (known identified die varieties are referred to by VAM numbers which is a catalog system created by Leroy Van Allen and George Mallis) Some people mistakenly refer to VAM varieties as errors which they are not. The Peace dollars can't be evaluated without knowing the dates, mints, and which grading company certified them. Cladking, the box he is referring to is the unopened mint shipping box of five 1972 proof sets. The 1972 coins, until they have been examined are worth just the wholesale value for the sets, $3.75 each. As an unopened box you might get a little more from speculators who like to be the first person to ever have a chance to examine them. Maybe as much as $5 or $6 a set or $30 for the unopened box on eBay. So if you decide to see for yourself whether or not you MIGHT have a more valuable coin in the box you are risking about $10 opening the box. Be forewarned though that if you do think you have a good coin once you open the box, it will cost you between $15 and $30 per coin (Fees and shipping) for any you want to send in and have certified. And if they DON"T come back at the very top grade, they will most likely be worth less than what you paid to have them certified.
