Selling my coin collection

[D Rusak]

So,

I'm broke and living at my parents' house. I stumbled upon my old coin collection.

Much of it is not worth much, but there are some older coins, some of which have silver content. Kennedy half dollars, various pennies and nickels and dimes, a couple of complete proof sets, etc.

Now, I am strapped for cash right now, but it seems to me that perhaps I should save the few silver content coins I have and not sell them? They would be handy as they are reasonably small denominations, easily traded. I am guessing the silver price is only going to go up. For example, the 1964 kennedy is probably worth around $12 right based on silver content/weight. It's not costing me anything to acquire these either, they are already here.

Or, should I sell them all now to help with bills in the present as I am working to get myself out of my current situation? It's not going to be a huge amount probably but anything helps at this point for me.

I would appreciate some thoughts.

 

[Laura]

So,

I'm broke and living at my parents' house.

What kind of work do you normally do? What is the general situation?

 

[Cosmos]

So,

I'm broke and living at my parents' house. I stumbled upon my old coin collection.

Much of it is not worth much, but there are some older coins, some of which have silver content. Kennedy half dollars, various pennies and nickels and dimes, a couple of complete proof sets, etc.

Now, I am strapped for cash right now, but it seems to me that perhaps I should save the few silver content coins I have and not sell them? They would be handy as they are reasonably small denominations, easily traded. I am guessing the silver price is only going to go up. For example, the 1964 kennedy is probably worth around $12 right based on silver content/weight. It's not costing me anything to acquire these either, they are already here.

Or, should I sell them all now to help with bills in the present as I am working to get myself out of my current situation? It's not going to be a huge amount probably but anything helps at this point for me.

I would appreciate some thoughts.

have you researched the virtu of the coins ?
I mean for some rar coins, collectors pay a lot of money !

 

[Nević Nenad]

So,

I'm broke and living at my parents' house. I stumbled upon my old coin collection.

Much of it is not worth much, but there are some older coins, some of which have silver content. Kennedy half dollars, various pennies and nickels and dimes, a couple of complete proof sets, etc.

Now, I am strapped for cash right now, but it seems to me that perhaps I should save the few silver content coins I have and not sell them? They would be handy as they are reasonably small denominations, easily traded. I am guessing the silver price is only going to go up. For example, the 1964 kennedy is probably worth around $12 right based on silver content/weight. It's not costing me anything to acquire these either, they are already here.

Or, should I sell them all now to help with bills in the present as I am working to get myself out of my current situation? It's not going to be a huge amount probably but anything helps at this point for me.

I would appreciate some thoughts.

If you count amount of precious metals in the coins, I must say, they are worthless like that. Any amount of precious metals in coins are too small for that. But as Pashalis said, do some research for the coins that you have. Maybe some of them could worth some serious money, even if they are new. "New and old" logic don't works for coins and stamps.

I don't want to offend you or something like that, but this:

So,

I'm broke and living at my parents' house.

Sounds little bit dramatic :) Like it is something bad. I don't know what kind of people your parents are, but if you have place to sleep, and you are not hungry, it cant be bad. Money will find its way to you ;)

 

[D Rusak]

Okay.

The work that I have been doing is teaching and performing music. I decided to try my luck in a new city since I was pretty frustrated with the situation in my old one. See this thread http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=21380.0 for details, I'm sure I may have been a little melodramatic but I tried to account things as truthfully as I saw it.

I ran out of money and after applying for literally 1,000's of jobs I had just enough to get to my parents' house, so I went back. They weren't super keen on having me stay there but it's not a total disaster, and they said I can stay here (with my cat) as I am getting back on my feet. I'm applying for some jobs and while I don't have anything in stone yet, it LOOKS as though I might pick up a paper route. Otherwise nothing yet but I've only been here 1.5 weeks. I have gigs lined up too. Still there is pressure on me to start contributing to the household and have a plan to get out of here ASAP. That's been made clear and of course I want to help out and eventually take care of myself.

I also have experience in other things like office work of various varieties, odd jobs, personal assistant work, waitressing, and recently, modeling. Also I have a mostly unused environmental geology background. I haven't had any success getting a job in that though. It seems it will be a little easier here to find work though than my old city.

I am just calculating how much the collection is worth, it's not a huge amount. Currently maybe $2-300, maybe more. But that is big to me, will cover car insurance and gas so I can get around and keep applying for jobs. No, I'm not going to be on the street but it is a big deal.

Even the amount in small coins is a bit. Say a silver dime right now is worth 3-4. Obviously it's not going to buy you a house but maybe a smaller denomination would be quite useful in a post-collapse society.

After writing this I think I will at least sell this one coin which is worth over $100 by itself, it will really help.

 

[Avi]

Hi D Rusak,

You might look into teaching english online? I have been about as frustrated as you are in terms of work that I want to do and enjoy and can make decent money at, but in the meantime have recently started teaching english online.

The pay is decent, though nowhere near what I am used to.

May be something to look into.

Cheers.

 

[D Rusak]

I did actually just look into this! My good friend taught kids in Korea online (between 4-8am, but I would do it! ). I sent in an application to her boss two days ago so am keeping my fingers crossed. If it works out I can let you know the information for the company, I'm not clear on everything myself yet.

I also wrote to a friend in Japan who is teaching English at a school. If he could somehow set me up with something, I would move there (I think they might have even paid for his flight). We'll see anyway.

 

[meta-agnostic]

Hi D Rusak,

One site I have found useful when considering matters of this type is http://www.coinflation.com/

It's not necessarily going to help resolve tough dilemmas about what to sell and what not to, but it does give a general perspective about what base metal and precious metal coins are worth, and often has useful articles linked from it. The guy who runs it regularly tracks the prices of silver, gold, copper, nickel and zinc and it has the values of each of the coins calculated based on their metal content and current metal prices. Right now, at least based on the Comex silver price, a 90% silver half dollar is worth about $12.90 and a silver dime is worth a little over $2.50.

Of course this does not take into account the numismatic value of any of the coins, which could be considerably higher. I have no idea what is going to happen (other than I'm pretty sure silver still has further up to go), but I'm guessing that when things really start to unravel, numismatic value of coins is not going to be considered all that important. Maybe in the far distant future as evidence of some past civilization, but I doubt any of us will be in these incarnations long enough to be concerned about that.

My suggestion would be to find out what coins carry a numismatic premium and sell those if you must. Probably a good idea to hang onto a few silver coins for their bullion value if possible. If you have silver coins that carry a high enough numismatic premium, you could even consider selling them, using the profit to buy a non-numismatic equivalent amount of bullion, and using the difference for the plans you are making.

It's tough to be in a situation to have to sell precious metal coins right now as this looks like it will be a very volatile year for metal prices. But if you look at what you have and take into account both the numismatic and metal value, you can likely make some informed decisions. And as coinflation.com suggests, hang onto your copper pennies and nickels unless/until you can get away with selling them at melt value! ;D

 

[D Rusak]

Yes, this seems like a good plan and what I am thinking. Some of my later coins (silver coins in 50s 60s and some earlier silver dimes) are not worth much numismatically so I think I will hold on to them. One half dollar is over 100 years old and worth a lot. Also some buffalo nickels seem to be worth a bit but have no silver content, might as well sell them now. Same for some coin sets that are basically their value now and not silver. I will be looking for jobs in the city tomorrow and know two places I can stop in. Armed with an idea of prices hopefully I will do ok.

 

[Avi]

I did actually just look into this! My good friend taught kids in Korea online (between 4-8am, but I would do it! ). I sent in an application to her boss two days ago so am keeping my fingers crossed. If it works out I can let you know the information for the company, I'm not clear on everything myself yet.

I also wrote to a friend in Japan who is teaching English at a school. If he could somehow set me up with something, I would move there (I think they might have even paid for his flight). We'll see anyway.

:P

No need as that is what I am doing. The company I am working for is called speakcare and the students are Korean, either University students or working professionals. Apparently in Korea there is a lot of consideration given to the level of your English and so if you are native and want to get promoted a lot will be dependent upon your test scores, i.e. the TOEIC or OPIC. (these can be looked up online for anyone interested in the details)

However, unfortunately, ;) the hours (shifts) are either sparrow fart, which means 5 am to 10 am or a much more reasonable hour for someone like me, 4 to 8 pm, EST. That does not mean you work the entire shift as it is dependent upon the students and which time they elect for taking the courses. So far (and bear in mind I am relatively new at this) I've only had 2 out of a 4 hour shift filled, but it has been two hours straight so there is no gap at least.
You are paid for contact hours as well, so no students means no check. But I dont think that is a problem, just bear in mind that it is not likely to become rich doing something like this. But, it is SOMETHING and I am grateful.

I aim to eventually be doing both shifts (butt crack of dawn be damned!) and then would have a nice break in between for doing my reading, walking, breathing and hopefully, someday, writing! Major mental obstacles when it comes to this and I am not sure why.

Anyways, glad you heard of it and keep us informed!

 

[Mr.Anderson]

It doesn't sound like you are going to solve much by selling some coins. I would hold on to them until silver makes a huge jump. Hang in there.

 

[Pierre]

My suggestion would be to find out what coins carry a numismatic premium and sell those if you must. Probably a good idea to hang onto a few silver coins for their bullion value if possible.

It sounds like a good plan. If the crisis worsens the numismatic value should drop because more and more people will have to sell their coin collection. Meanwhile, the price for precious metal should rise.

So, it might be a good idea to sell the coins that have numismatic value and keep the ones that are made of precious metal.

 

[OneSoul]

I have to agree with the suggestions others have offered to hang on to your coins if at all possible, D Rusak. I've been following and involved in these markets for years, and it's pretty clear that for the shorter- to mid-term they will be increasing in dollar value, while the artificial constructs ( euro, dollar, ... ) slowly collapse.

Anything happening after a system-wide problem - people waking up to the illusion that paper money is worth anything at all! - and your small denomination silver coins will be exchangeable for foods, etc., though that will probably happen in a volatile environment. As meta-agnostic has suggested, I'd maybe sell the numismatic-value coins if anything. In the meantime pursue whatever productive work you can!