Old Silver Dollars and Half Dollars - Help Needed

[moozak]

my father is almost 85 years old. i went to visit him recently and he asked me to go down in the basement and open up some old safe he had in the corner. it took me a while because the combination was written down a long time ago and somewhat faded. now, i know my father quite well and i know he sometimes puts a lot of value on things that are not really worth a lot... but i was shocked to see a lot of old coins in the safe. in fact, i filled a plastic bucket full of the things and brought them upstairs to him. he told me to take them home and thought they might be worth around $200 dollars.

when i got home and started searching through the bucket... i found at least 150 to 200 old morgan silver dollars... some as far back as 1880. i probably have at least that many half dollars from the same time period.

there are a number of other smaller, quite tarnished pieces as well... but i am mostly intruiged by the silver dollars and silver half dollars.

not knowing much about coins... what should i do here? i need to establish some sort of a value of these things.

does anyone have any suggestions for me? any coin collectors here?

[newking70]

go to a coin dealer?

[Lawn Jockey]

Coin collector here.

Depending on condition........rarity of the mint......and the date......you could be sitting pretty.

I'd go to a site like Heritage (http://coins.ha.com/) and compare prices.......mint to mint....date to date. There are also books (yearly) that give fairly accurate pricing. I'd also check completed auctions on eBay.......again......by mint/mint and date/date. You'll have to estimate condition (grade).

The Morgans are commonly found in grades above MS-62......the halves are all over the place. Don't discount the "smaller tarnished" coins either. If they are US minted coins........they *could* be worth quite a bit.

Whatever you do.........don't attempt to clean them.

Good luck......and report back.

[whitehall]

Go to one or two coin places buying silver. I did this same thing about 6 months ago. I think silver was higher then. I got about 9 times face value for my coins. And I kept a lot of them. The books are pretty worthless. The dealers are just like pawn shops. They deal in grm weight , hardly ever rarity. If you have anything truly rare put it on ebay. Just like guitars, you have a Gibson selling for 2 grand on ebay... they offer you 1100. Everyone has to make a living. Some worthless things ...Ike dollars are worth.. a dollar. Only the really early Kennedy halfs are worth money.

[Lawn Jockey]

I'll respectfully disagree with whitehall concerning the Ike's......or even Franklin halves.

I have several of each that are worth in excess of $500.00 each.

When it gets down to it........if the rarity is there.......there IS a market for it. If they are run of the mill mints/dates.....and the condition is poor......then I agree with whitehall.

That said........most all Morgans will bring more than their scrap price.

Another word of advice.....if you know absolutely NOTHING about coins......don't take them to a dealer for a quote. Most of those guys are worse than a used car salesman....and will cherry pick your pieces....plus you won't get what the coin is worth. Take your time and research the coin(s)......know what you've got before venturing in to a coin shop.

[moozak]

lawn jockey...

here's a quote from the webpage you suggested i go to...

Be on the lookout for the 1889-CC, 1893-S, 1894, and 1895. These four dates carry a nice premiums in all grades if you have one. Certain other dates will also carry premiums in any grade, such as any dollar dated 1893 or 1895 regardless of mint, 1903-O, and any dollar with a CC mintmark. 1921 and 1928 Peace Dollars with no mintmark also bring premiums in any grade

just doing a rough inspection, i do have some silver dollars that fit into several of the categories above. i'm certainly intrigued... thanks for your help!

i haven't even really started looking at anything else yet... only the silver dollars. my father has some in plastic tubes... some in plastic sheets (of which some have fallen out of). he has tried to categorize some. should i just bag all that and try to start by simply arrange them by dates alone?... or something like that?

worth anything or not... you gotta admit... it's pretty cool to hold a silver dollar from the 1800's (i've been using gloves... don't know if that's correct or not either).

[Lawn Jockey]

lawn jockey...

here's a quote from the webpage you suggested i go to...

Be on the lookout for the 1889-CC, 1893-S, 1894, and 1895. These four dates carry a nice premiums in all grades if you have one. Certain other dates will also carry premiums in any grade, such as any dollar dated 1893 or 1895 regardless of mint, 1903-O, and any dollar with a CC mintmark. 1921 and 1928 Peace Dollars with no mintmark also bring premiums in any grade

just doing a rough inspection, i do have some silver dollars that fit into several of the categories above. i'm certainly intrigued... thanks for your help.

i haven't even really started looking at anything else yet... only the silver dollars. my father has some in plastic tubes... some in plastic sheets (of which some have fallen out of). he has tried to categorize some. should i just bag all that and try to start by simply arrange them by dates alone?... or something like that?

Unless they are already worn....I wouldn't bag them together. That will scar them even further thus lowering the grade.

You may well be surprised......one or two of those Morgans *may* be worth a considerable sum.

I would sort them out (somehow) by type, date, and mint mark. Then after that is done.......sort by your estimation of condition. Then start your research to see what the real world actual selling prices for the coin is.

Good luck........it's fun.