Your Old Coins Could be Valuable

Have you ever wondered if any of those old coins you’ve had around for years might be valuable? It’s very possible that you could have some coins worth a great deal more than their face value, but you’ll need a magnifying glass to find out. There are several reasons why coins become valuable over the years and the value is found in the fine details. Sometimes errors occur when the coins are being created and coins with errors that make it into circulation are valuable. Of course, some types of errors are worth more than others.

There is actually a coin collector’s club created especially for coins with errors. It’s called CONECA, which stands for Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America, and it has been around since 1983. Once you find a few coins with errors, you’ll be able to contact CONECA to find out their current value and who might be interested in purchasing them. It only takes a few minutes to look for coin errors with a good magnifying tool. First, sort your coins into pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Then, look for doubling or anything that seems different about a coin.

Check to see if any letters are missing or doubled. The date and mintmark are especially important. Along with a good magnifier, you may want to invest in some reference books on error coins. Some excellent choices are “The Official Price Guide to Mint Errors,” by Alan Herbert and “Strike it Rich with Pocket Change,” by Ken Potter and Brian Allen. These books contain illustrations, showing exactly what errors to look for in close-up detail. The second book makes clear which specific coins you’ll want to search for.