How much can I sell my coin for?

The short answer

Less than the coin is worth, because whoever buys it has to resell it and the gap between the two prices is their income. On a coin valued for its metal the gap is narrow and predictable; on a collectable coin it depends on how quickly the buyer can find the next owner.

Value against offer

A value is what a coin is worth in a completed sale between a willing buyer and a willing seller. An offer is what somebody will hand you today for the right to go and find that buyer themselves. The difference pays for their time, their premises, their capital and the risk that the coin does not sell.

This is not a coin-trade peculiarity; it is how every dealt market works, and it is the reason a price guide and a cheque never match. Knowing the value is still what protects you, because it is the only thing that makes an offer judgeable.

Coins valued for metal

Here the arithmetic is close to fixed. The buyer is reselling to a refiner or to another stacker at a known price, so the offer sits a predictable step below melt value, and the step narrows as the quantity rises. A jar of junk silver is priced in one multiplication and settled in minutes.

The step moves with the metal market, so no fixed figure holds for long. Work out the melt figure first, ask two buyers, and let the difference between their answers tell you what the going rate is this week.

Collectable coins

The spread is wider and far less predictable, because the buyer is taking a view on how long the coin sits in a case. A common date in a common grade is slow, and the offer reflects it. A coin that a dealer already has a customer for is quick, and the offer reflects that too.

Two things narrow the spread more than haggling does: knowing the date and mint mark you actually hold, and having the grade settled by someone whose opinion the buyer accepts. Should I get my coin graded covers when that is worth paying for.

Getting a number you can trust

Get more than one offer, in the same week, on the same coin, and do not tell the second buyer what the first said. Two independent numbers on one coin tell you more about the market than any published guide, because they are what somebody will actually pay rather than what somebody else paid for a different example.

Then decide where to sell, which is a separate question with a different answer for metal and for collectables: where can I sell my coins. Start from the coin’s own page in the coin value catalogue so you arrive knowing the floor.

More on selling coins

Nobody pays what a coin is worth, and knowing why is what makes an offer judgeable.

Selling Coins collects every question on this topic in one place.

Not an appraisal. AboutMyCoin estimates from published specifications and does not authenticate or grade coins.

All common questions