AboutMyCoinWhere can I sell my coins?
Bulk silver and gold go to a bullion dealer, who prices them off the metal in one calculation. Collectable coins go to a coin shop, a coin show, an auction house or an online marketplace, and which of those pays best depends on how much the coin is worth and how long you are willing to wait.
Splitting the pile first
Metal and collectables are sold to different people for different reasons, and mixing them means one of the two gets priced by somebody who does not want it. Separate anything silver or gold using the tests in how can I tell if a coin is silver, then work through the rest for dates and mint marks.
This step is also your protection. A buyer offering one number for a mixed box is pricing the box at the value of its worst coin and keeping whatever is better than that.
Selling metal to a bullion dealer
Bullion dealers buy by weight against the day’s spot price, quote on the spot and pay immediately. They have no interest in the date on the coin, which makes them fast and makes them the wrong buyer for anything with a premium. Bring the melt value figure with you so the quote can be checked in your head.
Two quotes are worth the extra hour. Bullion buying is competitive and the difference between two shops in one town is real money on a jar of silver.
Four routes for collectables
A local coin shop is the fastest and pays the least, which is a fair trade for cash today and no fees. A coin show puts twenty dealers in one room competing for the same coin, and it is the best place to sell mid-value material without waiting.
An auction house suits a coin worth enough to carry the commission and the months it takes, because a room of collectors bidding against each other is the only mechanism that reliably finds the top of the market. An online marketplace reaches the most buyers of all, and it hands you the work: photographs, grading claims you are answerable for, postage, and the risk of a chargeback.
What to have ready
The date and mint mark of every coin worth more than its metal, the melt figure for everything that is not, and photographs of both sides under a single light source. Coins in inert holders, handled by the edge. Nothing cleaned, for the reason in does cleaning a coin reduce its value.
And a number in your head before the first conversation. How much can I sell my coin for covers what a realistic offer looks like, and the coin value catalogue is where to get the floor for each coin you are taking.
Related questions
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.