Anyone who has spent a number of years collecting rare coins has a high likelihood of what I refer to as ‘found money’ in their holdings. What I mean by found money’ is that there are things that you can do to your coins to improve their appearance and value. Here are some suggestions:
Send Your Coins to CAC
CAC is considered to be a very important factor in the upper segment of the market. CAC coins tend to command an attractive premium and I believe a coin with a CAC sticker is considerably more marketable. It is very inexpensive to submit a coin to CAC, with typical costs between $10 and $20 per item. When you submit your coins to CAC you get the added advantage of having an expert (John Albanese) take a look at them for very little cost. Before committing to sending all of your coins to CAC, try sending a small number of your best coins and see if you get CAC approval on all of them. If you do you can be fairly sure you are doing something right. If two or three of them get turned down then I would be looking for a new dealer.
Attribute Your Coins
A date collector of early half eagles would be well served by buying the Bass-Dannreuther book on early gold and attributing coins to BD’ numbers. If you get really lucky you may find a very rare die variety among your coins. This doesn’t necessarily mean an instant financial upgrade, unlike it might if it were part of a series of Large cents or Bust half dollars which are highly collectible by variety. I am sure you would far rather not read about some lucky collector stumbling upon an extremely rare variety of 1806 half eagle, and would instead prefer you get to enjoy the potential financial upgrade.
Pedigree Your Coins
Having a pedigree can greatly improve the value of a coin that once was part of a famous collection such as those of Eliasberg, Garrett, Norweb or Bass. While some of the coins that came from these collections are likely to have been clearly marked on the NGC or PCGS insert, there are many more, possibly in the hundreds, that for one reason or another no longer have their pedigree. A good move on your part would be to purchase catalogs from all of the major auctions that specialize in your area of interest and take some time to search through them. While there is a possibility that your coin(s) do not look the same as they did in an earlier sale you may be able to trace them if they have an obvious mark. If you find you have a coin that you believe you can easily prove the pedigree of, photocopy the page of the catalog and send it along with the coin to PCGS or NGC.
Reslab Your Coins
Please take note that I the word I used is reslab’ and not regrade’. Regrading is a totally different subject and for the most part is not relevant to this article. When I refer to reslabbing’ what I am referring to is upgrading the presentation of your coins by removing them from those scuffed, worn or dull holders and place them in new ones. You wouldn’t consider selling your house without first giving it a top-to-bottom thorough clean in order for it to present well. I am just suggesting that in order for your coins to look their best you do the same thing, only by putting them in attractive fresh slabs where they will look better.
Create a Cult of Personality
Some collectors become easily recognized and well-known because of what they collect, some because they spend seven figures on coins. Others’ fame comes from having articles and / or books published on their particular specialty.
A collector who has put in considerable time and effort to be seen as an authority on a particular type of coins certainly will find selling his own collection of coins far easier than a collector who is not known within the coin collecting community. This is equally true of those collectors on the NGC and PCGS Message Board. Being perceived as a great collector is much easier to achieve than it was before the Internet.
These five tips are just a few of many that I have. I am sure you have some suggestions and I would enjoy hearing them.
Send Your Coins to CAC
CAC is considered to be a very important factor in the upper segment of the market. CAC coins tend to command an attractive premium and I believe a coin with a CAC sticker is considerably more marketable. It is very inexpensive to submit a coin to CAC, with typical costs between $10 and $20 per item. When you submit your coins to CAC you get the added advantage of having an expert (John Albanese) take a look at them for very little cost. Before committing to sending all of your coins to CAC, try sending a small number of your best coins and see if you get CAC approval on all of them. If you do you can be fairly sure you are doing something right. If two or three of them get turned down then I would be looking for a new dealer.
Attribute Your Coins
A date collector of early half eagles would be well served by buying the Bass-Dannreuther book on early gold and attributing coins to BD’ numbers. If you get really lucky you may find a very rare die variety among your coins. This doesn’t necessarily mean an instant financial upgrade, unlike it might if it were part of a series of Large cents or Bust half dollars which are highly collectible by variety. I am sure you would far rather not read about some lucky collector stumbling upon an extremely rare variety of 1806 half eagle, and would instead prefer you get to enjoy the potential financial upgrade.
Pedigree Your Coins
Having a pedigree can greatly improve the value of a coin that once was part of a famous collection such as those of Eliasberg, Garrett, Norweb or Bass. While some of the coins that came from these collections are likely to have been clearly marked on the NGC or PCGS insert, there are many more, possibly in the hundreds, that for one reason or another no longer have their pedigree. A good move on your part would be to purchase catalogs from all of the major auctions that specialize in your area of interest and take some time to search through them. While there is a possibility that your coin(s) do not look the same as they did in an earlier sale you may be able to trace them if they have an obvious mark. If you find you have a coin that you believe you can easily prove the pedigree of, photocopy the page of the catalog and send it along with the coin to PCGS or NGC.
Reslab Your Coins
Please take note that I the word I used is reslab’ and not regrade’. Regrading is a totally different subject and for the most part is not relevant to this article. When I refer to reslabbing’ what I am referring to is upgrading the presentation of your coins by removing them from those scuffed, worn or dull holders and place them in new ones. You wouldn’t consider selling your house without first giving it a top-to-bottom thorough clean in order for it to present well. I am just suggesting that in order for your coins to look their best you do the same thing, only by putting them in attractive fresh slabs where they will look better.
Create a Cult of Personality
Some collectors become easily recognized and well-known because of what they collect, some because they spend seven figures on coins. Others’ fame comes from having articles and / or books published on their particular specialty.
A collector who has put in considerable time and effort to be seen as an authority on a particular type of coins certainly will find selling his own collection of coins far easier than a collector who is not known within the coin collecting community. This is equally true of those collectors on the NGC and PCGS Message Board. Being perceived as a great collector is much easier to achieve than it was before the Internet.
These five tips are just a few of many that I have. I am sure you have some suggestions and I would enjoy hearing them.
RSS Feed