Coin values

[shiraz]

Hi, I've been watching a lot of YouTube vids about detecting in the USA, and reading about your finds. Being in Australia I don't have any idea about what are the most sort after coins you search for in the US. It's usually Wheaties this or Indian that, or silver this, or quarter that, but I can't work out if it's an important find or not. Could someone please put up a list, if it isn't too much trouble, of the 10 most desirable coins that you are after? I don't mean the million dollar coins, just the ones that will make your day, and why. Cheers, Shiraz.

 

[Rainyday101]

For me it's anthing silver, and that means dimes (10 cents), quarters (25 cents), and halves (50 cents). To be silver they are 1964 or older. Old pennies (1cent) are always welcome, but I still prefer silver.

 

[shiraz]

-- moved topic --

 

[Mason Jarr]

Shiraz,
I don't think one person's Top 10 list would be the same as the next guy's, but I can give you a list of our coins so you'll have a better idea of the structure. There are varieties within some of these categories, but I'll just list the basics. If you want to see what they look like, you can Google the names and I'm sure there'll be some photos available:

HALF CENTS
Liberty Cap, Head Facing Right (1793 )
Liberty Cap, Head Facing Left (1794-1797 )
Draped Bust (1800-1808 )
Classic Head (1809-1836 )
Braided Hair (1840-1857 )

LARGE CENTS
Flowing Hair (1793 )
Liberty Cap (1793-1796 )
Draped Bust (1796-1807 )
Classic Head (1808-1814 )
Liberty Head (there were several varieties under this category*) (1816-1857 )
* Matron Head (1816-1835 )
* Matron Head Modified (1835-1839 )
* Braided Hair (1839-1857 )

SMALL CENTS
Flying Eagle (1856-1858 )
Indian Head (1859-1909 )
Lincoln, Wheat Ears Reverse (1909-1958 )
Lincoln, Memorial Reverse (1959-2008 )
Lincoln, Bicentennial (2009 )
Lincoln, Shield Reverse (2010 to present )

TWO-CENT PIECE
(1864-1873 )

SILVER THREE-CENT PIECE
(1851-1873 )

NICKEL THREE-CENT PIECE
(1865-1889 )

NICKEL FIVE-CENT PIECES
Shield (1866-1883 )
Liberty Head (1883-1913 )
Indian Head or "Buffalo" (1913-1938 )
Jefferson (1939 to present ) {some of these in the years 1942-1945 were made with 35% silver content}

HALF DIMES
Flowing Hair (1794-1795 )
Draped Bust (1796-1805 )
Capped Bust (1829-1837 )
Seated Liberty (1837-1873 )

DIMES
Draped Bust (1796-1807 )
Capped Bust (1809-1837 )
Seated Liberty (1837-1891 )
Barber or Liberty Head (1892-1916 )
Winged Liberty Head or "Mercury" (1916-1945 )
Roosevelt (1946 to present ) {1964 was the final year these were made with silver content}

TWENTY-CENT PIECE
Seated Liberty (1875-1878 )

QUARTER DOLLARS
Draped Bust (1796-1807 )
Capped Bust (1815-1838 )
Seated Liberty (1838-1891 )
Barber or Liberty Head (1892-1916 )
Standing Liberty (1916-1930 )
Washington (1932 to present ) {1964 was the final year these were made with silver content}

HALF DOLLARS
Draped Bust (1796-1807 )
Capped Bust, Lettered Edge (1807-1836 )
Capped Bust, Reeded Edge (1836-1839 )
Seated Liberty (1839-1891 )
Barber or Liberty Head (1892-1915 )
Walking Liberty (1916-1947 )
Franklin (1948-1963 )
Kennedy (1964 to present ) {1964 was 90% silver, 1965-1970 was 40% silver, after that only proof coins were made with silver}

SILVER DOLLARS
Flowing Hair (1794-1795 )
Draped Bust (1795-1804 )
1804 Dollar (1804 )
Gobrecht Dollar (1836-1839 )
Seated Liberty (1840-1873 )
Trade Dollar (1873-1885 )
Morgan (1878-1921 )
Peace (1921-1935 )

CLAD DOLLARS
Eisenhower (1971-1978 )
Susan B. Anthony (1979-1999 )
Sacagawea (2000-2008 )
Presidential (2007-2016 )

We also have minted gold coins, but my fingers are tired and I might get back and list those later. As you can see, even though we're fairly young as nations go, we've put out quite a few variations of our coins. Some are more common than others, but most people would be ecstatic to find any silver dollar, any seated liberty coin, any silver half dollar, a Standing Liberty quarter, any of the Barber series, a silver three-cent piece or a twenty-cent piece. Any of the nickels from Buffalos on back are fun to find, also.....so pretty much anything I've listed that's earlier than 1930 or so is a good find. I hope this helps. It would be cool to see what you guys have for coins down there, also.

 

[Surfinsafari]

Now thats a list^^^^^^^^^! The coins get younger as you go to the west coast. From what I hear those lucky dogs on the east coast are still finding Colonial coins and Spanish reales.

 

[GeorgeinSC]

The Collector "Value" of our older coins is based on how many were minted, the condition of the coin and the material they were made from. The "Scrap Value" is based on the market price of the material that the coin was made from .

Then you have the Value of the coin to us that detect. The joy I get from thinking about where and when i found a particular coin makes it worth more to me than the collector or scrap value.

 

[shiraz]

Thank you all for the replies. Mason Jar, thanks for that great research.

Our coin history in Australia is even younger than yours. Up to 1909, Australia was using English coins as the general currency. After 1910 we had our own coinage.
Here is a selection of the rarer years.
img0707jpg
Halfpenny - 1918, 1923, 1939.
Penny - 1925, 1946 and of course the Holy Grail of coin collecting, the 1930 penny (worth up to $1,000,000) very rare, only 3000 were ever minted.
Threepence - 1918,1923,1939
Sixpence - 1911, 1912, 1920, 1922.
Shilling - 1910, 1913, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1933.
Florin (Two Shillings) 1914 , 1917, 1923, 1932, 1934.
Also we had Gold sovereigns and half sovereigns.

My collection of old coins isn't that big as I mainly do gold detecting, but they're starting to accumulate, they are mainly old Victorian pennies.. Of course we are also lucky here that we got rid of our modern paper dollars in the $1 and $2 denominations and made them into coins, so its pretty easy to pay off your detectors pretty quick here.
A few of my more interesting finds:- Can't put the photos up.

1817 English sixpence
1872 Melbourne Exhibition medallion
1967 Kennedy half dollar medallion
2011 1/10 oz. Kruggerand gold coin

 

[Fabio]

I collect any and all coins that I find. Saturday, I found a cache of coins. Brought them home and washed them. Turns out they were just worthless Yugoslavian coins from 1987 to 1991. Still neat to find them anyways. Fun part of this hobby. I also found a .925 silver bracelet with two charms attached to it. It was my first day out with the Garrett Propointer. Does it's job, Once a deep hole is dug and the object is still in there somewhere, the propointer will "sniff" it out.

 

[ironsight]

By far, i look for silver coins which typically contain 90% pure silver. As mentioned above, the U.S. Treasury stopped minting silver coins for general circulation in 1965.
Lost gold coins are extremely rare to find. To find one are about the same odds as winning a multi-million dollar lottery. LOL

Basically, the oldest coins start from the East Coast and continue getting newer as the pioneer migrations settled in Westerly directions.
Thats not to say, there's no old coins on the West Coast as the Spanish then Mexicans settled that territory a few hundred years ago. The 1840's gold strike in California attracted a whole new batch of American settlers in that area.

Here's the most common old U.S. coins one would typically find metal detecting. Nickels (5 cent coins) are also common to find but left them out of this post. I also left out Silver Dollar coins as they're also a semi-rare find at least around here.

The pictures for the silver coins are Quarters. Most of their Dime and Half Dollar counterparts are similar with some variations.
The coins shown would be the ones i'd most likely expect to find in my area of the country with the exception of the real early dates.
So, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Bust silver Quarters were minted from 1796 to 1838. They underwent a few main changes during their life span.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o273/moparado/BustQuarters1796_1838_zpsd9b1751f.jpg

Seated Liberty silver Quarters were minted from 1838 to 1891.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o273/moparado/SeatedLiberty1838_1891_zps50c2fadc.jpg

Barber silver Quarters were minted from 1892 to 1916.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o273/moparado/Barber1892_1916_zps0371879c.jpg

The Standing Liberty also had some variations during its lifespan. One of them being a Walking Liberty which is not shown.
They were minted from 1916 to 1930.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o273/moparado/StandingLiberty1916_1930_zps645160e4.jpg

Here's the Indian Head penny you probably hear so much about. Sometimes tricky to find as they were minted with different alloys during their life span.
Indian Heads were minted from 1859 to 1909. There are a few other older cent coins but also semi-rare to find.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o273/moparado/IndianHead1859_1909_zpse8578e1a.jpg

Now the infamous Wheat Penny. Unlike today's modern copper plated zinc core penny, the Wheat Penny was minted out of copper. The reason finding wheat pennies can be important is their a sign silver coins might also be around because silver coins were minted during the Wheat Penny's life span. Wheats were minted from 1909 to 1958.
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o273/moparado/WheatPenny1909_1958_zpsadc6247f.jpg

 

[shiraz]

Thank you for all the replies, Iron sight, that is some fabulous detail, thanks for that. Cheers Shiraz

 

[harryhh]

Good to hear from a cobber in Australia.

You guys make the Minelab down there. Good job!