Tag Archives: PNG

Numismatic Ethics: Yes, We Have Them. Do you?

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Let’s test your ethics: You go into a coin shop with a rare variety–say, a 1900-O/CC Morgan Dollar –but do not realize you have the overmintmark. You think it is just an almost uncirculated 1900-O. The price difference is significant at AU55: 1900-O, $65; 1900-O/CC, $450.

You don’t know that, either.

What should an ethical dealer do? If he belongs to the Professional Numismatists Guild, he must be truthful in “correctly grading and describing a coin’s condition, authenticity, and other material facts.” That means coin dealers should inform you about the overmintmark and pay wholesale price for the coin, roughly $385.

Now let’s switch roles. You are at a coin show and spot a dealer with a 1900-O Morgan selling for $75. Because you know varieties, you recognize this as a 1900-O/CC overmintmark. The dealer doesn’t. What should you do?

Give it some thought. We’ll revisit this scenario at the end of this article.

Let’s Talk Ethics

In addition to being a numismatist, I am a top ethicist with several books by Oxford University Press and other research publications.

I am concerned about the reputation of our hobby. We are coping with untold numbers of counterfeits, replicas, scams, social media hype, coin app hallucinations, microscope obsessions, and phishing expeditions, ruining the good name of coin collecting.

So I had an immediate negative reaction recently when I saw this post:

The author’s gloating about the price upset me as much as the “steal,” paying less than a dollar for a $40 coin. It prompted me to take a hard stance on his ethics, advising him to return it to the manager of Goodwill and let them know about the value.

He disagreed snarkily.

His feed erupted with others posting laughing emojis on my comment and most supporting the gloating buyer and denigrating Goodwill’s business practices. No one expressed concern about what he did.

I took a screenshot of the post, putting it on my feed. I was among friends here. But again, there was dissent.

To be sure, most agreed with me but some also criticized Goodwill, saying it deserves to be cheated. Some supported the gloating buyer because it was Goodwill’s responsibility–not his–to know what it had.

In ethics, this is known as “justification,” saying an action is okay–not because it is ethical–but because of distaste for the victim/loser (aka Goodwill).

So let’s eliminate Goodwill and restate the issue: What if the coin was in a Lutheran Church rummage sale?

Would you pay less than a buck for it … or tell the minister? If you yielded to temptation and took the coin, would you brag on Facebook that you effectively “stole” a $40 coin from a church?

This is known as situational ethics: it depends who the victim/loser is. Goodwill? Serves them right! Lutheran Church? Sure, but not Catholic. You get the idea.

Journalism embraces situational ethics. That’s not very encouraging. Some 36% of U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media with another 33% expressing “not very much” confidence.

So if you distrust the media and feel similarly, maybe you also should reconsider situational ethics. It’s never been very popular.

What about business ethics? Some remarked that Goodwill had the responsibility to know what it had. In other words, the seller should know the value of merchandise. If not, all bets are off.

Business ethics are about as popular as journalism ethics.

A significant portion of consumers actively consider and prioritize ethical practices in their purchasing decisions, with many willing to boycott brands that act unethically or pay more for products from ethically-minded companies.

Let’s talk about the Hobby

The topic here is “numismatic” ethics. There are three entities: buyer, seller, hobby.

Coin collecting doesn’t have a stellar reputation, either. First off, the industry is self-regulated. Those new to the hobby are particularly at risk of being taken advantage of by unscrupulous dealers who may rely on a buyer’s inexperience. Dealers must buy coins for less than they sell them to cover overhead. This prompts some to low-ball people, especially ones selling inherited collections.

Let’s Test Your Ethics

Remember the scenario mentioned at the beginning of this article? You know that a dealer has an 1900-O/CC rarity worth $450. But he hasn’t noticed the overmintmark and is selling the Morgan for $75.

Many will argue it is the dealer’s responsibility to know the value of their wares. After all, he is the seller and an expert. If he misses the overmintmark, fair game.

Not according to numismatic ethics.

You have three are choices:

  1. Keep silent and buy the coin for $75. This is not considered ethical by most collectors. It exploits the dealer’s lack of knowledge for a significant personal gain and damages the reputation of the hobby.
  2. Inform the dealer of the variety and offer a fair price. This is the most ethical approach. It builds trust within the numismatic community and demonstrates honesty.
  3. Inform the dealer, but walk away. True, the collector misses out on a “steal,” but they have acted with integrity and respected the dealer’s right to full information.

Note again that there are three parties here: The customer, the dealer and the hobby.

Even Numismatic Nancy knows that:

Numismatic ethics requires us to use coin knowledge to inform others, not to to take advantage of them, including dealers. Even in online and estate auctions, I not only identify counterfeits for the seller but also varieties that they might have missed.

We embrace ethics to uphold the integrity of the hobby community of which we all are a part.

How to Sell Coins

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No matter how you look at it, selling coins evokes feelings. Perhaps you are ending your interest in the hobby and will have to find other ways to spend your free time. Perhaps you inherited a collection and now must dispose of it for heirs. Or maybe because you just need the money.

Experienced hobbyists know the basics of how to sell coins. But newer or “never” hobbyists may have a difficult time because the process requires a modicum of numismatic knowledge, which this article provides. And, of course, money is at stake in the form of precious metals and intrinsic values.

Here are seven steps that I have used in selling my coins. They worked for me. You may experience different results.

Step 1: Read the Red Book and consult the Blue Book

The Red Book, otherwise known as A Guide Book of United States Coins, is required reading. You have to know what you actually have. Google, eBay, Etsy, YouTube and other online listings are unreliable and often erroneous.

The Red Book shares retail values and the Blue Book, wholesale, or what a coin dealer is apt to pay you–important later.

The Red Book has updated pricing and auction data with detailed expert commentary and photos–more than 2000 images, 7,600 listings and 32,500 coin values. You’ll learn about each denomination, type, mint error and varieties as well as read articles about investing, grading and holdering coins, and detecting counterfeits.

Click here or the photo below and scroll down to “HOW TO USE THE RED BOOK” to view a Proxiblog video on the book’s utility.

Step 2: Separate coins according to denomination

To view the various denominations, again consult your Red Book or PCGS CoinFacts, a free encyclopedia of U.S. Coins.

You will find at PCGS CoinFacts detailed photos and retail/auction values of coins from half cents to gold issues as well as commemorative coins, bullion, territorial issues and patterns.

But the utility now is using the Red Book or CoinFacts to separate your coins into categories.

Step 3: Divide collection again by precious metals

These will mostly be silver and gold coins but also platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Familiarize yourself with spot price values. A fine resource is provided by the coin company APMEX, which gives updated values of all precious metals. Click the photos below for gold and silver values to view what your coins are worth apart from collector premium.

Step 4: Create an inventory of your collection

Create your inventory by denomination. You can do this manually via pencil and paper but eventually you want to have this in digital format. You can use Word for this. It’s a hassle, but you also should photograph obverse and reverse of each coin and include that in your inventory. You can do this with any mobile phone with a decent camera. Photos also will help your appraiser later in the process.

You also have to remember what you paid for your coins. Note that in your inventory, along with the date of sale, if you can remember it. Bookkeeping is important, as you will learn in Step 7.

Once you have a draft of what you own, consider downloading an application for a formal inventory of your coins.

There are many low-cost and free coin collection applications. Coin Week has recommended the low-cost Coin Book Pro.

I prefer Coin World’s Portfolio Application, which is free; but you have more options with a subscription.

You will immediately have a sense of relief once you have completed your inventory. That sense comes from due diligence.

Step 5: Learn grading basics

Start with the Sheldon scale

The Sheldon Grading Scale describes the condition of a coin without damage or other flaws, earning a number between 1 (lowest) and 70 (highest). The scale is used by PCGS, NGC, ANACS and other grading companies. The grade is an indication of value.

Know key dates of the series

Here is a nifty chart that many coin shops use on their sites. It’s not comprehensive and doesn’t include what we call “condition rarities,” or coins that are common in lower grades on the Sheldon scale but rare in about uncirculated or uncirculated condition. But it will give you an idea about dates and rarities.

Compare your coin with images provided by PCGS PhotoGrade.

Do not use digital applications to identify your coin and grade it. Programs like CoinSnap powered by AI are notoriously inaccurate. Instead, train your eye by comparing your coin to the denomination and condition as found on PhotoGrade. You may have a tendency to overgrade and overlook flaws. That’s okay. You’re not expected to be an expert grader. But a little knowledge goes a long way.

You can find a list of numismatic terms on the Proxiblog site. Click here.

Step 6: Get an appraisal

Before you sell your coins, you need to have an expert give you a fair evaluation of their worth. The best way is to contact a friend, colleague or acquaintance who knows coins. There is trust there. Keep in mind it is not enough merely to send to your appraiser the denomination, date and mint mark of your coins. Condition is everything. If your hobbyist friend lives out of town and cannot eyeball your collection, you will have to send photos of obverse and reverse of each coin or set.

You can also go to a nearby coin shop. Make sure the owner is a PNG member as they are committed to honesty and professionalism. You can find a directory here.

There also are online appraisal sites. One of the most popular is Coinappraiser.com. Visit the site. It also has useful articles about selling, auctioning and grading coins.

Step 6: Sell or consign

The coin buying world is full of scammers. DO NOT sell on social media like Facebook, Etsy or YouTube or accept payment via Venmo or other non-traceable monetary venues. You will want payment by money order, bank wire or cash (if local).

Read this article about Venmo scams and how to avoid them.

If you have valuable coins, the best place to sell them is at Heritage and GreatCollections. The problem here is that major auction houses only accept coins holdered by PCGS, NGC, ANACS, ICG and CAC. It is beyond this article to explain the cost and procedures of getting coin graded. GreatCollections has a form to submit raw coins for you at discount prices. In other words, you won’t have to pay extra for grading and also can avoid membership, handling and postal fees.

You can consign your raw and holdered coins to an online auctioneer. This requires you to (a) contact the auction house, (b) ask if they will consign your coins and (c) request a contract and terms of service (usually a 10-20% selling fee).

You can find menu tabs of online sellers at Proxiblog’s home page. We are not endorsing these auctions as places to sell coins. Suffice to say that we have either bought or consigned coins to a few of these and find them reputable. Your experience may differ.

Step 7: Accept Reality

Unless you are a skilled hobbyist, chances are you bought or purchased coins with flaws or have dozens or even hundreds of raw coins that have little value, despite what the Blue and Red books state. Sellers have to earn a profit, too, and may not want to photograph, list and pay fees for your coins on their sites unless they are fairly confident that they will sell.

Even coin shops, loaded with junk coins and low value mint sets, typically will only be looking at the precious metal or rarity of your coins. You can sell part of your collection or hold out for a price for everything, even coins of little value or ones holdered by bottom-tier companies that exaggerate condition.

In other words, anticipate low-ball offers and seller’s remorse.

Sometimes it is worth taking a loss and focusing on what you can get for inexpensive coins or sets, just to dispense with them. A typical coin dealer will usually pay about 70-75% of current market value.

Now for the ultimate reality check: taxes. Refer back to your inventory. You will need to know what you paid and what you received for your coins. You should have these data in your inventory.

The Internal Revenue Service classifies gold and silver as collectibles. Capital gains are taxed at a maximum rate of 28% of any profit. Go to this IRS site for more information.

If you like posts like this, subscribe so you can be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has thousands of followers on Facebook Coin Group, YouTube and social media. To get the latest discussion and commentary, be sure to friend us by clicking here.

You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.

You inherited a coin collection. Now what?

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Coin collecting is a complicated business requiring knowledge of key dates and condition rarities for each denomination in addition to history, art and metallurgy. Selling coins is even more complicated if you do not know what you are doing.

This post does not cover errors and varieties. Even though YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and other sites promise thousands of dollars for error coins and varieties, identifying these takes special skills, which you may not have and is beyond the scope of this article. Often what you think is a error is really only damage. Read this post to understand why.

Below are some selling basics. Results will vary. There are just too many variables that affect value. But below are some benchmarks for you to consider, which may help you avoid buyers low-balling your collection.

Contact a PNG dealer

The easiest way to get an appraisal is to take your wares to a reputable coin shop. Before going there, however, check to see if the dealer is a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild whose motto is Knowledge, Integrity, Responsibility. You can search if your dealer is a member by clicking here.

Become familiar with the hobby

In the short term, a good way is to follow coin sites like this one. There are many on internet.

And you should purchase the numismatic bible, A Guide Book of United States Coins, also known as Red Book. Get the 2025 edition: “Updated pricing and auction records, new research, new photographs, the latest U.S. Mint data, and more! 472 pages, 2,000+ images, with more than 7,600 listings and 32,500+ coin prices.”

Become familiar with the Sheldon scale

The Sheldon Grading Scale describes the condition of a coin without damage or other flaws, earning a number between 1 (lowest) and 70 (highest). The scale is used by PCGS, NGC, ANACS and other grading companies. The grade is an indication of value.

Know key dates of the series

Here is a nifty chart that many coin shops use on their sites. It’s not comprehensive and doesn’t include what we call “condition rarities,” or coins that are common in lower grades on the Sheldon scale but rare in about uncirculated or uncirculated condition. But it will give you an idea about dates and rarities.

Familiarize yourself with common flaws

DO NOT CLEAN YOUR COINS. People without numismatic experience believe cleaning coins enhances value. It doesn’t. It typically decreases value by a significant amount.

Often the coins you inherit will be damaged in some way, polished, dipped, cleaned, whizzed and so forth. Check this Proxibid article that describes typical flaws that will greatly lower the value of your coins. Here is a doctored coin with a chemical patina:

Estimate the grade

To get an idea about grading, compare your coin with the same one on the useful free site, PCGS Photograde Online.

Check for dimensions and value

Assuming your eye makes a reasonable comparison–keep in mind that grading accurately takes time, focus and effort–then check estimated values on PCGS CoinFacts or another such site. You will get important measurements and weights, essential in making sure you do not have a counterfeit coin.

Submit to a grading company

If you think you have a rarity or condition rarity, you might consider a grading company to assign a retail value of your coins. Often, this is unnecessary, especially if you do not know how to grade. It is expensive to grade a coin with PCGS, NGC and ANACS, reputable companies. Be ware of bottom-tier grading companies that over-grade and overlook flaws.

Check the Proxiblog article about “When you should slab a coin.”

Each holdering company has specific rules for submission. Read them.

Consign your coins

Consider contacting reputable HiBid auctioneers or eBay sellers that often take consignments. Click those links in the previous sentence to see some of Proxiblog’s favorite sites.

DO NOT SEND THE COINS to these sellers without contacting them first. Also investigate those sites to see if you might like your coins sold there. Email the site owners, describe your collection, and ask if they take assignments. Be sure to inquire about consignment fees and request a sample of the consignment contract. Read it carefully to see if you approve of the terms.

Finally, keep in mind that hammer prices and your cut may be below any retail price of the same coin, date, condition and mintmark. But auctions are a true test about value–what someone actually is willing to pay.

If you like posts like this, subscribe so you can be informed whenever there is a new article or column.

Proxiblog also has thousands of followers on Facebook Coin Groups, YouTube and social media. To get the latest discussion and commentary, be sure to friend us by clicking here.

You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.