Whether you have acquired a new coin of unknown value or you are simply wondering how much you could get if you sold off some duplicate coins, you will find that selling coins can be quite different from collecting them!

When you want to sell coins, you must first know how much they are worth, and in many cases, you will discover that the number that you come up with will vary depending on different factors.

When you are thinking about selling coins, no matter what the reason, you should be ready to do some research.

Check out a few of the things you need to know about coins and how to price them.

The first thing that you are going to need to think about is the grade of your coin.

The coin’s grade refers to the coin’s condition.

A coin that is in good condition will certainly sell for a higher price than a coin that has not been treated well or that has some staining and damage.

Remember that a coin that has damage on it is not going to be a coin that you can expect to sell for full price.

This does not mean that the coin is worthless but you still need to keep that in mind.

A coin that has not been circulated will likely sell for more than one that has.

Also be aware that the price of your coin will depend on its popularity.

Interestingly enough, the interest in a coin can often drive its price quite high and a coin that was only a fair option for sale one year can be quite valuable the next!

The shifts in coin collecting do not necessarily happen that fast, but they can, so it is important to make sure that you have the most current information that is available to you.

Take some time and learn more about the coin that you are selling and the market that you are going to be selling it into.

When you want to sell your coin, you might be tempted to look into the Blue Book to guide you.

Keep in mind that the Blue Book is not as helpful as it might seem at first glance.

The Blue Book only tells you what you can expect to pay a retailer for a certain coin in mint condition.

The price that a dealer is willing to give you for the same coin might be quite lower, as they definitely need to make a profit from it.

Remember that you might need to subtract five to fifteen percent from the price that is listed in the Blue Book to figure out what you would get from a retailer; for less rare coins, you might even subtract a full fifty percent!

Take some time and learn more about how much you can sell your coins for; this is important information for any coin collector to know!

The truth is that fake coins are fairly rare, but they do happen, and many experienced collectors have at least one story where they bought a fake coin or where someone tried to sell them one.

If you are new to the hobby, you might find yourself wondering how to protect yourself from people trying to sell you fake coins.

It is actually fairly simple to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth for your coins, if you only remember a few things.

Always know what you are buying.

Never buy a supposedly valuable coin just because you are told that it is valuable!

Instead, make sure that you do your research.

Make sure that you know about the coin itself and about all of the little details that are going to make it unique.

Similarly, to make sure that you do not end up drastically overpaying for the coin, know what other people have bought it for.

Remember that in general, if it is too good to be true, it most often is!

Fake coins are mostly gold and silver coins.

Coins made of gold and silver tend to get a lot more attention and new coin collectors can be easily dazzled.

A quick way to make sure that you are at least getting a coin that is made out of gold and silver is to compare it to another gold or silver coin.

Compare the color of the coin with a coin that you know to be a real thing.

Often the color and the shine of the coin will tip you off; a fake gold or silver coin will often be too shiny.

Similarly, feel the weight of the coin in your hand; gold and silver are much heavier than you might think.

When in doubt at all, take the coin to a reputable dealer.

Someone that you trust can tell you a lot about the coin that you are considering purchasing.

Of course, you should also check into the reputation of the person who is selling you your coin.

They should be willing to offer you a certificate of authenticity and a guarantee that the coin is genuine.

For the most part, most con artists are not going to bother with this scam unless they can make a lot of money quickly.

So you should really only be concerned about the rare coins and not normal, easy to find coins.

The grade of a coin is usually a key component of its value and in most cases, a higher grade often yields a higher value.

Coin collectors often seek higher value coins to satisfy their whims.

It is therefore very necessary for anyone collecting coins to have a reasonable knowledge on how coin grading is actually done.

In the early days of coin collecting, way before the emergence of an international market, coins were described only as good, fine or not circulated.

However, this mode of grading changed drastically by mid twentieth century.

This period saw the introduction of the Sheldon System as a method of grading and was first adopted by the American Numismatic Association in cohorts with other North American Professionals.

The Sheldon system of grading uses the 1 to 70 numbering scale where 70 represents a perfect specimen of a coin and 1 represents a coin that can hardly be identified because of very poor quality.

This system is similar to the Point Numeric System since they both assign numbers to the coins once graded.

The only difference is that the Sheldon System is not just numerical but also descriptive in its approach to assigning grades to coins.

Though universally acknowledged, numerically based systems such as the Sheldon System are shunned by coin experts in other parts of the World and more specifically Europe.

Here, the experts prefer to grade coins using purely descriptive or adjectival terms.

However, it should come as a relief to learn that these two approaches actually use the same terminology and are therefore not very different.

The mint state is the highest grade according to the Sheldon System ranging from 60 to 70.

The coins in this grade are not likely to have traces of wear and always seem to have very few contact marks with other coins or even scratches.

The non-circulated grade ranging from 50 to 58 follows next and retains most of its eye appeal but with less traceable wear on its design.

Next follows the extremely fine grade ranging from 40 to 45 and is characterized with noticeable wear but usually appears to have retained its distinctive features.

‘About good’ is considered the lowest grade in this system.

It is not always easy to distinguish the difference in grades and a level of expertise is usually required for grading.

Even experts do not usually assign the same grade to the same coin.

In certain instances, collectors succumb to the temptation of polishing their coin to pass them off as having higher grade.

The unfortunate result of this is that the coins are damaged in the process and end up with a split grade.

In such cases, the two sides of the coin are perceived to posses different grades, which must be appropriately allocated to them hence the split grading.