A gold and silver coin collection can diversify your investment portfolio. If you buy and sell gold and silver, accumulating coins and bars can give you peace of mind that you have a tangible asset at your fingertips rather than money tied up in the stock market.
If you are looking to make some cash by selling your gold and silver coins, it is worth the effort to educate yourself on the best practices when selling coins, investigate your options, and only do business with a legitimate precious metal dealer.
Learn why working with AU Precious Metals in Michigan offers a hassle-free and reliable experience when selling your gold and silver coins for the best price.
What to Know Before Selling
Before selling your coins, you may want to familiarize yourself with a few aspects of the process. Knowing your goal for selling, what buyers are available, and whether you need to have your coins appraised can help you streamline selling your coins.
What’s Your Goal?
Knowing your goal for selling can help you choose which coins to sell and what buyer to use. For example, if you are a serious gold and silver and other precious metal investor, you may want to work with a dealer who can help you sell silver and gold coins and reinvest in platinum or palladium bullion.
If you want to earn a high bid price for cash on your gold coins, a local dealer can help you assay your items with X-ray technology for the highest settlement.
What Buyers Are Available?
Before selling your coins, determine what buyers are available in your area. While online dealers, pawn shops, or local coin shops are options, a precious metals dealer may provide you with the best cash value and customer service.
AU Precious Metals has two locations in Michigan and a mail-in program, making us a convenient, trustworthy option for customers across the U.S.
Do You Need to Have Your Coins Appraised?
Unlike jewelry sales, you don’t need to have your coins appraised before selling. If you work with AU Precious Metals, our staff will appraise your pieces when you bring or mail them in. This eliminates needing to find and pay a third-party appraiser before selling your coins.
How to Sell Gold and Silver Coins for the Best Price
You can take several steps to ensure you get the highest price for your gold and silver coins. These include creating an inventory of your collection, understanding the market price for gold and silver, identifying high-value coins, and not altering your coins’ condition.
Create an Inventory of Your Coins
Creating an inventory of your coins can help you know what you have, decide which items to sell, and estimate a cash value for your collection. Organizing your coins can also facilitate the buying process with your precious metal dealer.
Consider taking a digital inventory of your coins using a spreadsheet program like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Open a spreadsheet and include the following column for each item:
- Mint year
- Price paid per coin or ounce
- Mint mark
- Name or type
- Precious metal and percentage
- Grade and grading entity
- Notes
Understand the Spot Price of Gold and Silver
It’s essential to know the spot price of gold and silver to estimate the value of your coins. The coins in your collection may be numismatic or bullion. Numismatic coins are valued due to their rarity, metal type, and collector’s appeal; however, bullion coins are valued based on their precious metal content. Knowing the market price of silver and gold will help you calculate a possible price for your bullion coins.
Silver and gold prices fluctuate constantly, but you can check the daily spot price and past market performance to get an idea of their worth. You can also keep track of these fluctuations for several weeks and aim to sell if you notice their value is increasing. On December 20, 2022, gold’s market index was $1,817.82 per ounce, and silver was $24.05 per ounce.
Identify High-Value Coins
Identifying your high-value coins ensures you know which pieces are worth more money when selling. It can also help you estimate the value of your entire collection to compare against the cash offers you receive.
To identify coins that might bring in a premium settlement, consider the following factors:
- Date. Your coin’s date can indicate its value. For example, silver coins minted in the U.S. before 1964 contained 90% silver and 10% copper. Pre-1964 coins include dimes, quarters, and half dollars.
- Condition. A coin’s condition helps determine its value. Coins in mint condition, meaning they have not been altered from the state they were in when minted, hold the most value. You can have your coins graded by AU Precious Metals to understand their worth. Valuable coins we can help you identify include the Morgan and Peace silver dollars.
- Mint. Your coin’s mint location may affect its value. For example, coins from discontinued mints like New Orleans or Carson City are rarer than coins minted in Philadelphia. Also, sovereign coins, like British gold sovereigns, can be worth more because a government mint backs them.
- Actual gold weight. Gold bullion coins like the Canadian Maple Leaf and American Eagle coins have an actual gold weight (AGW) that can help you determine their value. AU Precious Metals can help you weigh your pieces accurately and calculate the value based on their AGW.
Avoid Altering Your Coins’ Appearance
If your coin collection contains dirty, dented, scratched, or dull items, you may think you need to clean them before selling. Professional coin dealers recommend not cleaning, shining, or altering your coins’ appearance before turning them in for money.
Cleaning your coins can cause further damage, lowering the value of a rare coin. For instance, you might accidentally use a harsh chemical that erodes the coin’s markings or corrodes the metal. Leave your coins in as-is condition, and your assayer can determine their worth without causing damage.
Choosing a Buyer for Your Coins
Selling your gold and silver coins to a local dealer is the best way to get the most money for your coins. Local dealers offer higher settlements and instant cash payments over other options like pawn shops. They also pose less risk than private buyers or faceless online companies, where you may have to take extra steps to avoid potential scams.
When choosing a coin buyer in Michigan, look for a reputable dealer with extensive experience buying and selling precious metals. View online customer testimonials that give you an idea of the customer service you can expect when you work with the dealer and speak with them beforehand to understand the coin-selling process.
AU Precious Metals has been a trusted name in the coin-buying industry for decades. We offer exceptional customer service and professional assaying techniques to help you sell your coins for the most money.
Sell Your Gold and Silver Coins for Top-Dollar with AU Precious Metals
If you’ve decided to sell silver or gold coins from your collection, visit AU Precious Metals. We are a reputable precious metal dealer with locations in Novi and Rochester, Michigan.
Our services include buying coins made of gold, silver, and other precious metals. We also help our customers invest in bullion, like gold and silver bars, to grow their wealth.
Contact our knowledgeable staff today to learn how to sell your coins through our mail in program, or visit us in person to find out how much you can get for your collection.