Recent online stories about pennies allegedly worth $124 million and billion-dollar 1976 Bicentennial quarter dollars are either false or grossly misleading, advises the Professional Numismatists Guild (www.PNGdealers.org), a nonprofit organization composed of many of the country’s top rare coin experts.
"Unfortunately, these clickbait stories and videos with absurdly inflated rare coin values often get picked up by major search engines. The misleading or inaccurate stories raise false hopes to people who may mistakenly think they have a fortune when in fact their coins may only be worth face value or have drastically less collector value than they were led to believe," cautions John Feigenbaum, Executive Director of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG).
"For consumer protection and education, it is important to rely only on expert sources, such as long-time hobby/trade publications and price guides as well as members of the Professional Numismatists Guild and the PNG’s trusted partner, Numismatic Guaranty Company (www.NGCcoin.com). Depend on experts when you want coins evaluated for authenticity and market value," emphasized PNG President James Sego.
Numismatic Guaranty Company offers a free online price guide (www.NGCcoin.com/price-guide/united-states) where anyone can determine the approximate retail value of their old coins.
"Recent headlines that proclaim a rare penny might be worth more than $100 million or a 1976 Bicentennial quarter might be worth $1.5 billion are pure fantasy. The highest price ever paid for a rare coin sold at auction was $18.9 million. Also, some deceptive headlines and stories claiming you might find a certain rare coin in circulation involve genuine coins that have not been produced or in pocket change for a century or more," stated Feigenbaum who also serves as Publisher of Greysheet (www.Greysheet.com), an authoritative rare coin price guide.
PNG President Sego recalled a recent encounter with a disappointed coin owner:
"The customer mistakenly believed he hit the rare coin jackpot because of a misleading video he watched online. He thought his 1926 silver dollar was incorrectly made at the United States Mint with severe gouges and now could perhaps be worth tens of thousands of dollars. However, the deep scratches on the coin occurred after it left the Mint, and because of that unsightly damage the coin is now only worth melt value, about $25 for its silver content."
"If you don’t know rare coins, you better know your rare coin experts," emphasized Sego.
The Professional Numismatists Guild was founded in 1955. The group’s motto is "Knowledge, Integrity, Responsibility," and PNG members must adhere to a strict code of ethics (www.PNGdealers.org/ethics) in the buying and selling of numismatic merchandise.
For a list of PNG member-dealers, visit online at www.PNGdealers.org and click the Find A PNG Dealer link at the top of the page, or contact PNG by phone at 951-587-8300 or by email at info@PNGdealers.org.
So all those ads ARE false! Finally someone is addressing this fraudulent practice. There are people who don’t know better and can be easily taken advantage of. I always refer people to their local bookstore, to the Hobby section, and look at a copy of Red Book of coins located there. It’s an easy resource to tell if the value of their coin is really a treasure or only worth a few cents or dollars over face value. Knowledge IS power.
Amen.
Here is a perfect example……Another hoodwinker in the act.
“Report This Seller.”
https://www.ebay.com/itm/156772772155
Eye roll. Wonder what would happen if I offered 1 cent with seller picking up the postage?
REB, “While on the subject of privy marks/Bat Signal…..” I had mentioned that SB auction in a post over there this morning, and poof, off to spam neverland. Post a link in your comment, then edit three times for content & grammar = Poof. I guess that’s why I got a C- in grammar, and that’s my payback!? Oh well. Correct, $26k to $40k has a nice ring to it indeed. SB had bought those two 69’s for 29k in Jan, so they did well themselves on that deal. GC auctions/a consigner sold a 69 in Feb for 40k also,… Read more »
I was shut out trying to buy a FHG from the mint. Irritating to say the least as you can imagine. Thus I took my money and bought some AGE bullion. Did quite well on that product. Time to move along to the next US Mint circus side show event that is bound to show up later this year.
I can’t argue with your strategy one bit Guru, it’s the smartest play in the end. I was shut out too, and I took my money, plus a little, and put it towards a graded example. It will carry a numismatic premium with it, but for how long I can’t say. The same can be said for my FHG Privy, It carries a substantial numi premium that hopefully lasts a long while due to the low mintage, we’ll see? But it came at a heavy price. I let go of 1.5 Monster Boxes(at $37 per coin)of ASE’s for a hefty… Read more »
All that for the “down payment”! Figuratively and literally above my pay grade.
As much as I didn’t want to let go of the Silver, I chose it over Gold or cash on hand for the trade. The sole purpose in buying the silver from the beginning was to achieve a decent ROI, and I’m satisfied with the result. Now, maybe I’ll take a look into the Junk Silver chest to see what’s going on in there?
Rick, Monster$ Hard to part but as with me the FHG shutout led me to buy another Pre33 $20. Hard for me to sell gold, silver not so much. Just reviewing things I found I got a 2008 w 1/4z AGE, lowest mintage so it says, same year as he Buffalo fractionals, good year for USM purchases ! Uh oh, rear view mirror warning
The Show Must Go On …. It sounds like you pivoted nicely with the bullion. There’s more than one way to skin a cat (shhhh … don’t let E1 hear that).
REB,
He’s not the only admirer of members of the cat family here; I love ’em too!
I suppose the most interesting part of this story is that SB saw the value of sending an email to buy these back. How often does that happen? They certainly didn’t send me an email to buy back my “handsome russet tab toning” coin from 1936.
Lol(E1 cat, russet toning)!
SB saw the writing on the wall with the Privies, as did Pinehurst, Pure, and others in regard to the std FHG, they were buying them-up!.
A month after the SB Auction, the Greysheet retail value had risen on those Privies, as pictured below, so SB went for it…
“so SB went for it”
And sent out the infamous email. At the time, I LOL’d the letter, because of the Grey-retail(CACg) chart I’d seen above.
CACg coin pricing goes off of Grey-retail coin pricing, to the tee..
Greysheet the gold standard still, just no more buy sell spreads make it your own call. Beautiful coin but very pricey still, except for the regulars still OGPs on eBay about $4500. Not much profit there
REB,
The other day, I had watched the SB ‘Rarities Night’ auction live up until the FHG’s had sold. My post about it had been spammed ‘awaiting approval’ and hasn’t returned?
Anyway, the bulk of my post was about another subject that was interesting to me.
So here goes…
It was amazing to see so much money trading hands for such scarce and rare coins. It was really something to see. One of the items up for auction was not a coin, but a coin die. Not just any die either. It was a cancelled reverse die from a $1 Morgan set from the “S” Mint used during the 1800’s. During live bidding there was a flurry of activity, bringing a $10k proxy bid, all the way up to $38k. I wonder if a certain S-Mint ‘rumor’ had spurred some extra interest in the cancelled die? I guess old… Read more »
I love it. The history major side of me wants to dive in. Then, another side steps in and says, “Remember the great gold whale? The 1861-D. Eyes on the prize, son. And keep that powder dry.”
Well said,
what a numismatic achievement if you pull it off. Be patient, shop around, and let the coin speak to you.
I’m rooting for you REB.
REB,
The 1861-D Gold.
I know(I’m pretty sure?)that the 1861-D Gold that you’re after is the $5 rarity.
The Confederate struck some $1 coins back then, which are rare as well.
Here is a(3 part video) story about one of those coins from Daniel, a coin dealer.
History is cool…
1861-D $1 coin part 2…
1861-D $1 Gold coin part 3…