Coins3 min read
What is a Buffalo Nickel worth?
Most Buffalo Nickels are worth a few dollars. A handful are worth thousands, and the difference is usually the date, the mint mark and whether you can still read either one.
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What it is, and what it is worth.
Plain guides to what coins and banknotes are worth: mint marks, key dates, silver content, grading, and why a valuation you can repeat out loud beats one that flatters you.
Coins2 min read
What is a wheat penny worth?
Most wheat pennies are worth about five cents. A few dates are worth hundreds, and one of them is the only US cent ever struck in steel.
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Coins2 min read
The 1943 steel penny, and why yours is probably not rare
A billion were struck, so a steel cent is worth about a dollar. The 1943 penny worth six figures is the one made of copper by mistake, and a magnet settles it in a second.
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Coins2 min read
The Shield Nickel, and why apps keep getting it wrong
The first US five-cent piece in nickel ran from 1866 to 1883, carries no date most identifiers can find, and is routinely mistaken for the three-cent piece that shares its look.
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Values2 min read
Why a euro coin is never worth less than a euro
Price guides quote euro coins in dollars, and the exchange rate sometimes puts the quote under the coin's own face value. A coin you can spend is worth what it spends.
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How to2 min read
How to photograph a coin so software can read it
Flat, filled frame, indirect light, and a background that is not a table with a pattern. Five habits that turn a failed scan into a match.
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Coins3 min read
Morgan Dollar values, and the four things that set them
A common Morgan Dollar is worth its silver plus a premium, roughly $69 to $101. Date, mint mark, strike and surface decide whether yours is common.
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How to2 min read
Where the mint mark is on a US coin
One letter, moved several times in a century. Here is where to find it on every circulating denomination, and what each letter means.
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Banknotes2 min read
Are old banknotes worth anything?
Guilders, pesetas, marks and lire cannot be spent, and most are worth a few euros. The ones worth more are worth much more, and condition matters more than it does on coins.
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Values2 min read
Coin grading, in plain terms
A grade is a claim about surface, not just about wear. Here is the scale, what each step actually looks like, and why no photograph can settle it.
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Values3 min read
Which US coins are silver?
Dimes, quarters and halves dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver. Halves from 1965 to 1970 are 40%. Nickels are only silver for three wartime years, and the mint mark tells you which.
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How to3 min read
How to tell if a coin is silver
Five tests you can do at a kitchen table, from the one that takes a second to the one that settles an argument. None of them damage the coin.
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Coins2 min read
Bicentennial quarter value, and the 1776-1976 date that confuses everyone
Over 1.6 billion were struck, so a Bicentennial quarter from change is worth 25 cents. The silver ones came in collector sets and never circulated.
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Coins2 min read
Are state quarters worth anything?
Fifty designs, ten years, and about 34 billion coins. Face value for almost all of them, with a short list of errors that genuinely sell.
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Coins2 min read
Kennedy half dollar value: which years are silver
1964 is 90% silver, 1965 to 1970 are 40%, and everything after is clad. The one nobody checks is the 1967 in a coin jar.
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Coins2 min read
Mercury dime value, and the one date worth a car
A common Mercury dime is worth about its silver, six to ten dollars. The 1916-D is worth a hundred times that, and it is the most faked dime in America.
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Coins2 min read
Peace dollar value, and how it differs from a Morgan
A common Peace dollar is worth about $67 to $90, mostly silver. The 1928 and the high-relief 1921 are the two dates that carry real premiums.
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Coins2 min read
Old British coins explained: pounds, shillings and pence
Twelve pence to a shilling, twenty shillings to a pound, and a florin is two shillings. What the pre-decimal coins were, and which of them are silver.
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Values3 min read
Error coins and damage: how to tell them apart
A mint error happens before the coin leaves the press and is worth money. Everything that happens afterwards is damage and is worth nothing, however dramatic it looks.
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How to2 min read
How to sell a coin without getting fleeced
Find out what it is first, get more than one offer, and understand that a dealer's buy price is not the price you saw online. Four routes, with what each one costs you.
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Banknotes2 min read
Banknote grading: what UNC, AU and VF actually mean
Paper is graded on folds, corners and crispness, and the gap between a perfect note and a folded one is routinely five times the money.
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Banknotes2 min read
Star notes and fancy serial numbers
A star at the end of the serial means the note replaced a spoiled one. Certain number patterns are worth more than the note, and most of them you can spot in a second.
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Banknotes2 min read
The wartime notes worth hundreds: Hawaii, North Africa and silver certificates
In 1942 the US printed money designed to be repudiated if it were captured. Brown seals, yellow seals and HAWAII across the back, and they are worth far more than face.
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Stop reading. Go and look in the drawer.
Point Buck at whatever is in there. It takes about three seconds.