Those of you new to collecting old coins may be finding American one cent copper coins like these on a fairly regular basis and you may find yourself wondering how much they might be worth if you were to try and cash in.
I have good new and bad news for you. The bad news is that they are some of the most common wheat back pennies in circulation and therefore not worth much more than their face value. This is because the 1957-D was very heavily minted and at approximately 65 years old it's not yet old enough to carry any real value even in high mint condition grades. If we were to translate coin years to human years this coin would not even be old enough to drink yet.
That being said there is some good news. Most sites will tell you that pennies from this date are worth only two or three times their face value in circulated condition. However you can sell them on bidding sites and get 5 cents each for them or even more if you have the right strategy in place. In other words take good pictures, have good sales text and descriptions, and try to get some sales leads before you start your online auction. You also need to have a high rating on the bidding website and start the bids out at zero. I know it sounds risky but I've seen it work.
Most people would prefer to just keep these 1950s one cent coins and wait for public desire for them to increase. The only problem with that is you will be waiting a long time. These coins were so heavily minted that most wheat penny collectors have stacked several rolls of them.
Of course if you're a young collector, hoarding these Lincoln pennies is fine because you will most likely live long enough to see them increase in value multiple times. I am a fairly old numismatist so I don't want to see my collection squandered by someone who will just roll them up and take them back to the bank.
if you're lucky enough to have a mature collector in your family then the problem of maintaining your collection may be solved as you have someone to pass your old coins down to if you should pass away prematurely. Personally I don't have this luxury and I'm looking into donating my collection to a charity that can auction them off after I'm gone. I'm thinking perhaps some children's cancer research group like St Judes hospital.
Whatever you decide to do don't make the mistake of doing nothing. You've spent a lot of time amassing your treasure and you don't want to see it slip away or fall into the wrong hands if calamity should befall you. Think of all the times you have found multiple rare old coins in one bank roll. Those were probably grampas coins that went back into circulation after he had his last heart attack.
Comments
Post a Comment