WBTV Interview: Get more out of your pocket change

There’s a lot of bogus information out there about coin collecting and the value of coin collections that can mislead people – so we always try to make sure anyone interested in rare coins, whether they have inherited a coin collection or compiled their own, has a reliable source of information they can turn to.

What makes Coinfully different to other coin traders is that our mission first and foremost is to help inform people about rare coins and the history behind their own coin collections before even having any discussion about buying coins.

So when our president Wyatt McDonald was invited to be interviewed recently on WBTV’s QC@3 show, we jumped at the opportunity! Wyatt’s conversation with QC@3 co-anchor Dr. Cheryl Butler Brayboy can be replayed here and is transcribed for your benefit below.

CBB: Okay, so there’s something called common coins. These are the coins that might be worth something, but the coins we might find in our pockets, stuffed in the couch or in our cars. Talk about them.

WM: Common coins are designs that we know – Washington quarter, Lincoln cent, anything like that. But there’s something special about them that makes them worth more money than just what they are able to be spent for. And what I would say is probably the easiest way to get more money out of your pocket change is looking for dimes, quarters and half dollars that are made before 1964. Because they were made out of silver.

CBB: So those are valuable, right?

WM: They’re made of 90 percent silver, which right now, is worth about 20 times what it says on the back. So a quarter is worth five bucks.

CBB: OK, so if we find a coin like that, what do we do with it?

WM: Sell it to me! If you find something like that, basically, you want to get it appraised. And if your goal is to sell, you go to a place like Coinfully that will buy it and give you today’s updated price for it.

CBB: Okay, very cool. They’re also coins that have a familiar design on them – we’re talking pennies, quarters – what kinds of designs should we be looking for?

WM: There’s two types of designs to look for. There’s designs on coins that you see today and you spend and they’re still coming out and then there’s designs that are considered vintage like a nickel with a buffalo on it. Or the Indian Head cent or something like that. But those coins are usually valuable no matter what because the way they made them and how many they made of them is usually rarer than the designs that you currently see.

CBB: Okay, so they’re limited in number. What about the wheat penny?

WM: The wheat cent they made until 1958. They made quite a few of them. If you think about it, that was our spending penny. A penny went a longer way back then. But the wheat-backed cent with the wheat ears on the back, some of them like the 1909-S VDB wheat cent is, at the minimum, worth 700 bucks. So if you find that one, you’re doing good, they can go up into the thousands and thousands of dollars.

CBB: Seriously? I know there are people watching who had those pennies when they were kids and they spent them. They got rid of them. And now they’re going ‘Ugh, why did that happen?’

WM: That’s why they’re so valuable. As they get spent and thrown away – I mean, no-one ever threw away money on purpose – but, as it happened, the coin that that was already not made in the same numbers as current currency becomes strikingly more valuable.

CBB: Okay, what about quarters? Is there something interesting about certain quarters?

WM: Some quarters like the Washington quarter – like I said, everything made before 1964 is silver – but even for that design, the 1932 quarter made in San Francisco and Denver, they made almost none of them. So those coins themselves are a couple of hundred bucks, up to thousands.

CBB: I remember that centennial quarter.

WM: Yeah, with the drummer boy on it.

CBB: Yeah, very cool. Now, collectible coins. These are the ones where we’re talking serious money.

WM: So that’s the type of stuff that you’re not going to be able to find in pocket change. You know, there’s coins, like the Morgan dollar or the coin that I have here [Cheryl shows coin to camera], large size silver dollars. The one here was made in 1798. It’s called the flowing hair design. And that one’s worth about $4,000. The coin grading scale goes from one to 70 and that one’s only in 40 and it’s still worth four grand. That’s how expensive they can get.

CBB: OK, this one’s very cool. It is a large, is it a silver dollar?

WM: Yeah, that’s the size of the dollars that they made until about the 1920s.

CBB: All right, if you have one of these you guys, it’s worth a lot of money.

WM: It can be worth up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars and coins like that are incredibly collectible. And there’s a lot of people who still want those coins so they’re easy to sell.

CBB: All right. So if folks want to bring their coins to you, where can they find you?

WM: Coinfully does a simple online appraisal. We service the whole country and to get a market leading price all you have to do is send us a couple of pictures. It’s super easy. For large collections or collections of historical importance we go out to you. You can get the best price for your coins all from a simple online appraisal that you can do from your home.

CBB: So save your grandmother’s coins, guys. They could be worth thousands of dollars! Wyatt McDonald from Coinfully, thanks for being here.

A special thanks to QC@3 for helping spread numismatic education and inviting us on the show!

At Coinfully we offer a reliable, realistic and transparent valuation based on prices buyers are willing to pay right now. We’re coin collectors ourselves, we’ve got years of experience in this field and
know how to get you the best outcome for your whole family.

Submit an appraisal or call our team today for a no-obligation chat.