Selling coins, gold or silver
Bring it as you found it.
Don't sort it, don't clean it, don't guess what it's worth. That part's my job and it's free. I'll tell you what it's worth before I tell you what I can pay — and why those are two different numbers.
What I buy
If it's on this list, bring it. If it isn't, bring it anyway and I'll tell you what it is.
- Old U.S. coins, anything dated before 1965
- Silver dollars, big and heavy (Morgan and Peace)
- Gold coins, U.S. and foreign
- Bags or jars of old dimes, quarters and halves (junk silver)
- Broken and unwanted gold jewelry
- Gold dental work
- Sterling silverware, trays and bowls
- Old paper money, including silver certificates
- Sets still in the government packaging
- NORFED and Liberty Dollar material
- Goldbacks and Aurum notes
- Whole collections and estates
What I'll turn down
- Plated or gold-filled jewelry. There is no real metal in it to pay you for
- Most modern commemoratives sold on television
- Anything I don't have a market for. I'll tell you so and hand it back
- Anything worth more to you than it's worth. Keep it
“If it's sentimental to you, keep it. I'll tell you I don't want to buy it.”
What to bring
- All of it, as found. The whole can, box or binder. Don't sort, don't clean.
- A photo ID. Required by Michigan law on any purchase; it protects you as much as me.
- Anything that came with it. Receipts, holders, the old price list, dad's notes. They're worth more than you'd think.
How an offer works
No appointment needed on an open day. Nothing happens in a back room, and nothing gets kept overnight.
We go through it together
Right here, in front of you. Not overnight, not out of sight, nothing kept in a back room.
Three piles
Common, better, best. Most of what comes across the table is common, and that's not an insult. It's what most collections are.
We open the book
On the best pieces, together. Either you've really got something or your dad collected the ordinary stuff. Both are worth knowing.
Value first, then the offer
What it's worth, then what I can pay, and the honest reason there's a gap. From that point on I'm carrying the risk and the time.
You take it or you don't
No obligation. It costs nothing to find out, and you can leave with everything you came with.
When you call you get me, not a menu. If I'm on watch, leave a message and I call back — usually the same day, always within one.
Scrap gold, jewelry and sterling
The number most buyers would rather you didn't know is what the metal itself is worth. I'd rather you did.
Broken chains, single earrings, class rings, dental gold, a drawer of sterling — I test it in front of you with acid, a loupe and a calibrated scale, and I show you the weight and the purity before I say a number. The melt calculator on this site gives you the ceiling ahead of time: what the metal is worth at this minute's price with nothing taken out. Any real offer, mine or anybody's, comes in under it, because somebody has to refine it, ship it and carry the risk while the price moves. When we sit down I'll show you exactly where my number lands and why.
And it cuts the other way too: a collectible coin can be worth far more than its metal. That's the whole reason not to let anyone weigh your father's coins and hand you a melt price. Bring them in first.
Sets in the government packaging are worth more than their metal. So are a lot of things that look ordinary.
Whatever you do, don't clean them.
Polishing a coin is the fastest way to turn something collectible into scrap metal. A dark, ugly coin is often worth many times a bright, shiny one. Bring it exactly as you found it. Dirt, tarnish and all.
If you need it in writing
Plenty of people need more than a number and a handshake. A brother in another state who wants to know what you got. An attorney settling the estate. Sometimes a court or an insurance company.
What I can give you
A written, itemized offer on my letterhead, signed and dated. Every lot listed, with what I'm paying for it and why. Free, no obligation, and yours to keep whether you sell to me or not. For most families, and for most brothers in other states, that's the document that settles it.
What I cannot give you
A formal appraisal for a probate court, for the tax people, or for an insurance claim. Those have to be written by a certified appraiser working to a national standard, and I am not one. There is also a plain conflict in it: I would like to buy your collection, and the person who values it for a court should not be the person hoping to own it.
If your estate needs that kind of appraisal, tell me and I'll point you to somebody who does them properly. It costs you nothing to ask me first.
Send photos, ask for a call back
Tell me what you've got and when you'd like a call. Photos help but aren't required. I'll get back to you myself, usually within a day.