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Coin Appraisal
Every now and again a person is lucky enough to clean out their garage or their attic and discover a box of treasures. While these treasures are sometimes nothing more than happy memories there are times when these treasures might actually turn out to be treasures after all. Finding a box filled with neatly organized, tagged and clean coins from all over the world and times can be a treasure if someone is lucky enough. But whether or not these coins are worth something is a task that will have to be done by someone skilled in coin appraisal. To the average person the mysterious ways of coins and how much they are worth can be a little daunting.
When collectors look at coins to determine their value, the coin appraisal is based on somewhat arbitrary rules and the opinions of the current experts in the field. One will find that coin appraisal is usually not based on what the coin is made of in many instances as the value of the metal that coin is made of is often of no interest to hardcore collectors. What is of importance to these folks when it comes to coin appraisal is how popular the coin is among collectors. Secondly they will look at whether the coin had some sort of historical significance and if it did not really have any then they will look into its rarity. This obviously differs between different groups of collectors so it would be best to speak to them about the collection that is going to be appraised. They may have different criteria for coin appraisal than a group on the other side of the same town.
Scholars and academics are one such group that has a different set of criteria for coin appraisal. These criteria determine whether the coin in question is a ‘true coin’. What exactly a ‘true coin’ is, is a rather complex and involved explanation that is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice to say that scholars and academics have three important criteria to determine whether a coin is ‘true’ or not. The first is whether the coin is made from some sort of precious substance and whether the value of the coin is linked the actual value of that substance. The second criterion is that the coin must be from a set of coins that all had a standardized weight and purity when they were originally minted. The final criterion is whether or not the coin has some sort of marking on denoting who or what made it ‘legal’ per se.
It is obvious that when one looks at coin appraisal the two different methods are widely different. In some cases the collectors may offer more and others the academics will offer more. Do not be disappointed if great-granddad’s collection is not worth much in modern money. Just remember that it was worth a lot to him.
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