To sell your coins valued under $10 each, find a collector or dealer who wants your coins. They are most likely to pay you most. Find collectors and dealers at local coin shows. Or, one large eBay lot with many photographs might work. This works best for those well-established on eBay.

Auction houses and major coin dealers usually do not have interest in coins valued under $10. Certification is not cost effective in this case. Pick the coins you think are most valuable and get a second opinion, just to be sure.

Washington Presidential Dollar coin. The U.S. Mint introduced Presidential Dollars in 2007. Their gold coloration confuses some people unfamiliar with their copper-nickel composition. Unless they are in spectacular condition (much nicer than this pictured version), they’re worth one dollar.

Below is a list of coins that you should get a second opinion to verify they’re common and low-value. After that list, we give you professional advice about how and where to sell your coins. First, get a second opinion on your most valuable coins. You should probably not invest time and money into certification until you’re sure your coins are low-value. Then, sell the entire lot of coins on eBay. It might make sense to study eBay and build up your rating before making a major sale.

– Your best bet is to find a collector to sell to
– If they need your coins for their collection, they’ll probably pay you the most because they’re likely to have the cash on hand.
– There are other options, but they usually don’t work as well as this.

Get a Grading Opinion? It’s a good idea.

If you think you have coins worth under $10 each, it can’t hurt to make sure you’re right. If you have a lot of coins in this value range, the time it takes to go through them may outweigh what your time is worth to you. Pick a few of your favorites – as many as you feel make a representative group – and get a professional coin grading opinion about them. That way, you’re sure you’re not giving anything away.

The cost of getting coins like this certified far outweighs the value of the coin, so most people will not opt for TPG certification. But getting a coin grading opinion is a less expensive option for coins valued under $10, and it will give you peace of mind.

Where to Get Professional Grading Opinions: Coin Dealers, Coin Shows

Good places to get grading opinions for coins like this are local coin dealers and coin shows (where you can meet many dealers). You might tell them that you’re thinking of getting your batch of coins certified and try to gauge their opinion. Definitely get more than one opinion and let them take their time looking at the coins. If they don’t take their time reviewing your coins carefully, take them to somebody else. If they make you an offer, make sure you get a second opinion before you take any offers.

Should I Get My Coins Certified? Almost never.

For coins valued under $10, Third-Party Grading certification almost always costs much more than the coins are worth. You can do it for the fun of it, but understand that what you spend may be a sunk cost.

This is why it’s a great idea to get a professional opinion first, especially one from a disinterested party. That way, if you do happen to have anything valuable, they’ll make you aware so you can go through your collection again before you sell.

This 90% silver 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar is graded Extremely Fine 45 by a TPG. The coin is only worth its bullion value ($5 – $6 at time of writing), graded or raw.

Selling Coins Valued Under $10: Coin Dealers, Coin Shows, Large eBay Lot

When you go to sell your coins valued under $10 each, it’s usually best to keep them together. If you try to group lots, they usually end up selling for less than they’re worth. When you get a large enough lot together though, it really starts to make sense for both buyer and seller. As a buyer, you know what you’re getting, and as a seller, you have a lot less hassle.

Coin dealers will often buy large lots also. If they’re not interested in anything in your group, they will tell you to keep it. This is where eBay can have an advantage – you can sell everything together.

Another thing to keep in mind with coins valued under $10: price guides are often not accurate. And their accuracy is often not the direction you want as a seller. There are thousands of coins with $5 price guide values that in real world terms sell for cents, or perhaps a $1. That’s just how these things are, unfortunately!

Should I Keep My Coins Worth Under $10? Why not?

If your coins each valued under $10 aren’t taking up space or are too heavy to move, why not hold on to them? Even if they’re not extremely valuable, they’re always interesting! Especially for the right family member that knows nothing about them… Any history buff will get a kick out of your coins. If for whatever reason you’re not interested, perhaps somebody else in your family will enjoy them.

These are tricky pieces. You be to get unconventional if you want to maximize your sale with coins valued under $10 each.

It’s a well known fact that the best way to maximize values of coins (at least, in an honest manner) is to have them certified. Certification is not really an option for coins valued under $10 because the grading fees alone (forget shipping) will eat up the entire value of the coin, maybe more. Maybe much more.

Not-so-great-option #1:
Sell to a dealer

Most coin dealers don’t want these coins. They’re hard to sell, and they’re quite hard to make money on.

Think about it: if a dealer makes between 10% and 50% margin on each coin, it’s likely a waste of their time. They have to put all the same work in selling a coin for $10 as they do a $100 coin or a $1000 coin, but they may make $1 instead of $20 or $100.

Unless your dealer specializes in bringing along new collectors who do not have much capitol, they’re not going to want your coin. That’s why, when you go to a major coin show, a huge percentage of dealers mainly have $1000 coins and up. All dealers have coins in the hundreds of dollars usually, but what they really want to move are the big money coins.

So if you choose to try to sell your low-value coins (coins with collector values under $10) to a dealer, you don’t have much bargaining power. You pretty much be to take what they offer you, because if you try to haggle too much, they’ll just ask you to leave. Sometimes politely.

Coin dealers are in business to make money, not to help you make money. If you’re a serious collector who buys from them regularly and you have a great relationship with them, your chances of them helping you out are higher. But if not, don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s just that the coins you have are not the business they want to be in.

(The same is true for high-value problem coins. If they don’t have buyers for your coins, it’s not their fault. Most high dollar collectors – the ones dealers can work with and make an honest living – don’t want problem coins. It’s not that they’re bad, they’re just not nearly as liquid.)

Coins valued under $10 tend to sit around brick and mortar shops collecting dust. Not always, but often. And the dealer can’t do anything else with them but watch them collect dust if they don’t happen to have the right buyers coming in regularly.

If you find a buying dealer, count your blessings!

Now, after all that negativity, don’t rule out selling your coins under $10 each to a dealer. If you have a good old fashioned brick and mortar store nearby, or you don’t mind trucking your collection to a show, it can’t hurt to give a few dealers a shot. You never know until you try. However, unless you have some valuable coins thrown in, your chances aren’t usually all that good.

Not-so-great-option #2:
Consign Your Coins Valued Under $10 to a Coin Dealer

Yeah, for the same reasons listed above. If they take a 20% or 30% commission, 20% of not much is nothing to most serious coin dealers.

Not-so-great-option #3:
Sell on eBay

You might be thinking, ‘well, why doesn’t a dealer just buy them and sell them for more on ebay?’

They don’t do that for the same reasons you don’t want to do that – unless you have a whole lot of spare time.

eBay and PayPal fees take 15% or more off the top. You can ship a coin for $0.50, but as soon as you encounter a dishonest buyer or problems with USPS, you’re screwed.

So to protect yourself, you have to ship everything with a tracking, now you’re looking at $2.50. Most buyers won’t agree to that unless they an get multiple items shipped together. You might have to offer free or cheap shipping to get your coin to sell. So you’re $10 coin nets you a cool $6 IF it sells for $10.

And that’s a big ‘if’.

So cool, you’ve made $6. What’s the problem with that? Well, nothing if you’re willing to work for free. You need to take great, honest photographs of your coins to minimize returns and keep your customers happy. And even if you do, they may not like the coin. (Coin collectors are extremely picky.) If your buyer returns your coin, you’ll get your fees back, but you may not get your shipping.

Then you have to provide a nice, enticing, honest listing. It can take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes (maybe more, especially when you’re new) to post a coin on eBay. And you have to grade and price your coin accurately if you’re doing a BIN. Count in the time taking and editing photographs, and you’re probably in the whole process 15 to 30 minutes per coin.

You could just let the coin run on a 99 cent auction, but many times coins valued under $10 will actually sell for a dollar or two. Price guides are almost always high. The reason the coin only has a book value of $10 is because it has little or no intrinsic (bullion) value and because numismatistically speaking, it’s quite common. If it’s not hard to find and it’s not really nice, it’ll probably sell for under $5.

After fees and shipping, you’re probably getting two bucks for your $10 coin, maybe a little more. And if that’s worth 15 to 30 minutes of your time, knock yourself out – that’s great! You can corner the market.

It can be done. But most don’t want to do it. If you choose to go this route, I encourage a lot of study first. If you overprice your coins and they sell, eventually your luck will catch up with you, your seller rating will suffer, and nobody will buy from you. If you run your coins in honest auctions, you won’t get much for your coins.

A better plan is to put everything in a large lot. Take the same great pictures, write the same, excellent, honest descriptions of each coin, but sell them together. Be careful of your buyer – make sure they’ve done this before. It’s either a collecter getting into coins or a dealer who knows how to deal with them wholesale.

Not-so-great-option #4:
Consign to an Auction House: No.

This is not really an option. The big auction houses won’t take your coins valued under $10. And the smaller ones won’t, either, unless you send them many, many much more valuable coins.

You may be able to donate your coins to auctions put on by coin clubs for Young Numismatists or charity.

Option #5:
Sell to a Coin Collector

This takes some work, but it can be done. There are coin forums all over the Internet. If you can establish rapport with a collector interested in what you have, you can sell them coins.

To make the shipping work, try to sell a few at a time. This will give you a chance to feel each other out, too.

Another option is to find a local coin club. The recommendation here is to approach the leadership with what you want to do and see if they’ll help you find a collector. Just be honest with them and if it’s a fit, great!

Option 6:
Hold on to them

So this article is really about selling your coins, but an option is always to just hold on to them and pass them on to somebody who will really enjoy them.

And there’s nothing keeping you from really enjoying them! If you’ve read this far into this article, you might be among the tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands, depending who you task to) of collectors around the world that it enjoy the art, history, and people of the coin collecting hobby. You’re in an enviable position in that you can easily upgrade your existing collection without much capitol. Your coins are a fabulous starting place!

But if you’re thinking of keeping them, understand that for the most part, they’re not likely to skyrocket in value any time soon. If they’re 30, 40, 50, 100 years old and only worth a few bucks, another 10 or 20 is not likely to change that.

That said, they are more interesting to hold than straight cash. It’s really difficult to predict the long term coin market at this point in time, so your guess is as good as mine (with honest to goodness years upon years invested in learning this business). If they’re not made of a valuable metal, they’re never going to need to be melted. And if they haven’t appreciated yet, it’s because they’re common. And the adage goes: the rare coins keep getting rarer, the common coins keep getting more common.

So there you go, there’s the rundown on how to sell your coins valued under $10. Best of luck selling to you!

And no, we’re not interested. (This site is about helping you learn, not buying and selling coins.) But thank you for the offer.