What coins are worth money nowadays?

What coins are worth money?

• Answer:

  There are really several answers to this question, dealt with below. Legal tender value Legal tender refers to lawful money issued by the central bank or mint of the country. In the US all coins ever issued by the Mint for commerce are still considered legal tender, worth their face value. In numismatic circles the word "coin" is limited to legal tender items, excluding many, but not all, bullion coins, especially those that, in place of a denomination, list something like "one ounce .999 fine silver." Several countries, including the USA and Canada, issue legal tender bullion coins, which are worth more in other ways than their legal tender value. Melt value Coins are made of various materials which have intrinsic value as well. Until 1965, legal tender coins issued in the US were based on their melt value; for example, a "silver dollar" contained one dollar's worth of silver, and a nickel contained 5 cents' worth of nickel and copper. The US went off the precious metals standard in 1965, making the "dollar" the baseline value rather than making the dollar based on the price of silver. This caused many older coins to have increased metal value, which resulted in many coins from the early 1960's to be melted for resale at bullion value. That's how the term "melt value" came about; this is the value of a coin melted down to a quantity of metal. Today's coins in the US are experiencing an interesting issue. Due to the market effects on the values of various metals, including nickel and copper, some coins again contain metal worth more than their face value. Because of that legislation was passed mandating that US coins could not be melted for resale as bullion. With that, though, many older coins have bypassed the melting pot and hold intrinsic precious metal value. These include the "bullion coins" issued by the US Mint, as well as mints from other countries. Third party mints often will produce round silver disks, known in numismatic circles as "silver rounds," that carry intrinsic value due to their metal content. Collectible value More often than not, though, coins and bullion will have a collectible value. Basically this is the price the market is willing to pay for a particular type of coin. Most bullion items that are not legal tender have little collectible value beyond their melt value. Non-circulating legal tender coins, including legal tender bullion coins, often have collectible values in excess of their melt value. Rarely is the collectible value of a coin less than its melt value. Determining the value of a coin Normally the "value" of a collectible coin is the largest of the three values mentioned above. Usually this is the collectible value, especially since the collectible value usually factors the coin's melt value into the price. In most cases the collectible value of a coin is based on the law of supply and demand. Rarer coins — coins that had a significantly lower than average production or coins that have not survived well to the present day — tend to have lower supply than their demand, though the demand may also be low. This means that an older coin that survives in greater quantity may actually have a lower value than a newer coin with a lower production. The condition of a coin is also a vital factor in determining the value of a coin. The final answer What coins are worth money? They all are. How much, though, depends on a large variety of conditions.