How much is 5 gal. of old coins worth?

A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins. The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend she is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........

Bill wrote:
I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I used to have had about $700
when it was 3/4 full.

I'm sitting here looking at a 1.5 liter wine bottle that I have been saving
dimes in for a good while. It's about 2/3 full, and has about $175 in it. Of
course, if the jar she has is top-heavy with pennies, that would be one
thing. But from what you've said, I would think that an offer of a grand
would not be a bad offer...

Larry

Tell her you'll count it and offer a 5% premium over what CoinStar will give
her (95c on the dollar), cull out the silver, and deposit the rest at the
bank. Worst case is that it's all cents. If she was heading to the
CoinStar machine, she didn't care about the silver (unless CoinStar rejects
silver coins as overweight). I don't know what a gallon of cents weighs,
but I'll estimate 15 pounds and assume the densities of cents, nickels,
dimes, and quarters are all the same for sake of calculations, since the
bucket was full before zinc cents were released. 5 gallons would be 75
pounds or about $100 face value (a $50 bag of copper cents weighs 37
pounds). A dime weighs about 2/3 of what a cent weighs, so 75 pounds of
dimes would be about $1500. Since a quarter weighs 2.5x what a dime weighs,
75 pounds of quarters (or mixed quarters and dimes) would still be $1500. A
cent weighs 3/5 of what a nickel weighs, so 75 pounds of nickels would be
about $300.

If the bucket is 1/2 cents, 1/3 nickels, and 1/6 dimes, quarters, and
halves, that comes out to $50 + $100 + $250 = $400. Assuming junk silver is
currently 4x face, the most the dime/quarter/half portion would be worth is
$1000.

John Baumgart

"Bill" wrote in message
.com...
A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins.
The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was
retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend she
is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........

You'll not find much silver -- there wasn't that much around even in 1980.
I'd just offer to go through them all (which will be fun!), pull anything
valuable, and buy them for 1/2 blue book value.

--K


"Bill" wrote in message
.com...
A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins.
The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was
retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend she
is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........

Yeah, you never know what you'll find. If the jar was filled in the 80's,
there's a chance you could find the 1983 Lincoln doubled die, or 1984
doubled ear, among other varieties. In fact, I found an 83 double die in my
change about 5 years ago. Keep a look out!



"Keith Fletcher" wrote in message
...
You'll not find much silver -- there wasn't that much around even in 1980.
I'd just offer to go through them all (which will be fun!), pull anything
valuable, and buy them for 1/2 blue book value.

--K


"Bill" wrote in message
.com...
A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins.
The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was
retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend
she
is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug
I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all
at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing
there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........

Bill wrote:
A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins. The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend she is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........




I haven't the foggiest notion of the worth of the contents but watch out if it is a glass
jug. I have heard that the chances of the bottom breaking out if handled improperly is great.

--
George D
Phoenix, AZ
AAA, AARP, ANA, NRA, RCC ?+1, PIA, PIAAZ, GATF 85006-3032-18-4

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John Baumgart wrote:

Tell her you'll count it and offer a 5% premium over what CoinStar will give
her (95c on the dollar), cull out the silver, and deposit the rest at the
bank. Worst case is that it's all cents. If she was heading to the
CoinStar machine, she didn't care about the silver (unless CoinStar rejects
silver coins as overweight). I don't know what a gallon of cents weighs,
but I'll estimate 15 pounds and assume the densities of cents, nickels,
dimes, and quarters are all the same for sake of calculations, since the
bucket was full before zinc cents were released. 5 gallons would be 75
pounds or about $100 face value (a $50 bag of copper cents weighs 37
pounds). A dime weighs about 2/3 of what a cent weighs, so 75 pounds of
dimes would be about $1500. Since a quarter weighs 2.5x what a dime weighs,
75 pounds of quarters (or mixed quarters and dimes) would still be $1500. A
cent weighs 3/5 of what a nickel weighs, so 75 pounds of nickels would be
about $300.

If the bucket is 1/2 cents, 1/3 nickels, and 1/6 dimes, quarters, and
halves, that comes out to $50 + $100 + $250 = $400. Assuming junk silver is
currently 4x face, the most the dime/quarter/half portion would be worth is
$1000.

John Baumgart

"Bill" wrote in message
.com...
A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins.
The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was
retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend she
is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........

"George D" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:
A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins.
The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was
retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend
she is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.


I haven't the foggiest notion of the worth of the contents but watch out
if it is a glass
jug. I have heard that the chances of the bottom breaking out if handled
improperly is great.

Having had a front-row seat to such an incident, let me add that it's quite
spectacular - and painful - when the glass gives way. Tip the bottom up and
get a board or box under it before moving it around. (Ours was 2-feet high
glass Coke bottle full of coins that exploded.)
--
Zamboni

A relative of a friend has a 5 gallon water bottle full of mixed coins. The
jar was full since about 1980 and remained idle ever since (she was retired
and lived by herself). Now she is moving, the friend informes friend she is
about to take the coins to a coinstar and cash it all in.

Knowing that I have an interest in coins, my friend suggested I make an
offer that she might accept. I know from experience that a 5 gallon jug I
used to have had about $700 when it was 3/4 full. These coins are all at
least 23 years old, and possibly some silver.

Should I offer maybe $1,00 for the jar? Or if she counters, knowing there
may be some silver, what is the most you would pay??

Thanks for any comments........



I had a similar situation a little while back. A friend from work had to put
her mother into a nursing home. Her mother had a peculiar habit of squirreling
away change and had been doing this for years. While cleaning out her house,
they found baggies, purses, drawers, pockets of coats, etc full of loose
change. My friend had already taken a few $100 worth down to the coinstar
before she told me. I told her I'd LOVE to search through what was left and
would take what I didn't want down to the coinstar for her.

I forget how much I searched through. Found no silver, a handful of wheaties,
early Jeffersons, but found a HUGE amount of BU 70s/80s coins and was able to
upgrade quite a bit in my circulation albums.

So, that might be a better solution. Offer to cash the change in for her, and
take the opportunity to search through it first.

Robert Shaw
--
Does olive oil really help with corroded coins? Check out my experiment at:
http://www.mindspring.com/~robe294/o...xperiment.html