Everything people ask before they call

Nothing, and none. We look at what you have, tell you what it is and roughly what it is worth, and make an offer if we want to buy it. You can take that offer, take it away and think about it, or take it to someone else for a second opinion. We would rather lose a few deals to comparison than have anyone feel rushed. The only thing we ask is that you do not clean anything before we see it.

Three ways, and you can pick whichever is easiest. Call 613-483-4052 and describe what you have. Email hello@coinco.ca. Or use the form on the contact page and attach a few photos: one shot of everything laid out on a table tells us more than a long description. Within a day we will tell you honestly whether it is worth going further, and if it is, we will set up a visit, a meeting in Kingston, or a virtual appointment.

Everything laid out flat in natural light, phone camera is fine, no flash. If a few coins look special, add a closer shot of each side. Include the packaging: albums, holders, old dealer envelopes, certificates and receipts all tell us something. Do not worry about making it look neat. Do not take anything out of holders or flips to photograph it, and please do not wipe anything.

No. Most of the people we work with have never sold a coin before and are dealing with a collection someone else built. Identifying it is our job. If you can read a date or a country name off a few of the coins that helps, but a photo does the same work. There is no such thing as a silly question here.

No. We would rather look at ten coins and find nothing than have you throw away the one that mattered. A single coin can be worth more than a whole album, and the valuable one is rarely the one that looks impressive. Bring the jar of foreign change too.

Yes, with anyone, anywhere. If you are outside Eastern Ontario, or you would simply rather not have someone in your home, we do the whole valuation over video. You show us the coins on a call, we tell you what they are and what they are worth, and we make an offer if we want to buy. It works for a single coin or an entire collection, and it works from Vancouver, Florida or Manchester just as well as from Kingston.

We book a time and send you a video link. Have the coins on a table in good light with your phone or laptop camera pointed down at them. We will ask you to turn coins over, tilt them under the light, and hold a few closer to the camera so we can see surfaces and edges. For anything that matters we will ask for a couple of still photos afterwards. A typical collection takes twenty to forty minutes. You get the same honest walk-through as an in-person visit: what carries the value, what is ordinary, and why.

Yes. After the video valuation we make an offer the same as we would in person, subject to the coins being as seen when they arrive. We agree the shipping arrangements with you before anything is sent, including insured, tracked delivery to us, and we pay by e-transfer or wire once the coins are in hand and checked against what we saw on the call. If anything differs from the video we call you before deciding anything. For consignment the same applies, with shipping to us paid from the proceeds.

For a written valuation we need to see the coins in hand, because grade and problems that are invisible on camera can move a value a long way. A video appointment can give you a reliable range and tell you whether a formal valuation is worth doing. If it is, we arrange for the coins to come to us or for us to come to you.

Because a guide shows a retail number: what a coin might sell for after someone has graded it, photographed it, listed it, insured it, paid selling fees and waited however long it takes to find the one buyer who wants it. Auction results are inflated the same way: the buyer’s premium of 15% to 30% is inside the published price, so the seller received a good deal less than the headline. We are not the end buyer of your coins. We are the people who go and find that buyer, and that takes time, money and risk. The gap between the guide and our offer is the cost of doing all of that. A dealer who quotes you full guide is either mistaken or planning to find the gap somewhere else.

Wholesale, and we say so. On strong material, the coins collectors are actively looking for, the gap between our offer and retail is small because they sell quickly. On common material the gap is larger, because a common coin is a job, not a coin: it might sit for a year before it finds its buyer. Silver and gold bought for their metal are priced from the live spot price at the moment of the offer, less a margin for refining and handling, with the arithmetic shown to you.

Against what comparable coins have actually sold for recently, in the same grade, in the same kind of holder, with the same eye appeal. Not against a printed guide, which lags the market and can be badly wrong in thin series. We look at the date and mint mark, the grade, whether it has been cleaned or damaged, whether it is certified, and how many buyers there are for it right now. You hear the reasoning as we go, and you keep the written valuation.

An itemised list of the significant coins with our opinion of grade and value, plus a line for the common silver and scrap by weight, dated and signed. Executors use it for probate and for dividing an estate fairly between beneficiaries. Families use it to decide whether to sell at all. You get one whether or not you sell to us, and it is valid for a stated period so nobody is pushed into deciding on the spot.

Yes, and it happens more than you would think. If a coin belongs in a specialist auction, or is worth submitting for grading yourself before you sell it, we say so, even when it means we do not buy it. It costs us the odd sale and it is the only way a dealer is worth calling twice.

Selling outright is one written offer for the lot, paid by cash or e-transfer the day you accept. Certain, fast, finished. Consignment means we sell your coins for you through our eBay store and live auctions, and you are paid from the proceeds as each sale clears. Consignment can reach collector prices on better material instead of a dealer’s wholesale number, but it takes longer, the price is whatever the buyers pay that day, and there are fees. Most people with an ordinary collection are better off with the offer. Most people with a few genuinely good coins and no deadline should at least consider consignment. We will tell you which we would do with yours.

Our commission is 20% of the sale proceeds. Platform and auction fees also come out of the proceeds, and those run from about 5% to 15% depending on where a coin sells. Shipping the coins to us, and shipping and handling to the buyer, are paid from the proceeds at actual cost with no markup. You receive a statement showing every deduction. As a worked example, a coin that sells for $1,000 with 10% platform fees would return you roughly $655 after commission, fees and typical shipping.

Yes. An auction pays whatever the buyers in the room are willing to pay that day, and that pool changes from week to week. Sometimes a coin runs well past anyone’s estimate. Sometimes it comes in under, and once the hammer falls that is the price. Consignment suits people who can wait, who have better material, and who are comfortable with that range. If you need a certain number by a certain date, take the offer instead.

On a few coins, sometimes, and we will tell you which ones. On a whole collection it is rarely worth it. You are looking at photographing and describing every lot, fees on each sale, packing and posting, and handling returns and disputes, spread over months. What we buy, we buy in one transaction. If you want a shot at collector prices on the better pieces without doing that work, that is what consignment is for.

For an outright sale, cash or e-transfer the day you accept the offer, and you keep a copy of the itemised offer as your record. For consignment, as each sale clears, by e-transfer, with a statement. For remote purchases after a virtual appointment, by e-transfer or wire once the coins arrive and are checked.

By weight and purity against the spot price at the time of the offer, less a margin for refining and handling. We put the item on the scale in front of you, tell you the purity we are using and why, show you the spot price we are working from, and do the arithmetic where you can see it. That is the whole method, and it is the difference between us and a pawn shop, which typically pays a fraction of melt and does not show its working.

Bullion coins and bars: Maple Leafs, Eagles, Britannias, Krugerrands, rounds, and bars from any refiner. Older circulating silver: Canadian coins dated 1967 and earlier, US dimes, quarters, halves and dollars dated 1964 and earlier, which are often called junk silver and are anything but. Sterling flatware, tea sets and hollowware. Gold jewellery in any condition, broken or not, and dental gold. Anything with a hallmark or a karat stamp, and plenty of things without one.

Sometimes. Most pre-1967 Canadian and pre-1965 US silver is worth its metal and trades that way, and we price it by weight. But certain dates, mint marks and conditions inside those same piles are worth many times melt to a collector, which is why we sort before we weigh rather than after. That sort is free and it is the part most buyers skip.

Usually not. Third-party grading costs money per coin plus shipping and insurance both ways, and it only pays for itself on coins where the grade is both high and genuinely uncertain. On most collections it costs more than it adds. If we see a coin that is worth submitting we will say so, including when that means telling you to sell it yourself afterwards.

PCGS and NGC are the ones the market trusts, and in Canada ICCS is widely accepted for Canadian material. A coin in one of those holders is bought and sold on the label. A holder from a company nobody has heard of adds nothing, and we will value the coin as if it were raw. That is not a criticism of your coin, only of the plastic around it.

The grading service has decided the coin is genuine but has a problem, usually cleaning, scratches, environmental damage or a repair, and has declined to give it a straight numeric grade. It still has value, often a good deal of it, but it trades at a discount to a problem-free example, and we price it that way honestly rather than pretending the note is not there.

Toning is colour that forms naturally on silver over decades: gold, blue, violet, russet. On an original, uncleaned coin it can add value, sometimes a lot. The mistake is thinking it is tarnish and polishing it off, which destroys the surface and the value with it. Artificially toned coins, which have been coloured on purpose to fake that premium, are worth less than untoned ones, and telling the two apart is part of what we do.

Because it is the single most expensive mistake in the hobby, and it is irreversible. A cleaned coin is worth a fraction of the same coin left alone, sometimes a tenth. Polish, silver dip, baking soda, a cloth, an eraser, toothpaste: all of it strips the original surface a collector is paying for. If a coin looks dull or dirty, that is usually exactly how a collector wants it. Please bring it as it is.

Only that you have the authority to sell. We can provide a written, itemised valuation for the estate file, which is often needed for probate or for dividing an estate between beneficiaries, whether or not you end up selling to us. We are used to working with lawyers and with families who are dealing with this at a bad time, and we keep it discreet.

No. Do not sort, do not discard, and do not let anyone take the good ones out first. The valuable coin in a collection is rarely the one that looks impressive. Foreign coins that look like holiday change, a worn cent, a bent token: any of them can be the piece that matters. Bring the whole lot, including the packaging and any paperwork, certificates or old invoices. Provenance can add real money.

Yes. For estates, safes, safety deposit boxes, or anything you would rather not transport, we come to you anywhere in Eastern Ontario at no charge, and we are happy to meet at a bank branch or a lawyer’s office if that is where the coins are. Further afield, we start with a virtual appointment and go from there.

Please do. A collection of any size deserves a second opinion. If our valuation is fair it will stand up to comparison, and if it does not you should know that. Our offers are written and valid for a stated period precisely so you have time to check.

Our inventory is in our eBay store, which is where the photographs, descriptions and prices live. Collectors in Kingston are welcome to see coins in person by appointment. If you are looking for something specific, leave a want list through the contact form and we will tell you when it comes through.

Never. Every coin we sell is in hand and photographed by us, with no filters, no retouching and no stock images. What you see in a listing is the coin you get, and if you want more angles or a video under the light before you buy, ask and we will send them.

Conservatively, and the same way every time. Raw coins are described by eye in plain language and our grade is an opinion, stated as one. Certified coins are described exactly as the grading service graded them, never regraded upward in the description. Where a coin has a problem, it goes in the description before the sale, not after.