Oakton Coins & Collectibles: One of most highly rated coin shops near Prospect Heights

Gold comes in many forms, and we are buyers of them all. We accept yellow and white gold jewelry, even if it is broken, damaged, or unwanted. Estate pieces and designer creations are always welcome, as is dental gold. From 10k to 24k, we evaluate every type of gold and offer fair prices. In addition, we buy gold and silver bullion as well as gold jewelry set with precious gems like diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires. Whatever your gold looks like—coins, bars, or heirloom jewelry—we’re here to purchase it for top value.

Tips for Selling Coin Collections around Prospect Heights

Oakton Coins has put together some information to help you sell your coins.  The value of coins and collections is determined by many factors, so understanding those factors will help you to know if you are getting the price that your collection is worth.  For example, you might have coins that are worth face value, or they could be worth significantly more. Collectors don’t always choose valuable coins; they can collect only coins they consider beautiful, or coins that connect to a particular aspect of history, world coins, etc.  No matter what type of collection yours is, we are here to simplify the process.  

Are you looking for a reputable and respected coin shop to sell your coin or coin collection?  Look no further than Oakton Coins and Collectibles.  Here at Oakton Coins we have friendly numismatic experts that can provide guidance to you whether you have one coin or a whole collection to sell.   You will find our store is a comfortable and professional place whether you are a lifetime coin collector or are the inheritor of a collection.

Terminology/ Types of value

Clickbait Pricing: Wikipedia defines “clickbait” Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) is a text or image link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow (“click”) that link and view, read, stream or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading.  One of the most prevalent types of headlines are those about get-rich-quick schemes including stories of common coins being supposedly worth unrealistic enormous sums of money. Coin prices shown on clickbait are not real, but unfortunately, they do deceive many hopeful people.

Real-World Pricing: The buyer will buy from the seller when the price is right.  This is real-world pricing, or true market value, which is the price agreed upon in an actual transaction.  All other prices are ideas or guesses about the worth. A particular coin is worth what a person will pay for it, and what someone will pay is influenced by the melt value and the numismatic value.

Melt Value Pricing: Melt refers to the recycling process for metals.  All precious metal coins, have an inherent melt-value based on the amount of precious metal content.  It’s important to note that melt-value will fluctuate daily since it is directly tied to the precious metals markets.  United States coins minted before 1965, and other collectible coins may actually contain gold, silver or copper.  The Mint does have special collector’s editions of some coins that contain platinum.  Gold and silver coins may also have a numismatic value on top of the melt-value.  This will depend on their rarity and condition.

Numismatics: Numismatics is the study of physical money: coins, paper currency, and related articles. The basics are that coin rarity and condition drive the prices that collectors will pay. The rarity may depend on how many coins were minted that year or how many people hoarded them.  It may be that an ancient coin is less rare than a more modern coin, or that a small silver coin is worth more than an equally sized gold coin.  This is not readily apparent to a lay person, which is where the studying comes in.  The knowledge of US and foreign coins is necessary to accurately evaluate the worth of a coin.  Oakton Coins & Collectibles prides itself on understanding the coins that are typically desired by collectors and can help you save a lot of time.  We always provide a free evaluation with no obligation.  

Coin price guides:  These guides can be used as a reference to help you establish a reasonable price range for a coin. The downside is that these consumer guides usually have very inflated values.  If you are seeking to buy coins, it is a good idea to check to make sure you are not being asked for too much, but if you are selling a collection, unless you find the right buyer for each particular coin, it is unlikely you will see prices close to these.  Although a good general reference, this is not real-world pricing. 

What a Mess!: We Can Help

There is no one way that collectors organize their coins, but often those that inherit them, inherit what may seem like an unorganized mess. Don’t panic. There is NO need to organize them before you bring them to us.  Our appraisal process begins by grouping the coins into several numismatically relevant categories.  You are welcome to organize them yourself, but please read the categories, as we would not want you to waste your time and effort.  We have seen many collections brought in carefully arranged by date and decade into separate bags or tubes, but we would have to undo all that work.  

When we appraise a collection, the first thing we do is separate coins by their composition (e.g. copper, nickel, silver, or gold). If you decide to organize your collection, sort the coins into these groups:

• • Gold coins 
  • 9o% silver dollars (1878 through 1935) 
  • 9o% silver dimes, quarters, and half dollars (1892 through 1964) 
  • 40% silver JFK half dollars (1965 through 1970) 
  • Lincoln Wheat Cents (1909 through 1958) 
  • Buffalo Nickels (1913 through 1938) 
  • Jefferson Nickels (1938 and later) 
  • All other obsolete U.S. type coins
  • U.S. Mint proof and uncirculated sets 
  • U.S. Mint commemorative sets 
  • Currency and paper money 
  • Foreign coins/tokens

Understanding the Origins of the Collection

Collector interests are as varied as are people but can also be dependent on how much the collector had to spend.   The following questions can help you learn more about the potential value of your coin collection. 

Do you know how much the collector spent on the coins or how regularly they bought?  Is there a will or an insurance policy that can provide insight?  Are there any receipts, bills of sale, invoices, or canceled checks from buying coins?  These may be from coin stores, auction houses, etc.

Although having the answers to these questions can be a step in the right direction, it is not the final word.  This information may be helpful, but you can’t completely depend on any of it.  There are a couple other things to keep in mind.  One: for precious metals, the market fluctuates daily so the amount will not be a fixed figure.  Secondly, the value of coins (and collectible paper money) is what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller. So, the amount spent doesn’t necessarily mean the money was spent on coins of value, but we can help you get an understanding of what you have.  

A final stickiness that people sometimes run into is not being sure if they want to sell their whole collection.   There is no right answer and once you have all the information, the decision may be easier.  Sometimes people will decide only to sell the most valuable coins and save the others for a memento.  Other times they may split up between family members.  One scenario is that the collection is not worth much at all, and it is just better to pass it on to someone young in your family that would appreciate it. 

Buyers to Avoid

• Jewelry Stores and Pawn Shops – Pawn shop owners and jewelry shop owners do not have the expertise in coins to understand numismatic pricing.  They can understand the precious metal part and they pay out a small percentage of that value.
• eBay – eBay is full of coins being sold, but it is also full of scammers and red tape.  It can be risky, time consuming, and costly for a novice. Click here for more information.

Sell gold near me – sell gold locally – Prospect Heights.

Oakton Coins & Collectibles is located near the 94 West (Kennedy) expressway near downtown Evanston, and less than two blocks from the Oakton stop on the Yellow Line CTA (Skokie Swift). It is convenient and close to Arlington Heights, Barrington, Brookfield, Deerfield, Des Plaines, Elmhurst, Elk Grove Village, Evanston, Franklin Park, Forest Glen, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Hoffman Estates, La Grange, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Lincolnwood, Lincolnshire, Lombard, Morton Grove, Naperville, Northbrook, Northfield, Oak Brook, Oak Park, Palatine, Park Ridge, Portage Park, Prospect Heights, Rogers Park, Schaumburg, Skokie, Wheaton, Wheeling, & Winnetka.