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The Value of a Coin Depends on its Condition Click to return to Coin FAQsChard 24 Carat Home Page

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Uncirculated Sovereign
Uncirculated Sovereign

Silver Britannia in Uncirculated Condition
Silver Britannia in Proof Condition

Victoria £5 in Extremely Fine Condition
Victoria £5 in Extremely Fine Condition

1671 Halfcrown in Fine Condition
Charles II Halfcrown in Fine Condition

Coin Values Depend on Condition

But Why?
Simple! Most collectors would prefer coins in the highest condition possible. Many collectors will not buy coins which are below a particular grade. The price they are prepared to pay depends on the grade of the coin, and naturally also the price a dealer will pay depends on the coins condition.
Many coins are very common in worn or average condition, but are difficult to find in better, particularly mint condition.
Prices of most commodities depend on supply and demand.

Examples
As an example, we will quote Spink's Standard Catalogue of British Coins, Coins of England, 2000 Edition:-

Victoria Young Head Crown 1844 or 1845
GradeFineVFEFUnc
Value£30£95£600£1200

Table Notes
VF = Very Fine
EF = Extremely Fine
Unc = Uncirculated
Value = Editor's opinion as to estimated dealers selling price.
In fair condition, they would catalogue at about £10 each.
For more information about grading or condition of coins, take a look at our Grading Coins for Condition page.

Conclusions
It is common to find that the value of a coin will double or treble with each upward grading step, and obviously fall by a half or third for each downward step. What is most noticeable in the table above is the huge difference in value between Fine and VF grades, with a factor of over 6 between them. There is no mysterious reason why, simply that these crowns are quite common in lower grades compared with the number of collectors. In higher grades, they are much scarcer, hence the significant jump in price.

What About Other Coins?
Our intention on this page was not to give catalogue prices for every coin, it was purely to give a clear example of how value depends on condition.
For many coins, the catalogue may only quote prices in Unc, or perhaps in Unc and EF grades. There can be several reasons for this:-

But Old Coins Are Bound To Be Worn!
Precisely! (Although it is not quite true).
But this does not make them more desirable to collectors.

Another Example
From experience, we realise that some people can simply not believe that a 100 year old coin can be almost worthless.
Just imagine that you were buying a car.
Cars have only been around for about 100 years, so anything over 20 or 30 years may have a collector value. Most old cars just wear out or rust away. From choice, I would prefer to own a brand new Mercedes or Lexus, with just its delivery mileage on the clock. A 10 year old model with over 100,000 miles on its odometer would be less desirable, and worth very little, at 15 or 20 years, you would probably need to pay somebody to tow it away.

Other Information on Our Site
There are many other pages on our site which may be useful to you. Some of these can be accessed via our Information section, others from our Products section. For example, we have the following pages:-
£2 Coin Rumour
Mintage Figures of Decimal Coins
Values of Circulated Coins
I've Found An Old Coin, What's It Worth?
There are more answers to be found on our Frequently Asked Coin Questions page.

Now for the Good News
If you have a coin which you want to sell, and you know how much you want for it, you can use the form below to contact us.
Please don't use this to ask us the value of your coins, read the other pages of our site:-




...at the Lowest Possible Price
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