Thousands of old pennies

[Guest Jeff]

I'm not a coin collector so please bear with me.

I have a relative who passed away recently and left, I would estimate, something in the region of 40 -50 thousand old pennies in the cellar.

There are a few sealed bags of uncirculated coins from 1967 (I've only opened one of them). The rest are in blue five pound coin bags. I'm guessing they were purchased as a job lot when decimalisation took place.

I have been through a couple of the bags so far and found they contained coins dating from 1863 - 1967 - there were a couple of 1919 KN's in there which I know are a little collectable.

My question is what is the best way for me deal with these coins for selling on purposes? Is it worth me sorting through all of them and putting them into some kind of group order eg Victorian coins, Edward VII coins etc. Do the more recent coins only have scrap value?

If anyone could give me some idea of how best to proceed I will be very grateful.

Kind regards,

Jeff

[Chris Perkins]

Jeff,

Really, all of them are likely to be scrap value.

There are indeed some dates, like 1919KN etc that are scarcer, but with a quantity like that, whoever were buying them would probably want to buy them for the scrap value, or a little more, because sorting them properly is likely to cost more time than the coins would cost! Also, there are not really any average circulated pennies that are worth a huge amount, even the likes of 1919KN are worth less than £1 in average condition, same applies for the older ones, which tend to also be much more worn.

Where are the coins located? I'd be happy to pay 3p per coin and also come and collect them if you/they are not too far from the SE. For 40,000 coins that would be £1200. They would be good stock for my 50 average pennies that I sell.....even though that many would likely last more than a lifetime!

[scott]

whats the condition of pre 1895's? i like those victoria bun head coins.

pictures of the rarer and early pieces would give us a general idea

[Dg43]

Jeff

There could be rarities in amongst them, but you would need to become an expert in bronze pennies and spend months going through them. Apart from the unc bags of 1967 pennies, some have been in circulation for up to 100 years! I would guess, and you can probably confirm this, that most if not all of the early 'Bun head pennies are extremely worn and show show little more than a clear date. Old head Victoria and Edward vii pennies are very common and of little commercial value in low grade.

I think £1200 is a very good offer.

David

[Chris Perkins]

Jeff has been in touch with me. I'm going to be seeing him Monday.

I just hope the dreaded verdigris had not set in!