It never fails. Every week it seems we get a call from someone who is positive they found a coin in change that some YouTuber says is worth thousands of dollars. And sure enough, when we go to YouTube the videos do abound on the subject of rare varieties and such. Here are some examples:
So while some of this is technically true, you have to ask yourself the question, "Why is worth so much money?" Coins pivot price-wise on mostly just two tangents, rarity, and quality. When someone watches these videos, they may not always understand the nuances and or rarity of actually finding one of these things. Or even if what they are being told is a real thing. Some people, when they think they have found something rare, will call a local coin shop and ask them if they would be willing to buy it, or even just verify its authenticity. Well, we would like nothing more, but in all our years of hearing these fantastic stories, we have NEVER had even one coin work out to be what the person thought it was. Not one. You are more likely to win the lottery than to have one of these coins. We are often left being the one that has to “let people down” over and over again when we tell them what they have, while similar, is not the same thing as what they saw on the video, or worse, there is no such rarity!
We actually had someone get agitated and upset when we told them that what they had was just a normal coin and not worth the 300,000 he thought it was.
Think about what it takes to make a cent so valuable, that someone would pay $20,000 for it? Now add to that, that for any given year they make, on average, billions of each type of coin. And when there are such coins, you may be talking about handfuls (if that) among the billions minted. And now here comes you, after watching a single video, and you think you found one? And now you want to call every coin dealer in town and have them want to throw money at you? I get that it is nice work if you can get it, but please just leave us out of it.
So why the videos then?
The people who create these Videos just want you to hit the like button and subscribe, they know that we would all enjoy finding something special, so they try and show us what special is. The one thing they don’t get, is that they wind up taking up a lot of peoples' time with this stuff. But they feed you a good story that sounds like anyone can find one if they just look. But you should also remember that not everyone that buys a lottery ticket, wins the lottery.
What should you do if you think you found a rare coin?
Step one is to get it certified. Certification companies like PCGS and NGCCoins offer safe, secure, and reliable certification services. And yes, it costs money, but if you REALLY BELIEVE you have that rare item, you want to get it certified first.
Now, as soon as people hear that they have to “spend money” to confirm their special thing-a-ma-jig, they switch gears and ask “can’t you just look at it first, I’ll sell it for a good deal?” We really wish we could look at everything anyone ever brought to us, but from our perspective, we have never caught a fish in that lake. All we ask that if we do find the time to look at your stuff, and we determine it not to be what you had hoped, please stop shooting the messenger! Or better yet, sell or show it to the person who told you it was worth so much!