Canadian/U.S. Coin/Currency

[Jordan!]

Hello all, Apologies if this isn't a traditional sale thread.

I inherited several mint condition Canadian bills, coins and some U.S as well.

I see some 1986 $2 Canadian bills worth insane amounts of money. Does anyone know which ones? I have 5-7 of them in that year.

If anyone on CP is a collector of these kind of things definitely reach out.. I know absolutely nothing!

[Huntingwhale]

Ha! Same here. Going through my deceased grandparent's stuff that I got last year and found some mint condition 1950s $1 bills in-between pages of my grandfather's stamp collection (which is a whole other thing). Unforunately not those bills with the queen's disfigured hair that are worth thousands. But surely these are worth...something other than $1?

Sorry to distract from your thread. I'm interested in the responses too.

[tvp2003]

I don't have much info to offer but I did find this article:

We have now been using toonies for 25 years and some $2 dollar bills have gone up in value.

The printing of the $2 dollar bill in Canada ended on February 18th, 1996, and ushered in the age of the toonie — that means some of the paper bills could be worth a lot more than $2.

According to Numicanada, $2 dollar bills printed in 1986 with the AUH-prefix within the seven digit serial code could be worth 10,000 times their face value.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/02/...x-their-value/

As an aside, I went to the Bank of Canada/Currency Museum in Ottawa many years ago and thought it was really interesting. I think they've moved to a new location now but it looks like admission is still free. Worth the visit IMO; I have some older bills stashed away (including some $1 notes) that still brings back a lot of childhood nostalgia when I see them...

[Swift]

You can get copies of the Charlton catalogues for coin/note values at the library.

[Locke]

Seriously, this is actually a pretty good thread, it might warrant some space in the OT forum because there is likely lots of interest in stuff like this.

My dad recently passed away and he inherited a ridiculous stamp collection from my Grandfather that he never did anything with, in with all that stuff is old coins and currency....like where did they get this stuff?

Is there a place, a trustworthy place, in Calgary? I'd love to dump this crap in some professional's lap and have them tell me what its worth rather than sifting through a pile of stuff that....I dont know what I'm looking at.

[timun]

I used to collect coins, and I don't want to rain on your parade but generally most stuff is worth close to face value and little more. My grandfather had a huge collection, and sadly by the time he died it was just worth around face.

Don't get your hopes up when you read stuff like "1986 two-dollar bills are worth up to $20,000!!1!". Yeah, sure: if they're a particular series of serial numbers and are absolutely positively mint-mint, and most importantly you find a buyer who'll pay that much. Most '86-series two-dollar bills are worth... about two bucks. Even if they seem in excellent shape to you.



Is there a trustworthy place in Calgary to offload this stuff? You can go to collector shops, Albern Coins being probably the most well-known, but they're like coin-collecting-specific pawn shops: they're businesses who need to make a profit to keep the doors open. They're not in the business of collecting coins/banknotes: they're in the business of buying coins/banknotes off of people like you and selling coins/banknotes to some other collector, and making a margin between. This means they will buy it for cheap off of you, and sell it at a premium to someone else. They're not necessarily going to #### you over, but you're not going to get anywhere near top-dollar. What's great about them though is that they have the means to buy in bulk, and they DO know what the hell they're looking at.

What you do NOT want to do, in my experience, is deal with bullion traders. They don't give a flying #### about numismatic value, they just want to buy coins off you for bullion value less a (profit) margin, and re-sell 'em for scrap. That market is full of ignorant dumbasses who haven't a clue what they're looking at, and they're usually insultingly bad low-ballers.


If you want top dollar you're going to have to do the legwork to sell stuff piecemeal by yourself. I won't sugarcoat: it's often not worth the time spent doing it. But it can be done. Look at Charlton guides (https://www.charltonpress.com/), look at completed and sold listings on eBay to see what people are actually paying for 'em.

[monkey brewery]

Can't help you, but I'm sure someone (possibly more knowledgable) in the MISC forum shared photos from their collection a few months ago. I specifically remember cause they had a bill I needed lol

[Sr. Mints]

Was that perhaps me?

There's a coin store in Crossroads Market kind of tucked away in the back (across from the Hot Wheels guy). The owner loves to chat and might have some idea. Although truthfully, I don't know for sure if banknotes are his thing.

I think he manages Albern coins as well - you could try them too, just to get an idea of what they're worth. Albern has a website, too.