Bulk Coins

When ya'll are buying coins in bulk; assuming that at least a few of you have done that. What price do you generally purchase them at? And other than eBay, where?
Is it usually priced per coin? Or if it's a large enough lot what is a normal price per pound? Assuming you can see at least some of the coins, I would assume that age, metal, and condition of what you can see affect the price of the lot. Or am I wrong in that assumption?

Depends on what you're looking for. "Coins" is a very general term. I bought uncleaned ancient lots and the price is around 1$ per coin. They can also be bought by the kilo but the price again comes to around 1$ per coin, more if the lot is cleaned.

Circulated world coin lots which usually contain common late 19th century and 20th century coins are usually sold by the kilo between 10$ and 20$ per kilo. Sometimes I see older coins (late 18th to mid 19th century) also sold in bulk but those are usually more expensive and I'm pretty sure those lots are already searched and anything valuable is removed. Rare and valuable coins are usually sold by themself or in small lots with other rare and valuable coins and at a high price.

On the local auction house where I buy my lots usually there's a picture of the exact lot that's being sold. On ebay the bigger sellers that sell a large number of coin lots on a regular basis just put a picture of a huge pile of coins and you get some other already pre-packed lot.

Last thing I would like to add is buying bulk lots is a good way to expand your common coin collection as long as you keep your expectation realistic. You most likely won't find anything rare or valuable in these lots. Personally I rather just buy a single valuable coin for the price of 100 common ones.

Hope this helps.

Quote: "cro321"​
​Last thing I would like to add is buying bulk lots is a good way to expand your common coin collection as long as you keep your expectation realistic. You most likely won't find anything rare or valuable in these lots. Personally I rather just buy a single valuable coin for the price of 100 common ones.

​Completely agreed on the last point, it's been at least a year since I last bought a coin lot. Nowadays I only buy individual coins over the internet (sometimes two or three coins/notes being sold together, usually from the same series, but that's it). I've considered buying small lots of about a dozen coins of interest, but I would never buy by kilo now.

I see physical coin dealers sometimes selling "unsearched" lots; whether you decide to trust them on that or not, I'd much rather just dig through a bin of junk coins for any slightly more valuable coins than spend money on a whole lot and cross my fingers.

That being said if you're a beginner or beginning in a certain area it might be worthwhile trying it out, to jumpstart your collection by buying a lot from that area of interest (e.g. pre-1871 German states coins lots). I still have most of a 100 world banknotes lot I bought for £5 when I was 12!

I have some friends who have charity shops and bring me coins to buy, often I pay what i feel I can make money off them with and they count it as a donation to their shops.

I assess first of all by main metal - if its mostly copper and bronze, it will be low, same with modern change although I will pull out any better coins (Whole euros, Swiss 2 and 5 Francs, $1 and $2 coins of Australia, Pacific Islands, Canadian loonies and toonies) and the rest I pay around 5c per coin. Sometimes they keep the worn bronze and sell it to a local scrap metal place, but I go through and pull out better pieces (Shiny, early date pennies and farthings).

If its better or older stuff (Like before the 1960s) I scrutinise harder. Sadly in NZ, most lots consist of large size decimal coins 1c to 50c issued between 1967 and 2005 and now all worthless except a couple of key dates and if in FDC condition. I pay below face value for this stuff, same with old large dollars before 1988 and most NZ uncirculated sets from the 1965 to 1990 era. The 1965 last sterling and 1967 first decimal set are extremely common, even the polished ones. They issued like 250k sets and in 1967 people had money to burn and there are way too many on the market. Following that - worn pennies and halfpence predominate, Kiwi coins from 1940 and before that Australian copper and British Britannia coins before 1911. Rarely one in nice condition comes up, like a 1826 farthing I will show later. Many of the 20th century copper coins are F - VF but common as heck, really only pennies in AU and better condition with lustre are worth anything and then its just a few $.

If there is silver beyond worn 3ds and 6ds, I will pull such coins out and pay per coin. Generally they get a number in a few minutes and its done. I buy a lot of bulk and like going through it and pulling out discoveries.

One good lot was an antique dealer friend of mine was breaking up a friends estate and he had some nice coins like a UNC 1901 Penny, a VF 1906 Half Sovereign, a XF 1900 Shilling and GVF 1799 Half penny, I sold these and did well off them, but even this collection had 3 1967 sets, about 10 of the 1977 25 pence QE2 Silver Jubilee Crowns and many horrendous Churchill crowns and worn pennies.

I collect modern world coins by type so bulk lots are reasonable way to acquire coins for me. In fact I have amassed most of my coins (over 3000) that way. Earlier my max price per kg was €10 incl. shipping but now I have dropped it near €5/kg as reselling prices are down now.

I buy them from internet auctions or directly from people who have inherited them or traveled. Some people are just cleaning their houses (thank you Konmari) and want to throw away everything they don't like.

I buy off a local guy, I pay whatever he asks. Generally he asks about NZ$30 per kilo, which may sound like a lot, but these lots are generally not the cherry picked generic modern crap lots that you usually find on e-bay.