Should I buy a coin from ebay that says "uncirculated condition?

Question

I recently saw on ebay someone selling the presidential dollars and it said "uncirculated condition". Should I buy from there or collect it from the bank or something like that? I am interested in future value, and also, where can I get the best protection for the coins? I heard something like "safe flips", but where can I get them? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can get uncirculated condition dollars from your bank for face value.  The future value of these coins will never be much more than face value, but they are fun to collect.

ADDED:

Any coin shop can sell you little plastic flip cases to store your coins in.

Uncirculated just means that it is fresh from the mint.  If you go to the bank you can get Presidential Dollar coins fresh from the mint that have never been circulated.  You can get as many as you want for one dollar each.

Face Value of a Dollar coin is one Dollar.  An Uncirculated Dollar Coin will never be worth much more than one Dollar.  They are fun to collect but they do not increase very much in value.

Franklin Mint adds color and paint to the coins.  The coins will from Franklin Mint will never be worth what they charge for you to buy them.

Answer 2

that all depends.

it depends on the coins, the metal it is made from and who it is that determined the condition of the coin.

i only collect silver dollars and half dollars - they have a specific amount of high quality silver in each coin and can be held as bullion - which is exactly what i do.

if the coin is silver - totally disregard the guy who said that you can get it at the bank at face value - those days ended in the early 1970's.

next is exactly how the condition of the coin was determined.  there are two services that grade coins - the NGC and the PGCS.  if the coin has been certified by either of those two services then you can take the value to the bank, literally.

there is also a book value on each coin that can be easily determined with a little research online.  i have a book (i think) that is called the red book, which has the values for all collectible american coins for this year - which i consult whenever i think about buying a coin.

but for ebay - look at the guy's feedback - this is critical.  if they have done a lot of coin sales and have a lot of good feedback, then you can buy with some confidence.  but if the coin ends up being c**p - be sure to report them to paypal, not ebay.  even though paypal and ebay are related companies their methods of dealing with conflicts and fraud are very different.

hope this helps.

edit - i'm simply astonished that anyone would state that any dollar coin won't be worth much mor than a dollar.  i have a 1884-CC morgan silver dollar in MS-60 condition and has been conservatively estimated to be worth $250.00.  

silver coins also have what is called a melt or weight value - that is based on the fluctuating price of an ounce of silver (currently worth about $17.00 per ounce)  - if a coin has .75 of an ounce of silver, that in theory means that it could be melted down and sold for that value of silver.

but hey, if you have any silver dollars laying around, i'd be happy to take them off your hands at $10.00 a piece, sight unseen...

Answer 3

Buying coins that are advertised as 'uncirculated' from such as source is a gamble at best.  The U.S. Mint sells uncirculated and proof sets, which are guaranteed to be in the condition advertised.  The only other place that I would buy an uncirculated coin that wasn't part of an officially issued set, would be in person, from a coin dealer.