Where to Sell Coins: 7 Options Compared

Common silver and bullion are priced off the metal in them, so honest buyers land near each other and your job is to find the best offer that day. A coin with collector value only brings that value from a buyer who recognizes it and has customers for it.

The 7 options at a glance

The payout figures come from dealers’ posted buy prices and what dealers told AARP in 2026. They move with the metals market, so check every offer against the melt value of your own coins.

Start with the melt value

The metal in a silver or gold coin sets its floor. At today’s spot price, that comes to:

• One 90% silver quarter (0.18084 troy oz of silver): …
• One Morgan or Peace dollar (0.77344 oz): …
• A $10 roll of 40 silver quarters: …

For bullion and common silver, melt is roughly the ceiling on a dealer’s offer, because the dealer still has to resell the coins. For a scarce date it’s the least the coin is worth. Either way, get the number before you walk in. The junk silver calculator handles a mixed pile, the gold coin melt calculator handles gold, and the offer checker shows how an offer compares with melt.

1. Local coin shop

Best for: most people and most coins.

A coin shop prices bullion and junk silver off the day’s spot price and can usually tell a common date from a scarce one. You wait while they sort, and you leave with payment. Ask for the offer itemized, so you can see what they paid for the silver and what, if anything, they added for collector value.

The weakness is that each stop gives you one offer. Visiting two or three shops fixes that. AARP’s March 2026 guide to selling gold and silver recommends getting at least three quotes on the same day, so they reflect the same metal prices, and calling ahead to confirm the shop is buying what you have.

That phone call matters more than usual this year. CoinWeek reported in March 2026 that many refiners had halted or sharply limited purchases of 90% and 40% silver coins, with payment delays of up to eight weeks. Many shops responded by paying well under spot for junk silver while paying closer to spot for .999 bullion such as Silver Eagles. When we checked in October 2026, one North Carolina shop’s posted buy list showed Silver Eagles at spot minus 4% and “not buying now” next to 40% Kennedy halves and war nickels.

Choosing a shop. Each CoinShop Finder listing says what kind of business it is: coin shop, bullion dealer, pawn shop, gold and silver buyer, jeweler and so on. Where we have the data, it also counts how many recent Google reviews describe fair offers versus lowball offers, shows whether the shop advertises free appraisals or posts its buy prices, and links its BBB record and NGC authorized-dealer status. Start with coin dealers by state or coin shops near you.

2. Coin show

Best for: comparing several offers quickly, and coins that might be scarce.

A show puts a room full of dealers in one place for a day or a weekend, and they buy as well as sell. Carry a sorted box to three tables and within an hour you’ll have three prices. Some tables stick to one area, such as silver dollars, gold or paper money, which helps when a coin needs a specialist’s eye.

A few habits help:

• Keep the coins on you, and don’t leave anything at a table while you shop around.
• Ask each dealer to write the offer down, itemized by coin or by pile.
• Sell the common silver to whoever pays most for metal, and take the better coins to the dealer who knew the most about them.

Our coin show calendar lists recurring shows with dates and venues, plus local coin clubs.

3. Online bullion dealer (mail-in buyback)

Best for: bullion lots worth more than $1,000, when you can wait a week or two for payment.

Online dealers publish buy prices for popular bullion. Stefan Gleason of Money Metals and Mike LaLonde of Express Gold Cash both told AARP in March 2026 that they were paying up to 98% of the gold price for pure gold coins. For a coin with one troy ounce of pure gold, 98% of today’s price is ….

Here is how selling to JM Bullion works, according to its help pages:

1. Minimum. The sale has to be at least $1,000. For smaller amounts, JM Bullion points sellers to local dealers.
2. Lock the price. You pick products and quantities online and get a Sell-To-Us number, which guarantees the price. If you then don’t ship, the company can settle the trade at its current bid and charge any market loss to the credit card you gave it.
3. Ship. You get packing instructions by email. The company recommends its own insured label over yours.
4. Get paid. The help center says orders are currently verified and paid 3 to 7 business days after they arrive. ACH costs nothing. A wire costs $25 and a paper check $30, both taken out of the payout, and a mailed check can take up to 15 business days to arrive.

Online dealers are weakest with collector coins. Their buy lists are organized by product, and anything not listed means an email or a phone call. If you ship to any buyer on your own label, AARP notes that USPS Registered Mail includes insurance coverage up to $50,000.

4. Auction house

Best for: graded coins, or whole collections, where collectors are likely to bid more than any dealer will offer.

Heritage Auctions (founded in Dallas in 1976), Stack’s Bowers and GreatCollections (an online auction house for certified coins and paper money, started in 2010) all sell U.S. coins. At auction, collectors set the price, which is where a scarce coin in a high grade can do best. It’s also slower and costs more than walking into a shop.

There are two fees. The buyer pays a buyer’s premium, a charge added to the hammer price that the auction house keeps. The seller pays a separate commission. Schedules change and vary between houses, so get these in writing before you sign:

• The seller’s commission, and any minimum fee per lot
• The buyer’s premium your coins will sell under
• Other charges: photography, insurance, grading, shipping, and fees on lots that don’t sell
• Whether you can set a reserve or minimum bid
• Which sale your coins go into, and how many days after the sale you’re paid

Read the consignment agreement closely. The American Numismatic Association runs a mediation service for complaints against its members, but it won’t intercede in disputes involving auction houses or take a case where the auctioneer and consignor signed a written auction agreement.

A coin good enough for auction is often worth grading first, so bidders can trust the grade without seeing the coin. To submit directly to NGC you need an NGC Collector membership. Members pay $25 a coin for the Economy tier (coins worth up to $300) and $45 for Standard (up to $3,000), plus a $10 handling fee per submission and shipping. Grading pays when the graded coin will sell for more than the raw one by more than the fee. The grading cost calculator runs the numbers for a batch.

5. eBay, other marketplaces and collector forums

Best for: single coins with real retail demand, if you’re willing to photograph, list, pack, ship and handle returns.

Selling directly to collectors gets you closest to retail, and eBay takes a cut. Its Seller Center fee table lists no separate coin rate for sellers without an eBay Store, so coins fall under the standard final value fee: 13.6% of the total sale up to $7,500 per item, plus 2.35% on any amount above $7,500. Bullion is charged 13.6% when the sale is $7,500 or less and 7% when it’s more. On top of that, eBay charges $0.30 per order of $10 or less and $0.40 above that. The “total sale” includes the shipping and sales tax the buyer pays. Rates change, so check the fee page before you list.

On a coin that sells for $500, shipping and tax included, eBay keeps $68.00 plus $0.40. You also carry the shipping risk and the returns. Insure every package and photograph each coin before it goes out.

Private sales skip the fees. A coin club, a collector you already know, or the buy-and-sell boards on collector forums can all work, but forum buyers want a seller with a track record, and the payment risk is yours. Don’t ship until the money has cleared in a form that can’t be reversed, and meet local buyers somewhere public, such as a bank lobby. The coin show calendar also lists local clubs.

6. Pawn shop

Best for: broken gold jewelry, or a short-term loan against coins you plan to keep.

Pawn shops can pay well for scrap. AARP’s reporter sold gold jewelry and sterling, some of it inherited, in late February 2026, and a pawn shop made her best offer on the gold. A spokesperson for the National Pawnbrokers Association told AARP that pawn shops often partner directly with refineries, which lets them offer competitive payouts.

That refinery link works against collector coins. If the coin is headed for a refiner, the shop can only count on its metal value, whatever the date. And with refiners slow to take 90% and 40% silver coins this year, a shop that sends everything to a refiner has little reason to pay up for junk silver either.

A pawn loan is a different deal. The shop holds the coins as collateral, and you get them back by repaying the loan plus charges. If you don’t, the shop keeps them. State law sets the rules. In Florida, for example, pawn charges are capped at 25% of the amount financed for each 30-day period, and unredeemed items are forfeited to the pawnbroker 30 days after the maturity date. Read the ticket before you sign.

Pawn shop or coin shop?

For coins, start at a coin shop. The 1916-D Mercury dime is the key date of its series, with 264,000 struck, and the 1909-S VDB is the rarest Lincoln cent by date and mint mark. Each looks almost the same as the common coin of its year. A coin dealer checks for the small mint mark and has customers who will pay for the difference. For one-ounce bullion, get a quote from both kinds of shop and take the higher number. Pawn shop and jeweler listings on CoinShop Finder carry a note that a dedicated coin shop will usually know the collector value better, with a link to that city’s coin shops where we have a city page.

7. Gold buyers, mall kiosks and hotel buying events

Best for: scrap jewelry at most, and only after you know its melt value.

These buyers work by weight and purity. Some are permanent storefronts with years of reviews. Others are pop-up events in hotels that run for a few days. The American Numismatic Association tells consumers to be wary of mobile offices set up in temporary locations, such as motels, that offer instant cash for gold and silver coins, and not to sell anything before researching its value. Stefan Gleason of Money Metals told AARP that without knowing the weight and purity, “it’s very easy to get ripped off.”

If a buyer won’t tell you the weight and purity they’re paying for, or won’t write the offer down, leave. The scrap gold calculator and sterling silver calculator give you the number to compare against.

Which option fits what you have

Melt values for single coins are on the per-coin pages, such as the Morgan dollar, silver half dollar and war nickel. Our guide to what coin dealers pay covers typical buy prices by coin type.

Before you sell anywhere

1. Work out melt value for everything silver or gold, using the calculators above.
2. Don’t clean anything. Our collection guide explains why cleaning can cost a coin its grade.
3. Get two or three offers on the same day, so a move in spot prices doesn’t skew the comparison.
4. Ask for every offer in writing, itemized. A lump sum for a whole box hides which coins the buyer valued.
5. Check the buyer. AARP suggests reading Google and Yelp reviews and looking for consistent comments about fairness and honesty. Money Metals’ Gleason adds BBB ratings, Trustpilot, Reddit and how long the company has been in business. The reputable dealer guide has a fuller checklist.
6. Run the offer through the offer checker before you accept.

On taxes: the IRS treats coins as collectibles. Net long-term gains on collectibles are taxed at a maximum federal rate of 28%, and coins held a year or less are taxed as ordinary income. Dealers report only some bullion sales on Form 1099-B, but a gain is taxable either way. The collection guide covers inherited coins and reporting in more detail, and a tax professional can tell you what applies to you.