About CoinQuest

Whenever you find an old or interesting coin, the first question that enters your mind is "What is it worth?" CoinQuest answers this question.

It takes two steps to answer the "What's it worth?" question. First, you must indentify the coin precisely: Where is it from? When was it made? What is it made of? Second, you must determine how much someone will pay to buy it from you. That is what it is worth.

On this website, identify your coin using our comprehensive search facilities. Then read the description to find out its worth.

Unlike many websites, CoinQuest includes all types of coins: coins from around the world (not only US coins), ancient coins from Greece, Rome and other ancient civilizations, medieval coins, tokens, and medals. CoinQuest covers the whole spectrum of numismatics.

Appraisal Service. There are many excellent web sites for coin collecting on the Internet, but CoinQuest is not about coin collecting, it is about coin appraisal. Here you find the needed tools to understand the value of your rare and valuable coins, even if you are not a coin collector. The subject is quite complicated, and there are many scam artists in the world of coin dealers. Honest coin dealers pay honest prices for coins they buy from the general public, but the scam artists steal coins from unsuspecting sellers and overcharge inexperienced buyers. Your best bet for finding honest dealers is to know what your coins are worth before you meet with any dealer. Use CoinQuest for this purpose.

CoinQuest is not a coin catalog or price guide. Instead, CoinQuest seeks to:

1. Provide coin identification from textual descriptions and photographs
2. Give very approximate, ballpark estimates of coin value
3. Educate visitors about the joys and pitfalls of coin collecting
4. Encourage non-collectors to become collectors
5. Prevent heirs from being ripped off by selling inherited coins to shysters
6. Lower expections of heirs by providing realistic values for their inherited coins
7. Prepare coin buyers and sellers for the shock of dealer margins
8. Educate coin owners about counterfeits, damage, wear, and eye appeal
9. Attempt to prevent people from cleaning their coins
10. Lighten the load on dealers by intercepting inquiries about low-value coins
11. Provide opportunities for dealers who are willing to buy over the Internet

CoinQuest is very superficial. By our own analysis, a good coin catalog easily contains 1000 times as much information as the entire CoinQuest web site. Further, there are plenty of great collector sites on the Internet and we want them to be CoinQuest allies, not competitors. Therefore we:

1. Do not use detailed numismatic grading such as Very Fine, VF, G-4, or MS63
2. Use only worn, average circulated, well preserved, fully uncirculated
3. Supply superficial, overall estimates for an entire series of coins
4. Call out key coins only if their values exceed the overall series by a factor of 3 or more
5. Exclude evaluations for proofs
6. Exclude evaluations for minting varieties (except the big ones)
7. Exclude evaluations for most modern coins (post 1948)
8. Exclude evaluations for entire collections -- single coins only
9. Exclude detailed attributions like KM, RIC, or Breen numbers

Paul Richards is our chief numismatist. He ran a successful coin dealership between 1996 and 2004 exclusively on the Internet, and part of his job was answering What is my coin worth? inquiries using his Stat-Matics web site, upon which CoinQuest is built. Paul has over 50 years experience in numismatics, and has examined thousands of coins over the years. He has written several significant articles published in Coin World and by Krause Publications. Now retired, Paul enjoys talking about coins and will give you his educated opinion about the value of your coins. If you contact Paul, expect sluggish replies. Remember, he's retired!

CoinQuest.com is a service of Stat-Matics, a dba of Paul Richards. We are diligent to obtain rights for any privately owned coin images we use, and we re-format all images to fit our aspect ratio. None of our written material on this site is copyrighted. Image copyrights belong to their owners, as specified on their individual pages. Proper attribution and a link to the CoinQuest main page will be appreciated for any written material used.