Like other 20th-century half-dollars, quarters and dimes minted before 1965, my half-dollars are 90 percent silver. LESSON 2: Common things can have some extra value. “They all look beautiful because people didn’t spend them.” People saved them in the millions,” said Mark Schimel, New York City store manager for Stack’s Bowers Galleries, one of the biggest coin auctioneers. My 1964 Kennedy half-dollars weren’t as rare as I’d hoped. And we were both ready to sell.įantasies of Antiques Roadshow began swimming in my head - those thrilling moments when someone says, “That little old thing you brought in? It’s worth a jillion dollars!” Here’s what I learned on my quest for knowledge … and riches. It all seemed like a potentially valuable stash. Kennedy half-dollars from 1964, the last year the U.S.

I had a $2 bill from the 1950s and some pristine John F. He had a pile of change inherited decades ago: a 50-cent piece from 1826, a penny minted during the Civil War, a silver dollar from 1885 and six more from the 1920s. That was the question my father-in-law, Howard, and I faced last summer. How do you get a fair price for old coins when you don’t know what they’re worth?

Are old coins worth money