PLEASE NOTE THAT APPOINTMENTS ARE NOW REQUIRED IF YOU WISH TO SELL ITEMS TO US.
TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT, PLEASE RING 07939 999286 OR EMAIL NEWCASTLECOIN@OUTLOOK.COM WITH A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR MATERIAL.
---- WHAT WE OFFER ----
We offer a straightforward in-person valuation service for coins, banknotes, British medals, and any items
made of precious metal (e.g. jewellery, medallions...). We will look at your material and make a no-obligation offer.
We will sometimes also offer to purchase other collectibles (cigarette cards, postcards, tokens...) but we can be selective
with these. We generally pay cash or immediate bank transfer if presented with an official form of ID.
If presented with a quantity of unsorted coins, we will browse the lot and pick out types individually worth about a pound
or more, as well as any silver coins. We will then price the remainder by the kilo (usually 2 to 12 pounds a kilo depending on type).
We can purchase coins and notes which are still exchangeable abroad (e.g. Deutschemarks), even if no longer in use.
We welcome general enquiries and obvious questions (Do you buy x or y...) via email, but will generally not respond to
photograph submissions or long lists of coins submitted for valuation. We enjoy looking at coins and answering common questions
(what's my 50p worth...) in the shop, but don't offer a free internet pricing service as we derive neither pleasure nor income from it.
The following circulation coins are worth well above their face value at the time of writing (12/2024): Kew Gardens 50p (2009),
Olympics judo/wrestling/triathlon/football 50p, Swimmer 50p with lines through the head (error), and Commonwealth Games 2 pounds.
We generally offer to buy the above. Some others may be worth slightly more than face value, but most of
them can safely be spent.
---- HOW WE COMPARE WITH ALTERNATIVE VENUES ----
PRECIOUS METAL ITEMS:
- There is generally a 10% margin between our buying and selling prices for standard and scrap gold items
(common-date gold coins, jewellery...), and 20% for silver items such as common circulated silver coins, 1 oz coins,
and crown-size coins. Auction houses tend to charge around 20%-40% in fees (buyers' premium plus sellers' commission).
EBay currently have a 0% fee for private sellers, but many precious-metal listings there do badly as not everyone trusts
EBay-listed metals to be genuine and as advertised. Moreover, they plan to introduce a buyers' premium in 2025.
Our prices for such items are thus generally very competitive.
ROYAL MINT ITEMS, NUMISMATIC CASE ITEMS, VALUABLE SINGLE COINS...:
- We generally have to compete on price with EBay when selling such items, and most of them are not quick-selling, so markups
of 50% or more are typical. You will therefore generally obtain more for correctly-described/graded items of this type if you sell
them yourself on EBay (0% commission for private sellers), should you have the time and inclination to do so. Auction houses generally
end up selling job lots of sets to dealers at poor prices, and can charge around 40% to do so.
- However, The better houses will guarantee the items' authenticity, thus making them good venues for rare items where authenticity
concerns can be very important. We can often provide a comparable service for post-1700 rare items by authenticating them (with
other colleagues or NGC if necessary) and selling them on a commission basis.
JOB LOTS:
- We are experts at breaking down job lots into categories and pricing each category (and better individual coins) separately. Should
you find some coins in a tin or inherit a collection, chances are that you will not know exactly what you've got. This makes it very
difficult for you to correctly describe what you have on EBay, and the postage costs will usually be heavy to boot.
- Auction houses will break down interesting collections into saleable components and may be worth consulting if you have such items. If you've got a
tin of miscellaneous coins, most auction houses will label it a "tin of old coins - worth a look", charge 20%-40% to do so, and let
the dealers in the room put a price on it. We run a bulk coins website and supply dealers and manufacturers with custom ready-made
sets, so we will generally be interested in the low-value coin categories that other dealers reject.
A NOTE ABOUT LOOKING UP PRICES ON EBAY:
Always look up the "completed items" and "sold items" prices (accessible through a "refine" or "advanced search" button on the
search pages), not the asking prices. There is no law against asking silly money for an item, and we have seen sellers asking
a thousand pounds for a Benjamin Britton 50p (our selling price: a pound). Also...
This venue has changed markedly over the past decade, and is no longer primarily a venue for the public to sell their excess
household wares by 'auction'. Most listings on EBay are now fixed-price, with a large proportion of sales being made by either
full-time online retailers or even high street names such as Argos and Cash Generators. These maintain large 'EBay shops' at
significant cost, and their listings are prominently displayed on the site. An individual listing one or two items will
not get the same exposure as these merchants, and will generally have to settle for lower prices as a result.
Moreover, some online salespeople endlessly list and re-list items at stratospheric prices, perhaps in the
hope of a chance sale to some badly-informed buyer, or perhaps to create a 'reference price' for some off-
site deal. Whatever the reason, it isn't because you see an item LISTED on EBay for £100 that you
have a realistic chance of SELLING the same item for £100.
---- THE SHOP EXPERIENCE ----
We offer you an experience which is becoming rare these days - a human face behind the counter, happy to discuss coins
and banknotes at length. The shop doubles as an 'office' for our wholesale business, so you can even marvel at the
'organised chaos' in the background.
HOPE TO SEE YOU AROUND!