Coins could be more than just ‘found money’

SIMSBURY, CT (WFSB) - All-month long, Channel 3 has been helping people navigate an inflated economy and save money.

Believe it or not, people could potentially have hundreds of dollars hidden inside their home right now and not even know it: Coins, and not just the ones swallowed by the couch.

Inside a home, buried deep in that coin jar could be some valuable pocket change. How would someone know for sure?

Channel 3 found coin expert Bob Kevorkian in Simsbury on money.org.

“Some people are getting rid of stuff,” Kevorkian said. “It’s just sitting around collecting dust. Sometimes they’ve got jars full of stuff, and it’s just spendable money. I will usually sort that out. Unless it’s sentimental, you take that to the bank. It’s still finding money.”

Kevorkian said he has been collecting and assessing coins since he was 14.

“I try to give them an idea which makes sense, whether it’s gold or silver or wheat pennies,” Kevorkian said. “It could be a penny and a half, two cents or three cents. It could even be $400.”

Kevorkian offered three tips to identify hidden value from in a coin collection. He mentioned to first check the dates on your coins. He said that an older coin was not necessarily better

“If you had a handful of silver dollars and an 1878 or 1895, the 1895 would be more scarce,” Kevorkian said.

The next thing to look for would be mistakes. Any errors or mistakes made the coin more rare.

“Most Eisenhower dollars would be worth a dollar. If there was a mistake on one that changes everything,” he said.

The third tip was that vintage coins should look vintage. Do not polish or clean these coins.

“It’s critically important that they know not to clean or rub on the coins, because that would take away its value,” Kevorkian said.

To see how he works, Channel 3′s Wendell Edwards brought Kevorkian the coin collection he inherited from his dad. The bag was full of silver dollars and wheat pennies.

“There’s a good one. It is an ounce of silver. That is about $18. These sell for about $20 or $30 right now,” Kevorkian said. “This is a Kennedy half dollar from 1965, and it has 40 percent silver in it. From 1970 on, all of them have copper and nickel.”

His dad’s bag of coins had a total of about $125 worth. The rest was just spendable money.

“It’s not bad, it’s found money,” Kevorkian said.

Found money could be in a home, and all people have to do is look. It would be a search that could really pay off in the end.

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