Reddit reviews The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of U.S. Coins 2013

That is an awesomely insane amount of dimes. Can you post a picture, for science?

Now, some tips from someone who has mass-sorted 10s of thousands of dimes, nickels and pennies:

1. If you're in the NYC area I will gladly help you sort them, just for numismatic joy. PM if so :D
   
2. There are only 29 years worth of mercury dimes. Buy 87 plastic cups and arrange them in a line
   
3. Label the cups after each year in 3s. For each year use "P", "D" and "S" (these are the mints).
   
4. So you should have a grid/line of cups like:
   

• (1916p) (1916d) (1916s)
  
• (1917p) (1917d) (1917s)
  
• (1918p) (1918d) (1918s)
  
• (1919p) (1919d) (1919s)
  
  ...up to 1945
  
  

5. Put on some plastic gloves, your hands are going to get very dirty.
   
6. Now, start putting the coins into each cup. For some more common dates (like the war years) you may have to resort to small buckets, or old take-out plastic food boxes.
   
   Once done:
   
   
7. Buy a "red book": http://www.amazon.com/Official-Red-Book-United-States/dp/0794836771 and check out the current merc values. It will look like an up to date version of this: http://values.hobbizine.com/mercury-dimes.html
   
8. You'll see the most valuable ones instantly and can start separating those cups from the main lot.
   
9. Anything in a non-worn condition is going to be valuable. In fact, they are all valuable. But your "super" key dates are going to be:
   

• 1916D
  
• 1921, 1921D
  
• A special 1942D where the "42" is accidentally double printed over a "41"
  
  Good luck !!!

Yes, wear will diminish their value greatly when compared to a mint state piece! But its not really something to worry about because unlike damage, its pretty easy to account for wear.

On the Standing Liberty quarters, there is a minor design difference that can tell you the difference between a 1916 and a 1917 type 1 and even a dateless 1916 is worth quite a bit, although I'm not the expert to tell you which one you have. Its most likely 1917 and worth about melt, but just FYI if you want to dig deeper...

Your 1857 flying eagle cent is corroded and is indeed damaged and isn't worth a whole lot except as a placeholder in a type collection.

Your quarter eagle is very nice and is 90% gold (although I assume you already know this!) I'm no expert when it comes to US gold so I'll let someone else chime in with regards to the value and grade.

If you don't already have a copy, I'd suggest picking up a copy of The Red Book as it will help you with valuations and will tell you which coins are rare and which ones are just worth melt. If you don't want to order from Amazon, I know my local Barnes and Noble and Hobby Lobby keep them in stock.

As for organizing and storing them, there are three major options:

The cheapest, easiest and most fail-proof way is to get cardboard 2x2s and put your coins in that. You put your coin in between the cardboard so its showing through the mylar window and staple the sides. You can pick them up from many online vendors and most coin shops have them for cheap. My local Hobby Lobby also sells these, but they are much more expensive than buying online or through a dealer, but if you don't want to buy online (or wait for shipping) and you don't have a coin dealer near you, it would work. The key is that you want to avoid PVC which will put a green slime on your coins within a few months to a few years time and will irreparably damage them. This isn't as much of an issue anymore, but a couple decades back it was the norm to sell and store coins in soft, vinyl flips which contained PVC. Today this isn't as much of an issue, but it is something to keep an eye out for and especially when dealing with an old collection.

The second possibility is through albums. The most common type are those Whitman Blue Folders, these can cause coins to discolor and maybe even damage them long-term, not to mention the possibility of damaging a high-grade coin putting it in the album. Instead, I would use something like Dansco Albums which have little mylar inserts which let you see both sides of the coin, doesn't require you to press hard and is very safe for long term storage.

The third and most expensive option is slabbing through a third party grader such as NGC or PCGS. Most coins should not be slabbed because it is expensive (about $30 per coin!) and coins that have been cleaned, coins that are corroded or damaged will be rejected and you will be out $30. However, some high-grade or commonly counterfeited coins benefit from slabbing if you decide to sell because buyers know that the coin is genuine and has not been altered.

There are 2 keys when it comes to storage of coins:

1. Do not let the coins become physically damaged (dropped or knock against each other)
   
   
2. Do not let the coins become chemically damaged (by way of PVC or other chemicals)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

For those of you not on a mobile device:

http://www.amazon.com/Official-Red-Book-United-States/dp/0794836771

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0794836771/ref=redir_mdp_mobile