Finding Treasure During Pandemic Cleaning

During the pandemic many people took the time to clean and organize. People found all kinds of treasures inside, including some rare coins and jewelry.

"We were cleaning up and I found them," said Martha, who lives in North County. "I couldn't use them as a dollar because they're worth more than that."

Martha and her husband Leo discovered a small box full of old coins. She said they were mostly collected by her father decades ago in Las Vegas.

"He got silver dollars and he collected them for years," Martha said. "There's about 20 silver dollars and a couple other things."

But the couple didn't know how to find out how much the coins were worth or what the story behind them might be.

"I had no clue where to go, no clue at all," Martha said. "That's why I called you."

NBC 7 took the coins to Jeffrey Martin at San Diego Coin & Bullion. He told us lots of people have been coming in who might not have otherwise.

"People dusted off their own personal collections that they collected when they were a kid 20, 30, 40 years ago," Martin said. "Now they're rediscovering their own collection as well as maybe collections that they inherited."

When Martin examined the box, he said it's a perfect example of the type of coins people are finding and bringing in.

"This is a very good group of common stuff we see every day," said Martin.

NBC 7 brought the coins and the new valuation back to Martha and Leo. Martin said they were worth just more than $397.

"That's higher than I thought it would be, so that's great!" said Martha. "I'll give some to my grandchildren, that will be fun."

Martin has several tips if you were looking to have your own collection appraised. First, do not clean the coins on your own. Second, you should go to local coin shops instead of traveling coin dealers. See how long they've been in business, check their reviews online, and even get more than one estimate. Also, if someone is pushing you to sell, avoid their shop.