Coin Buyers Serving Cicero

Silver dollars saved by Cicero factory families

The Hawthorne Works comes up in a lot of our Cicero calls. Western Electric made telephone equipment there, and many families who look for coin buyers in Cicero had a parent or grandparent on its payroll. A worker who put aside a silver dollar now and then could fill a cigar box over a career, and those boxes are still turning up when houses here change hands.

Morgan dollars were struck from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921, and Peace dollars from 1921 to 1935. Both are 90% silver and weigh 26.73 grams, with 0.7734 troy ounce of silver in each coin. That silver sets a floor under every one of them.

What a dollar brings above that depends on its date, mint mark and grade. Please leave worn dollars unpolished, because a cleaned coin sells to collectors for far less. Peace dollars carry the same silver as Morgans and are priced the same way.

The 1921 Morgan is a common date and usually sells close to its silver value. Carson City Morgans, marked CC and struck from 1878 to 1893, draw collectors, and an 1893-S is a famous rarity. We look at the date and mint mark on each dollar before we price a roll or a box, so a better date is never paid out as bullion.

Cermak Road runs through Cicero, and much of the town is brick bungalows built from about 1910 to 1930, the same kind of houses found next door in Berwyn. Along with the dollars, those homes give up jars of pre-1965 dimes and quarters, rolls of halves and the odd silver certificate folded into a wallet.

Silver certificates can be redeemed only at face value today, so a premium has to come from collectors. War nickels dated 1942 to 1945 hold 35% silver, so we pull those out of the jars as well.

If you accept our written offer, we pay the same day in cash, or by same-day wire to your bank for a larger sale. To sell, you show a government-issued photo ID.

If you decide not to, you keep every coin and the written list, and the appraisal costs nothing. A large lot of dollars takes about 30 to 60 minutes, and a single cigar box is often done in 10.