Al Raddi is happy to give his two cents on what your change might be worth — and what is actually the most valuable may not be what you think.

The chair of the Huron Valley Numismatic Society has been collecting coins for more than six decades and 5:30-8 p.m. April 20, he and other members of the club will be offering free coin appraisals for the first time in two years at the Milford Library.

In an age when cash is no longer king and money changes hands in the form of credit cards, Venmo and Apple pay rather than paper bills and metal coins, coin collections may be on the way out.

“It’s a hobby diminishing in the number of collectors, but in certain areas like error coin collection it is growing like crazy,” Raddi said. “Certain areas are very strong. Not all areas of numismatics are dying at the same rate.”

The 77-year-old Milford Township resident first became enamored with coin collecting when a family friend who worked at the Philadelphia Mint sent him a 1955 proof set specially prepared for collectors prior to issue of circulated coins.

Raddi still has that proof set with “perfect” penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half-dollar coins. But what the collector of more than 3,000 coins searches for now is the imperfect: coins that have blatant errors and therefore are worth much more.

Indeed, he is thrilled whenever the U.S. Mint errs, which happens frequently due to the sheer volume of coins made.

“Whenever the mint makes a mistake, I get excited — that is why I have so many coins,” Raddi said. “Sometimes small mistakes become collectible, just like the inverted Jenny stamp.”

It is a dream to find a coin mistake in the magnitude of the famous stamp displaying an upside down airplane, one of which a Birmingham stamp collector sold in 2020 for more than a quarter of a million dollars  after holding it in a vault for four decades.

Raddi continues to search circulated coins for small errors like cracks or off-center stamps, but for dramatic mistakes the coins must be purchased from dealers.

Older errors are more valuable and harder to find, he added, not because fewer errors were made, but because fewer coins were made.

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For this reason, an Indian head cent that is struck off center is more valuable than a Lincoln penny, simply because there are fewer.

Lincoln cents have been made continuously since 1909, but Indian head pennies minted from 1859-1909 are often sought after for particular years in which fewer were minted.

Raddi notes that in 1943 wheat pennies were made mostly of steel due to the war, but a few copper pennies were struck in error, and those can sell now for between $100,000 to $250,000.

While they are found “now and then,” Raddi is much more likely to see far less valuable coins on the appraisal nights his group hosts a couple times per year.

Most common are buffalo nickels, mercury dimes and the Indian head pennies that are not rare. He also sees rolls of 1964 half-dollars featuring John F. Kennedy and many coins from the Franklin Mint with no collector value.

Many people don’t realize that a coin that is shiny and new may be far more valuable than one that is ancient. When it comes to coins, it’s not just age that matters; condition is very important.

Raddi notes that a friend of his collects coins that are mentioned in the Bible, including the “widow’s mite,” a coin spoken of in the Gospel of Mark in which a poor widow gives the smallest and least valuable coin, but Christ said her offering was more pleasing to him than those given by the wealthy.

Those coins, over 2,000 years old, can still be purchased by modern collectors, Raddi said, for the bargain price of $5 or $10 and even Roman and Greek coins from 500 to 1,000 years before the Christian era can be obtained for $40 or $50.

Condition and rarity are important and it’s not just how many were made, but how many survived. He is looking forward to seeing what coins people have been holding on to and helping them trace their origins.

So what would Raddi most like to see someone bring in? Two coins in particular: a 1913 Liberty nickel, of which there are only five known to exist; and, more likely, a 1909-s VDB Lincoln wheat penny, which denotes the cent came from the San Francisco mint and bears designer Victor D. Brenner’s initials.

Regardless, before you dump that piggy bank into a Coinstar machine or finally roll the change gathering dust on top of the fridge, take a closer look and pick out a few that you think could be exceptional (try to keep it under 50) and look for the shiny, as condition matters most. But maybe still hold out hope for the coin that maybe escaped detection all these years.

“Sometimes we can help them find something somewhat rare,” Raddi said. “Others are worth 50 cents at most… If you have a 1913 liberty nickel and there are only five known and you found number 6, it’ll be on the cover of every magazine, a feature story on all the journals and you can go to auction and make $3-4 million.”

The Huron Valley Numismatic Society meets monthly and holds coin shows and appraisal nights periodically. For more information, visit hvns.org.

Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com or 517-281-2412. Follow her on Twitter @SusanBromley10.