Coinsnap | What the Tech? App of the Day

Coinsnap | What the Tech? App of the Day

You've got those old coins, sometimes collector coins sitting around, but what do you do with them to get the full value you hold them onto for? Here's an app for that.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — The U.S. dollar isn’t worth what it used to be but some coins are worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.

You may be holding on to a valuable penny or quarter without knowing it. Coinsnap wants you to know.

Developers released the Coinsnap app last fall. It uses artificial intelligence to show the collector values of pennies, dimes, quarters and other coins.

Instead of just a list, the app uses the phone’s camera to see what you’ve got. Snap a photo of the coin’s front and back. The app determines the date and where the coin was minted which is important to a collector.

In a snap, you’ll see all of that information plus, whether the coin is worth more than you thought.

Common coins are at face value of course, but you might run across something more valuable.

For example, a 1986 penny. Coinsnap says a collector would value the penny at $3.09. The app shows varieties of the penny like this are worth as much as $2,000.

It’s an easy app to use and you can scan, or snap hundreds of coins in minutes and add them to your collection.

It doesn’t have a total collection of coins you can put together but the app is only a few months old so maybe an update will have it.

The app is free to download but requires a $30 annual subscription. If you have a certain Buffalo nickel, though, the annual subscription is just five cents.

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