Hi, I'll start by saying I know nothing of coin collecting. My grandfather died several years ago and left behind about 1000 coins or so - mostly U.S. and some world coins from when he was in WWII. My grandmother has given them to me to sell for her. So, how do I go about this. Do I try to sell as a collection or individually? Do I go to a local dealer? How do I know he isn't ripping me off? Or deal with the headache of Ebay? Or post the for sale on a forum? Any advice would be great. I have started making a list of what is there. Unfortunately for me, I did this without recording the mint marks - which I now know are pretty important.:rolling: So, here is a not very useful list of what I have: half dollars: 1826, 1936, 1940-46, 1951-54, 1958, 1963, 1964, 1966-68, 1974, 1976 Quarters: 1844, 1899, 1928, 1934, 1936, 1940-42, 1944-45, 1947, 1950, 1952-56, 1958-64, 1967, 1976 Silver dollars: 1879-86, 1888-90, 1892, 1896, 1898-99, 1901-02, 1904, 1921-26, 1934, 1971-72, 1976 Dimes: 1865, 1891, 1904, 1912-13, 1917, 1936, 1939, 1941-47, 1951-52, 1956-57, 1959, 1961-64, 1967-68 Nickels: 66 buffalo that the year is rubbed off on, 1888, 1898, 1900-01, 1905-07, 1909-10, 1912, 1925, 1928, 1930, 1934-37, 1943, 1952 Penny: 1859, 1871, 1880, 1890-91, 1896, 1898-99, 1902, 1906, 1910, 1942-44, 1953 1973 sealed set with red trim on clear plastic wrapper 1861 half penny 1854 half dime thanks for any help /advice Allan
Hello Allen, the easiest course of action would be to go to a dealer, but keep in mind that it's a business transaction and the dealer is a middle-man who has a family to feed at the end of the day. Ebay would be the most advantageous and profitable for you but the listing fees might eat into some of your profits and Oh the Hassle. Either way you'll have to take your chances. Here is a link which will give you an idea of their worth. http://www.bestcoin.com/ Good Luck and Welcome Bone
First of all do nothing unless your in some finacial hurry. Go to a coin store, hobby store or on line geta Red Book. Issued by Whitman Publishing. You can get on the Walmart Web Site for about $9 or 10. Get to know what you have. Selling those coins is like selling a car, house, boat or anything if you don't know what your doing. Someone will always offer you hundreds of times less than it's worth. With a Red Book, web sties like bonedigger mentioined, PCGS web sites and right here, you should first learn what you have. Not only are their rare dates but some error coins are worth a small fortune. You'll have to look for double dies, offsets, rotated dies, etc. Get to know what you have and who knows you may become a coin collector or even a coin dealer. If after you know what you've got and about what they are worth, you may want to try just typing in coin shows and the state you liive in. If there are any in the area go to one and start asking questions.
I was also going to recommend that you go slow. Don't sell anything for at least a couple of months, and spend the time getting to know more about what you have. The coin market is a pool of sharks, and you have to be equiped with the proper knowledge to survive. The Redbook will give you approximate prices. Also look for Photograde which will help you evaluate the condition of the coins. The 1973 set and the buffalo nickels without dates are probably the safest to sell first just to get some practice. The sets have readily established values and dateless buffalos are pretty low in value. I'm not sure what they currently go for. If you like some of the coins and can figure out approximately what they are worth, maybe the safest thing to do is buy them yourself from your grandmother and become a collector. For example, it sounds like you have the start of a pretty nice silver dollar collection and you might want to add to it yourself instead of disposing of it. I have a group of silver dollars from my grandfather and they are an important keepsake. If you sell the coins, someday you may regret not keeping them.
Excellent advice. It would be nice to keep your grandfathers collection in the family if its possible. Once you start researching them, you might find it pretty interesting. It can become more than a little addicting, as you start looking through your change everytime you leave a store, watching the ground as you walk around,might be a coin down there,lol. Swapping coins through vending machines.Most here will know what I mean. It's good to see everyone here trying to help out too, instead of trying bilk coinchallenged out of the collection. Great forum.
I know from experience that what I write will not resonate with everyone on the list, especially members under 30 or 40 years of age, BUT everyone who has a valuable coin collection should leave a page or 2 on the collections value and any specific coins that may not be easily recognized such as double dies for their family. JUST in CASE the unexpected should occur. The name of any trusted dealer or collector could also be noted. For those of hmmmm advanced situation, should put this with their will or trust papers. JMHO
predcarn, Good advice. I have done just that, including the name of a trustworthy local dealer assuming he outlives me which I secretly hope he doesn't - no offense meant. It explains what is valuable and why and the approximate current value of the best coins with instructions to update the values before anything is sold. It also has some guesses about what a dishonest dealer might try to say to talk down the price and how to deal with that possibility. I keep the document in the safe with the coins. I'd like to think my kids would keep and build on the collection or at least parts of it, but I'm pretty sure they'll sell most of it so I want them to do it right and understand what they have.
a couple of points, first condition is everything! this cannot be overstated! Also, with a collection of that many coins it is very likely that any dealer that reviews it would want to charge you a fee to evaluate the collection, with the understanding that it will be refunded if you sell to them. I found this frustrating when i tried to sell some stuff, but I understand why they do it. The more you know about what you have and the more you are able to go slowly in selling the more you will make, but selling to a dealer is the simplest and quickest method.
Hey, I just want to say thank you for all the advice. It does seem a little overwhelming. It seems I'm just going to have to put more effort forth than I anticipated, and I need to slow down, too. I aalso have about 200-300 foriegn coins that he must have picked up during WWII. I know I saw one that looked african/middle eastern and the year was 13XX. I'm just going to have to make the time to get this done. Again, thanks for the advice, Allan
Don't think anyone mentioned this, but make sure you don't clean your coins. It will be a lot of work with all those coins. If you would ever like an opinion of grade, please post pictures and myself, and others will be happy to help.
Because with cleaning you are taking part of the coin with you---it leaves the coin looking un-natural and most collectors won't buy them....it can cut the value down to 50% at times. Speedy
