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Coin collection valuation

Elan

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A friend of mine has "inherited" his father in laws coin collection as the FIL is moving into memory care, and proceeds from liquidating collection will be used to offset ongoing costs.
Anyhow, this collection is apparently quite voluminous (I think hundreds, if not thousands of coins). So how does my friend go about getting the collection appraised in an honest manner? Anyone have any direct experience with this? One important and unfortunate aspect is that collection is on the other side of the country, so that's an added complication.
 

tombanjo

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Hi
Some collections, of no matter what, are “hoards”.

A collection “should” have a focus. Are they labeled ? In albums, in special cases that have grade years etc in them ? (Pcgs and NGC are popular grading companies)

Large silver or gold coins ?

One assumes he bought them somewhere, any papers or invoices, statements or catalogs showing what he paid ?

If he bought from large, well known and established dealers, they may be best to help handle it.

Obviously- with no real info on what it is it is impossible to say what it is worth.

You might bring a sample to a local coin desler. Dont deal with pawn shops. No matter what they offer you, tell them you are getting a second option.

Even if you just get photographs of large bunches of them together, a dealer should be able to gauge value.
 

Elan

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It's not my collection. My assumption, based on what my friend conveyed, is that it's a mixed hoard of collectible coins with virtually no documentation, detailed inventory or even organization.

Regardless, the question is how to go about getting an appraisal on a large volume without getting ripped off, even at a reputable coin dealer.

I am a small scale collector myself, so I know the fundamentals of grading, valuing, etc, but I don't have a massive collection to deal with.
 

easyrider

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A friend of mine has "inherited" his father in laws coin collection as the FIL is moving into memory care, and proceeds from liquidating collection will be used to offset ongoing costs.
Anyhow, this collection is apparently quite voluminous (I think hundreds, if not thousands of coins). So how does my friend go about getting the collection appraised in an honest manner? Anyone have any direct experience with this? One important and unfortunate aspect is that collection is on the other side of the country, so that's an added complication.

I liquidated my father in laws coin collection after he passed. Anything with silver in it had at least spot value. Coins that he had thought were valuable were not in cases or graded so none of these were worth much. Some were in self made cases with an unofficial grade and I found out that these weren't worth anything either. A few were in in cases and had official grading so these had some value but not a lot. The entire collection fit in a cigar box.

It seems your friend has way more than we did. Probably sort out the silver by weight first. If a coin isn't officially graded it's tough to get a decent price, imo.

Bill
 
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GetawaysRus

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I second the suggestion of seeking out local coin dealers. My dad was a closet coin collector. He especially liked buying proof sets from the US Mint. After he died, and my mom later moved to a senior living facility, I organized it all and carted it in a banker's box to several local dealers. The most valuable items turned out to be the gold coins, and the value of his collection seemed to fluctuate mainly along with the price of gold. I sold it to the highest bidder, netting far more than the family had expected.

That was probably about 6 years ago. Gold has increased in price substantially. If you have gold coins, you may be pleasantly surprised at the collection's value.
 

pedro47

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Does your friend have any United States gold coins or Panda gold coins ?
 

Elan

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I honestly don't have any idea what's in his collection. I suspect it's mostly older stuff pulled from circulation, based on the volume, but I could be wrong.
 

pedro47

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Ask your friend do they have any silver dollars dated before 1930?
Suggestion only I would shop around local coin dealers for the best price?
 

callwill

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If you live near this person, perhaps you can identify for them a few reputable coin dealers. That person should then begin a process of visiting them with a few coins and ask questions about condition and valuation to get a feel for who they trust. Before entrusting anyone to the process of valuation, they need to have an inventory list...
 

tombanjo

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It will be impossible to inventory a mess of unlabeled coins. As previously mentioned, identify gold and silver. If these are all US coins pulled from circulation in the last 50 years, not a whole lot of value. (Last silver coin was 1964, 60 years ago)

Morgan Silver dollars are very popular. High grade rare ones can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Low grade rare ones can still sell for thousands. "Sliders" or well worn common ones are worth a little more than silver value (About $25 @)

If there are a thousand varieties of silver drachmas from Greece, think about a nice vacation.

Coins brought back by GI's from WWII can still have a fair value in quantity, though they are not rare. can still have value when multiplied by thousands of pieces.

eBay is the great equalizer. Using an eBay service, with Large amounts of cleat pictures, this is a pretty efficient market. Break into lots of one hundred and let market decide.
 

easyrider

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I honestly don't have any idea what's in his collection. I suspect it's mostly older stuff pulled from circulation, based on the volume, but I could be wrong.

@Carolinian knows about buying and selling coins.

Bill
 

gravityrules

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Local coin dealers are getting harder to find in my area but I think that going to a local dealer for an evaluation is the way to go. My local guy does this sort of thing (evaluating collections) all the time. I believe he is honest and gives fair prices. Of course they will be buying at wholesale, they need to make some money selling at retail to stay in business. The spread isn't that much on common silver coins, dealers can sell that quickly. Don't expect much from non-silver coins pulled from circulation ... after all who would be the buyer for those coins? Many of the modern mint issues (proof sets, commemoratives, etc) sell for less than issue price after just a few years and have to be difficult to sell.
 

geist1223

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I remember years ago while living in Roseburg Oregon a couple in their 80's were getting divorced. One of the big issues was the Husband's "Coin Collection" and it's value. The Court Ordered them to hire an Appraiser. It was barely worth over face value.
 

DrQ

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I honestly don't have any idea what's in his collection. I suspect it's mostly older stuff pulled from circulation, based on the volume, but I could be wrong.
Ungraded circulated silver coins (pre 1965) will most likely be worth their melt weight. You look up rare coins in the date range of the collection and see if there are any unicorns in this herd.

I would break up the collection into lots and scan the obverse and reverse sides of the coins (maybe 20 at a time) so that you can inventory them and look for rarities. You could send the pictures to different coin dealers to generate bids on the lots.
 

gravityrules

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A resource for melt values for silver coins is coinflation.com

Currently almost 23 times face value on 90% silver coins.
 

kanerf

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I am a Numismatist (coin collector) and can assist. If you send me a list of the coins in the collection, I can give you approximate values for them. Keep in mind that if you go to a coin dealer, they will most likely undervalue things so they can pay less. Not really cheating, just the nature of the business. Coins dated before 1964 will be mostly silver except for nickels and pennies of course.
 

Ralph Sir Edward

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Remember this, coin collecting is a dying hobby. Young collectors are uncommon to rare. First, you have to catalog what the collection has, coin by coin. Then you can get a feel for the retail price at https://www.coinworld.com/coinvalues/half-dollar/walking-liberty-half-dollar.html (change the coin type on the page - this is a walking liberty half dollar example.) Foreign coins are another kettle of fish - you have to identify them first. Coins shops usually have books for sale for foreign coins. Krause has values, but how accurate they are is subject is question.

This sort of cataloging is necessary for any collectible - coins, stamps, baseball cards, ect. It's arduous work; there are no shortcuts.
 

Carolinian

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Foreign coins can also have significant value. I had a friend in high school who described a coin to me that a relative who served in the Pacific brought back after WWII and it sounded a whole lot like a German New Guinea 5 mark. I asked him to bring it to school, he did, and that was exactly what it was, and worth $500 then.

There are also some common coins that were brought home by tourists from Europe that can have more value than one would think. An example is the 1951 dated 2 mark German coins. These were struck with a frozen date for quite a few years and hundreds of millions minted, with a face value of 50 cents US. In 1957, a new design of 2 mark was introduced. In the 1970s, the Bundesbank started withdrawing and melting the 1951 design without any announcement until the melting program ended. When collectors found out the massive percentage that had been melted, the remaining coins became much sought after. Prior to that announcement, one could find these coins at US coin shows that could be bought around face value. After the announcement, they went for $10-15 each.

Common circulating (once) silver coins of Europe also have value like the German 5 masks, Italian 500 lire, Swiss one, two, and five francs, etc.

If any of the coins are gold, national bullion dealers like JM Bullion, SD Bullion, or APMEX might be your best bet on price. Common ciculating US silver coins, pre-1965) if they are in quantity, are also coins that might bring a better price there.

Somebody needs first to figure out what he has, and then from there determine where to sell them. Local coin dealers can be a mixed bag on what they offer. They will pay a wholesale rather than retail price, but the coins that are not in high demand from their customers will get a low wholesale offer. With some coins, you really need to find someone who specializes in those particular coins to get a decent offer. For example,if there are Canadian common silver coins in quantity, APMEX is the only major dealer I know of which reqularly buys and sells those. If you happen to have a 1908-F German half mark, of which only a thousand were minted, you would need to catch a plane to Germany to sell it for the best price, and it would much more than pay for the trip. Heck, I'd like to have that one as it is the only Imperial German half mark I am missing for what would otherwise be a complete set, but it will always probably be too rich for my blood.
 

Brett

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Remember this, coin collecting is a dying hobby. Young collectors are uncommon to rare. First, you have to catalog what the collection has, coin by coin. Then you can get a feel for the retail price at https://www.coinworld.com/coinvalues/half-dollar/walking-liberty-half-dollar.html (change the coin type on the page - this is a walking liberty half dollar example.) Foreign coins are another kettle of fish - you have to identify them first. Coins shops usually have books for sale for foreign coins. Krause has values, but how accurate they are is subject is question.

This sort of cataloging is necessary for any collectible - coins, stamps, baseball cards, ect. It's arduous work; there are no shortcuts.


yes, people used to collect stamps, coins and sports cards - today, not so much
 

wackymother

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I am a Numismatist (coin collector) and can assist. If you send me a list of the coins in the collection, I can give you approximate values for them. Keep in mind that if you go to a coin dealer, they will most likely undervalue things so they can pay less. Not really cheating, just the nature of the business. Coins dated before 1964 will be mostly silver except for nickels and pennies of course.
We have a lot of Morgan dollars. Some are beat up, but some are in absolutely pristine condition, sparkling. I used an app to take pics and get value estimates, and most were melt value (which the app put at $23, this was a few months ago), but some had potential to go into the hundreds. I took them to a local coin dealer and he offered $15 for the melt ones and $27 for the better ones. They're back in my safe deposit box.
 

TolmiePeak

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We have a lot of Morgan dollars. Some are beat up, but some are in absolutely pristine condition, sparkling. I used an app to take pics and get value estimates, and most were melt value (which the app put at $23, this was a few months ago), but some had potential to go into the hundreds. I took them to a local coin dealer and he offered $15 for the melt ones and $27 for the better ones. They're back in my safe deposit box.
Why wouldn't you dump them while they still have some value? The hobby is dying off.
 

gravityrules

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Morgan's usually bring a small premium over melt. I paid $26 each for the most recent ones I bought. That was a non-serious offer from your coin dealer.

'Paper' silver (SLV) isn't the same as physical silver. The OP didn't mention any costs associated with storage so why assume that? SLV does have costs in terms of price performance associated with holding it long term, it will underperform physical. But one reason some hold PMs is as a hedge against 1920s Germany type currency collapse. My understanding is SLV really owns just a fraction the amount of physical silver represented by the shares, the majority is contracts for delivery, which in a collapse scenario is problematic.
You can decide the collapse scenario is fear mongering. There are plenty of people making $$$ off selling folks on the concept of holding PMs in some form as a hedge and a collapse in the USD hasn't happened in our lifetime so I understand the skepticism.
But if you want to hold some physical gold or silver I get that too.
 

AnnaS

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Many years ago my father-in-law gave me a small ziplock full of silver coins. I should go look at the years on them. I forget I even have them.
 
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