Spouses need Coin Education

CharlieB

(or family member). They need some understanding of the coins
in your collection and its value should something happen to you,

whether they like it or not.

Last week I watched a woman react to a spouse's large collection
of circulated coins. It can be alarming. She picked up a 1937-D
3 legged in Fine and said "looks like a nickel to me". She'd have
spent it in a NY minute and was serious. She was going to spend all
the Buffalos and a roll of UNC 1950-D Jeffersons like pocket
change because she had no idea they were worth more than a nickel.
The coins were all raw in the old blue Whitman folder from F-AU.
He was missing only 2 or 3 coins. Coins never slabbed before are especially
vulnerable. Now what if something had happened to him before that
day? The husband should have already educated her about his
collection but it was just sitting in a cardbox box for years.
And those were just the nickels.

Here's the ironic part. He was a college professor.

Giving them the names of some dealers is not enough,
they need to know something about your collection.

- Charlie B -

Mrpawn

Have to agree with you Charlie B. I thought that I would educate my wife a little by taking her to a coin show. Worked pretty good because she got and idea of actual prices of some of the coins that I bought and sold, but then she wandered of and discovered ancient roman and Greek coins. Now she looks forward to coin shows and has an idea that the coins in the safe are not just pocket change and she has her own growing collection.

TheNumish

Took my boss, oops my wife, to a coin show. That was several years ago and she still tells her friends she once spent an eternity at a coin show. You can lead a horse to water and all that jazz. What I did was leave a letter in my safety deposit box telling her who to sell the coins to and which auction company to send the good stuff to.

kranky

Good point, CharlieB. It is irresponsible not to make sure a spouse can intelligently deal with disposal of a collection if the need arises. Numish's idea is good - identify what should go to auction and what can be sold outright (and for approximately how much). I'm sure we'd all like to think that if our spouse turned to a dealer we knew well that she'd be treated fairly, but better safe than sorry.

toothpuller

Charlie that woman must have been pretty damn dumb to consider spending coins from a Whitman. The prof must have married his cleaning lady, definitely not a student.

Anyway I don't want my wife to have any idea what I spend on coins. She has no interest, but probable figures it keeps me busy and not out chasing other women. I keep a little book [the old fashion way - no software] with a record of what I have paid for each coin, when, from who, etc. If I croak she can open it. She is to keep the coins in the family. Luckily, I expect that she will not need the proceeds from the sale of the coins.

BBN

Got almost all of my stuff in cardboard and when it's in carboard she knows that it's hands off!!!

jom

<< <i>Spouses need Coin Education >>



Good luck tyring. You're gonna need it.

jom

MacCoin

well before yesterday I thought my wife was like that. the car broke down again and we had to come up with some $$ quick. I suggested we sell some coins but she said no way I was going to sell any of the coins. That surpised and made me very happy. she can remembered Buff, Merc, SLQ and Walking halves. She knows not to spend any and alway tells me how pretty the mint state classic are and how she loves them. Her father was a collector but her son pawned them for the cash. That kind of made her mad but she never said to much.

CharlieB

Some of you may laugh about keeping it a secret, but let me tell you...

Maybe 25 years ago, my neighbor down the street caught wind that I
collected coins and asked me to come down to her house. Her husband
had passed away a few years back. I never knew he collected. She
basically called me to look at a few gold bullion coins she had, but
then went on to tell me about her husbands collection she sold a few
years prior. Someone found out about her coins and got them for
practically nothing. I saw the husband's handwritten lists of coins.

But the buyer was slick. He paid her above asking for about a dozen
20 common St. Gaud $20 gold coins, a good deal and for
several price marked coins he pretty much paid her a little above
his original purchase price. The bulk was in the folders, not price
marked. He got all the other unmarked stuff for practically face
value. The rare stuff was in the circulated coins. So by lumping
the material together it looked like a terrific deal to her.
She was literally taken to the cleaners.

- Charlie B -

RGL

My wife does not need any coin education -- she spends them quite nicely, and quickly, thank you!

But seriously, folks ... My wife knows my coins, both raw and slabbed, carry some value. The best coins are cataloged with prices paid, current value, etc., and she knows where to find the list should I go to that great '33 in the sky ... There also is a list of dealers from whom purchase quotes should be obtained, etc.,