I need some coin help!

daystar7104

My grandpa just gave me his coin collection that he has been keeping since the 1920's. Some of these coins look near mint. He kept them in a safe for over 70 years. Some of them date back to the 1840's. Tons of Dollar coins from the 1800's. Tons of Indian Head Pennies and Buffalo Nickles. Anyone have any suggestions of which ones to grade. Which grading service to use, ect. I would like any help I can get. I know some of these are very rare and would like to possibly sell them. My grandpa says it is time for me to get use of the money they could possibly generate. I love that he never threw anything away in his life. Any help would be appreciated and let me know if there are any coins any of you would be interested in. Thanks.

mrdq

Don't sell anything until you learn quite a bit about the coin collection. You'll need to spend MONTHS here and at other sources learning what you're doing and you might want to ask around this forum or thru your other connections for a real person to sit with you and advise you. Borrow a Digital camera and take pictures to post here and you can get much better advice as you go along... PM Coindaughter and others who found this forum and had similar "what do i do next" scenarios.

welcome

RKKay

PM sent.

Iwog

Well I ALMOST sent a PM, but I caught myself when I noticed Daystar has 1764 posts since May 2001. I'm guessing this is a last minute April 1st event.

HOWEVER, just in case you're serious, I do live in Sacramento and have been active in the hobby over 20 years. I own a law firm so if you'd like to call or drop into the office sometime, I'll be glad to render some opinions. Taking your collection to a local dealer is the absolute WORST thing you can do.

rd5425

<< <i>You'll need to spend MONTHS here and at other sources learning what you're doing and you might want to ask around this forum or thru your other connections for a real person to sit with you and advise you. Borrow a Digital camera and take pictures to post here and you can get much better advice as you go along >>



Or you could make it easy on your self and give them all to me

daystar7104

<< <i>Or you could make it easy on your self and give them all to me >>

daystar7104

<< <i>Well I ALMOST sent a PM, but I caught myself when I noticed Daystar has 1764 posts since May 2001. I'm guessing this is a last minute April 1st event.

HOWEVER, just in case you're serious, I do live in Sacramento and have been active in the hobby over 20 years. I own a law firm so if you'd like to call or drop into the office sometime, I'll be glad to render some opinions. Taking your collection to a local dealer is the absolute WORST thing you can do. >>



No this is not a joke. I would like to get together sometime and pick your brain. I live in the Rancho area. LMK. I have been on this board mainly for my sports card collection. So I know a little bit about grading, ect. But it is a whole new arena and would like to get as much input as possible.

construct

daystar--

Is it a collection or an accumulation? If your granddad is a collector, why not start with him? If they're just neat coins he was given along with others that he put away to keep, then you'll definitely want to pick up the ANA grading guide to start with. The ISBN is 0-307-09097-3. A large bookstore might have it in stock. Certainly coin shops would stock it.

Then you need to get someone to show you how to spot cleaning (which lowers the value). Newbies often mistake shiny for mint state, and you need to be able to tell the difference or you could make mistakes in both directions.

Good luck with your coins! Don't look at 'em too much or you'll decide they're too interesting to get rid of!

Conder101

Are there half cents, large cents or bust halves in the collection? If so they should not be sold until they have been examined by a specialist and checked for rare die varieties. In fact any early material (say pre-1836 maybe pre 1850) should be checked. A collection formed that long ago has the potential to have material that has never been gone over before and ther may be some goodies. Not likely but possible.

BlueCole

Also, bone up on some of the mints errors--off centers, broadstrikes, wrong planchets, clipped planchets. the only reason i mention this is my grandfather had a jar of older coons from the 1940s-60's, and in it, there was a penny struck on dime planchet. . keep your eye out for coins that look "funny"

B.

daystar7104

The Collection is more of a accumulation. He just kept everything thinking down the line it may be worth money. He was right. I just found a coin that appears to be British and is from 1844. Queen Victoria is on it. Also have a Chinese marrage charm with four little pictures of people making babies. Mostly I have US coins. Lots of Indian Head Pennies. Silver Dollars. Buffalo Nickles. I would like to show some pictures of these to the forum. I will see if any of them scan. I also only touch them with a special cloth glove I got at a coin store when I also got a 2003 redbook. I will keep in touch and if you have any more advice I am all ears!

StillLurking

The DARKSIDE could help with the foreign stuff. Or a trip to the library for a STANDARD CATALOG OF WORLD COINS might come in handy.

satootoko

If it were me, the first thing I would do is develop an inventory and scan through pricing materials to get a feel for which ones are potentially the most valuable. For foreign coins someone already mentioned the Standard Catalog of World Coins, and for US coins the first quick reference would be the Red Book, which is readily available at a coin shop, or through Amazon, in addition to most libraries. Your Sacramento Public Library has its on-line catalog search function disabled for a software upgrade, so you'll have to go to a branch to see what is available there.

Once you know where to concentrate first, you can start posting pictures.

Good luck!

ScarsdaleCoin

This is really a secret message to me

www.coinhelp.com

sinin1

daystar, my grandpa just gave me his card collection he started when he was a kid - some are small, like 1 inch by 1 inch, some are really big like 3 inches by 4 inches. Some look like mint state and others are all wrinkled up. I see many names I have no clue who they are or if they have value. I was told that some of these cards could be worth maybe $5 or more.Some are in color and others in black and white. Most are baseball but some other sports too - there must be hundreds of them. What is the best way for me to get as much money as possible from them.













Sorry, this is a joke - but you can see the correlation with something you are familiar with.

Iwog

Okay, I sent you a PM with my phone number. Can't wait to see some of these rare artifacts you made sounds so good.

daystar7104

<< <i>daystar, my grandpa just gave me his card collection he started when he was a kid - some are small, like 1 inch by 1 inch, some are really big like 3 inches by 4 inches. Some look like mint state and others are all wrinkled up. I see many names I have no clue who they are or if they have value. I was told that some of these cards could be worth maybe $5 or more.Some are in color and others in black and white. Most are baseball but some other sports too - there must be hundreds of them. What is the best way for me to get as much money as possible from them.













Sorry, this is a joke - but you can see the correlation with something you are familiar with. >>




HA HA!! You really got my interest. I am sure glad this is not a joke on my part. I am going to schedule an appointment with Iwog and he will tell you the same after he sees the collection. It is great he works like 10 minutes from where I live.

daystar7104

<< <i>Okay, I sent you a PM with my phone number. Can't wait to see some of these rare artifacts you made sounds so good. >>



Just PM you back and look forward to showing you them and getting your advice.