HELP PLEASE! (Appraising Estate Lot)

bigindie

To make a long story short, I just got a call from my mother. Her neighbor's father died. He was an 88-year-old Antiques Dealer. Among his posessions were a number of old coins. My mother told her neighbor that I would love to go through them for her and give her an estimated worth and possibly an outlet to sell them. I've never been one to admit I'm in way over my head, but I've never done anything like this before and have no idea where to begin. I haven't seen the lot yet, but according to my mom, he has them separated in coffee cans by denomination. So, I'm assuming we're talking about lots of coins.

My question - Has anybody done this before? Is there a nice, methodical approach? Can I realistically expect to find anything of value?

Julian

Just pick up a Blue Book and do your best. If you run in to some items that you are not familiar with, you can check further for them.

You will probably have a lot of wheaties, buffaloes, etc., and you can figure out where to sell them. Your local dealer would be happy to buy most anything. I know that I am happy to purchase any/all resaleable numismatic items.

kranky

For me that would be lots of fun. The odds of finding something really valuable are small, but it's still possible. What I would do is sit down with a Redbook and use that to quickly check for a rare date or major variety. If you've been collecting for a while you'll probably know instantly if a coin has potential or not. You'll probably find dateless Buffalos, tons of common wheat cents, etc. You won't have to look up every coin.

Try to find out when the coins were put away and where they came from. If they were pulled from circulation over the last 50 years, your odds of finding a 1942/1 Merc are going to be a lot higher than if he was buying them over the counter from people in the last ten years or so.

A lot depends on where they came from and how many there are.

poptopsRus

Going through a collection or hoard like that can be fun but you can also shop it around to dealers as well. Don't take the first offer as some dealers are better than others. Theres noting wrong with shopping your collection around.

jonesy

I would give a major organ to be able to do this.

bigindie

ttt

bigindie

What if the coins are something I'm interested in for my personal collection? Should I offer her a flat rate for all of them based on a percentage of numismatic value, offer her exactly what they're worth based on grey sheet, Trends, Blue Book, Red Book or some other guide, offer her face value or go through every coin and just buy the ones I'm interested in? My questioning is based on the fact that I want to avoid screwing over an old lady who knows nothing about coins while still being able to add some coins to my collection at a reasonable cost to me.

merz2

Mike
Talk to Ron(flying56eagle) he did this for a couple of years,with a collection. As far as how to handle coins you mabe interested in,that is tough.You have to look at yourself in the mirror afterwards.You need to sit and talk to her.I believe you should offer to sell her coins with the stipulation that as payment you may find some that you'd like to add to your collection as payment.If you were to find something real valueable that you wanted,you could give her some extra for it.There is a lot of work and time involved in sorting and selling it.

BigD5

Your probably going to find a bunch of circ. common coins. Pay the going rate for that stuff (buy prices for most of those items can be found in the back of coinworld, ie: circ. wheaties, Morgans etc....) Most of the time, you'll be able to make enough of a percentage on that material for it to be worth your while, and you'll probably find a few items that can be little bonuses for you. For better material, you have to kind of know the market value for certain coins, in relation to sheet prices, and go from there.
Last collection I went to look at had some better circulated material that I priced accordingly, nothing to send the kids to college on, but better than average "stuff". Then a nice Fugio cent gets thrown on the table, and a Mass. pine tree shilling. That has a tendency to stop you in your tracks, if you know what I mean.
Still working on that deal.
Good luck!!!!!

bigindie

Thanks everybody. Does anybody have anything else for me before I go take a look at these coins?

BTW, I got about 3 hours sleep last night thinking about this. I definitely have an obsession problem.

ldhair

As an antiques dealer he probably did not put really valuable coins in cans.
Unless he thought it was just something really common.
Get ready for a long sit and take a good glass.

Let us know how things go and good luck.