DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Coin help

An acquaintance of mine is terminally ill, and not in a good place mentally. He has been collecting coins his entire adult life, and has entrusted his entire collection to me. He has a son who I will eventually give them to. The problem is, these coins are not very organized at all. There are albums, lock boxes, containers full of coins in sleeves, some gold powder and an enormous amount of loose coins. He said the value of the collection is "probably 40-50 thousand". I do not know a thing about coins or collecting, and I don't want to get ripped off getting them evaluated and appraised. I do not know where to begin, other than taking months to log and identify every coin. I purchased one of those 30gallon tool boxes on wheels, and I could not fit the entire collection in there. There are very old coins, silver coins, a few of what look like gold coins. He was not a very organized person even when doing well, and many of these coins were scattered throughout his house. I don't want to just dump these coins on his son, he's in his twenties and not the most stable as he's dealing with his dad's illness. Any guidance or advice would be much appreciated.

Are they all US currency? If not, that makes things a bit more complex/arduous.


First, my understanding is that you do NOT want to put these through a mechanical sorter.

Obviously, many hands make light work. If you have a friend or a trusted individual that has some knowledge of coin collecting (and specifically the coins you have, like US currency) try to enlist their help. Maybe you can work out a deal where they can hang onto some low or mid value stuff.


As far as approach, what I would do is first try to target and sort for the very high value stuff. There are specific coins in specific years (and/or specific defects/errors) that make for EXTREMELY valuable coins. If this collection is as big as you describe, there's a good chance some of these are in there... and once you pick those out you're probably going to have the majority of the $$$ value of your collection. To help with this, you can pre-sort into broad categories (metal, size/denomination).