about 5 years ago i was left countless coins and stamps from my late uncles collection. unfortunately i know nothing of the value of it. are their "trustees" where i can give the entire collection and they will complete an inventory along w/ value lists? any and all help is greatly appreciated. thank you for your time i can also be reached ** Not good to give email addy, use PM **
I work for the worlds largest coin dealer, I would be happy to take a look at your list and see what we could do.
Billy, My answer depends on how you answer the following questions. How are the coins housed? Are they loose in cans and boxes, in 2X2s or in coin folders or books? Are they slabbed? Are they common coins pulled from circulation or are they "collector" coins? I would recommend that you first buy a Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins) by Yeoman. Don't pay too much attention to the values of coins given in this book; instead use the relative values to identify key coins. Next you should segregate your coins. Divide them into groups based on metal content - copper, nickel, silver, gold. Then divide the groups into denominations - copper into cents and two cents, silver into three cents, half dimes, dimes, twenty cents, quarters, half dollars, silver dollars, etc. Next divide the denominations into design types - Large Cents, Flying Eagle Cents, Indian Head Cents, Lincoln Wheat Cents, Lincoln Memorial Cents, Lincoln Zinc Cents, etc. Next divide the design types dy decade (e.g., for Lincoln Wheat Cents divide them into groups of 1909, Teens, Twenties, Thirties, Forties and Fifties). Now that you have your coins divided into manageable groups start looking for key coins. (In the Lincoln Wheat Cents you will be looking for the 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922 Plain, and 1931-S.) Keep all the key coins and semi-key coins separate from the common coins. The time you invest in doing this will help you get a higher offer from a coin dealer. If you ask a coin dealer to make an offer on your "collection" of several thousand coins he will probably base his offer on all the coins being common dates. The dealer is simply not going to devote several hours to go through your coins for free. But if you have taken the time to pull out the more valuable coins the dealer's offer will likely be higher. If you have some especially valuable coins you may want to consider consigning them with an auciton house (e.g., Heritage). And, and please DO NOT CLEAN YOUR COINS!!!
You should not publically post your email address, spambots can gather them from sites and you will be the recipient of thousands of emails you probably are not interested in. While many stores have combined coin and stamp operations, usually they are seperate specialties, so you might have to deal with two seperate people. There are a few people on this forum that live in the chicago area that I would trust to look over a coin collection, Rzage and Mike Noodles to name two off the top of my head, and who might be interested in doing so. A dealer doing an appraisal might charge you 25 an hour or more for the service, perhaps less if you are selling the coins to them. If they were to do so, you should by all rights give them some sort of consideration for their time. other responses so far have been right on the money.
I'll comment on the stamps... Like the coins, do not attempt to clean, change, or modify anything until you know what you are doing. Used stamps are almost ALWAYS worth more when left on a complete, intact, and clean envelope. They are worth the least when they are on a scrap of envelope. Unused stamps should never be touched with bare hands. Used stamps after the 1930s are sold by the pound. Very little value. Unused stamps after the 1930s, for the most part, are lucky to bring face value. I know dealers that sell them for under face value to be used as postage. So you know they paid even less for them! The reason dealers can't even get face value for them is because it is a pain to make 44 cents out of 4 cent stamps, for example. So no one wants to pay full price if they have this inconvienence. The stamps that have the best chance of being worth dollars, versus cents, are unused stamps before 1930. Used stamps off the envelope, from before 1930, can have value too, just depends on which stamp you have. The values can vary wildly.
I'll bet you would. To the OP - I would not recommend sending a collection, or even a list of its contents, to minions of the "world's largest coin dealer". I would recommend that you follow others' advice, and at least develop a basic understanding of what you have, before even considering selling it. Telling a dealer you know nothing about what you have and are just looking to sell it is an invitation to him to, well, let's just say to not make his best offer. The bigger the beast, the more it must seek to eat.
Offers or solicitations to buy or sell outside of the classified section of the forum are not allowed.
Thanks for all of the informative replies. looks like i have some work to do w/ going thru all of the goodies. thx for all the help i will keep ya gusy posted on my progress. thanks again.
