Could someone in your family, take over the collection?

Yes, many of them, both coins & currency. I've been collecting for about 60 years now and recently my health has faded so I'm beginning to sell everything off, mostly through OfferUp. The remainder goes to HA

 

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I ain't gonna live that long...

 

My collection is not at the $100k level, but it's well over $10k. Unfortunately, nobody in my family shares my interest in coins, so I am going to have to leave some detailed instructions on how to dispose of the collection. I'm young enough right now that it's not urgent, and not a massive undertaking, but I think it optimally needs to be done in the next couple of years.

 

Time passes by before we realize it. You get busy, collect a few, sell a few and next thing you know it, you have 1 foot in the grave. Write out your will before you need to. I too could never get my kids or my grandkids involved in collecting and believe me, I tried. I truly believe that t
he years of collecting are over.

 

I know what you mean. I've given my son a few slabbed coins from his grandparents birth year. I'm hoping sometime down the road he gets the bug and is interested in my collection. If I told him it was worth several bars of gold pressed latinum he'd be interested. If you're not a Trekkie then you probably won't get my last sentence.

 

Let’s see, I have 3 wonderful children, 7 beautiful Grandchildren.
My collection consists of 10 dimes so I guess it can be split up pretty evenly among kids/grandkids.
Each gets a dime, fair and square, Lol
Hmmmm, let’s see. I reckon my wife might have a slightly different idea on disposal of my 50 year collection. Could be she'd discover a few more hidden dimes maybe, Lol
I have a magnetic “Coin Purse” on the door to one of my large safes that says it all.
“I’d rather have (Jesus) in my life then all the Silver and Gold of the world!!!

 

I'd argue that very few people have a collection worth $100k. I know a few on here who do, but the vast majority don't have that sorta coin closet. If your collection is truly worth that much, you both have something to be proud of, and something to be worth involving your family.

 

No one in my family gives much of a whoop for coins, or really any kind of antiques or collectibles. My teenage nephew has shown zero interest in collecting anything despite the fervent attempts from others in the family.

I think the likely fate of many, but not all, coin collections was foretold by the story shared on another thread of the unfortunate woman who unknowingly let her father's very rare coins go to a "less than ethical" dealer for $10 each.

People don't possess either time or energy to research things that they know nothing about and especially for things that they don't care a whit about. "$100 for a mere handful of old coins?!?! Whoooo! We can go out for dinner!!" Only if one leaves things labeled with a slap in the face message, such as "THIS IS WORTH $10,000!!!!! PLEASE DO NOT SELL TO SOME JERK FOR $10!!!!" will they probably have any inkling of knowing what to do.

The best option for everyone, collector and family, seems like selling before the big one way wave washes us away. Not that everyone always has a chance to plan for that. In any case, other people will know what to do with (non-collectible) money, but they may not have a clue what to do with old metallic disks.

Those who do have the luck of having someone in their family that cares about their collection, well, that's a treasure worth savoring. So savor.

The rest? Sell.

 

It took 50 years to collect 10 dimes? They must be some dimes!

 

We've put together a comfortable retirement for the family. The collection is nothing more than taking up space at this point. I'm not sure if any of you are interested, but I'm selling on OfferUp under the name 808-Haleiwa (it's in Hawaii). I try and post a few new items every day or so.

 

I'll PM you now with the information...

 

Wxcoin, I was just blowing smoke for the sake of having something to say, lol
Truth be known, with respect to my 50 + years of collecting both coins and my ever so favorite, “Exonumia items, I many years back and continuing to this day, at my wife and children’s insistence, have done a complete inventory of (All) coins, currency and exonumia. Items of obvious extreme value and or importance are well documented and categorized. My wife and I are and have been blessed with being very financially comfortable, so with our situation the actual money value of such a beautiful collection really doesn’t necessarily become an issue. In the event I precede my wife, all I have collected is hers to do as she wishes. My beautiful wife has asked me if I had any special wishes concerning the coin collection, as she does not have any interest nor has ever really shown any interest in such. Our oldest Son, 47 already, has a rather unique interest and a strong understanding in our world of numismatics! So, if he or the other children, or grandchildren wish to take over the collection, it’s theirs with open arms. Truth be known, placing value is easier when dealing with Silver and Gold coins, or Currency. But placing value on my vast exonumia collection is entirely a different subject and quite frankly a much more difficult one to achieve, lol
I informed my wife, whatever is easiest for you is what’s important. I just pray that I’ve made it to our Fathers Heavenly Home? Can’t take it with you and I wouldn’t want to.
I certainly wouldn’t begrudge any family members for not sharing in the same interest of collecting as I had. We all have our own lives to live and interest Varies in what we do while on this earth.
I thank God for having given me all these years to enjoy doing something I so looked forward to doing, sharing and teaching.
But let us not forget, in the very end, all we have really is just (STUFF)!!!

 

I'm afraid not. My wife doesn't know the difference between a nickel and dime but she can tell the difference between a Cent and a Quarter. Lol

She was laughing with me when I said that.

 

Coin buyer, I figured you were being a bit sarcastic so I just couldn't resist the temptation to return the favor. I hope that at least someone in your family will cherish the collection you put together over 50 years and appreciate the enjoyment it gave you during that time. Over the years I haven't had the resources to build the collection I wanted. Before I retired I liquidated most of my collection to purchase a second home. Now that I'm retired and down to one home I started to build the collection I always wanted to.

 

Since I collect ancients and foreign, I gave my wife everything in the will to disperse as she sees fit to the kids, first of all. She also knows that if there were any interest from the kids when I croak that they should get the things they are interested in.

With that being said, I created a database with the wife’s help using google forms. It’s neat because it is a form so I can though the fields easily skipping stuff that isn’t known or relevant for certain coins. When I click submit the whole thing gets saved to the database which then can be viewed as a spreadsheet. I had tried to manually type in my collection when I was young in a spreadsheet using Lotus and it was miserable. The form makes it pleasant plus I can also save an image of the coin as part of the spreadsheet record.

I’ve also given her the prices paid and from whom which is a combo of real dealers and eBay stuff for the cheapies. I let her know that it will probably only result in an offer of about 50% retail (hence inclusion of prices paid) and gave her the names of a few people/firms I think will be around when I am not.

Of course it would be nice to hand it over to the kids because they are really interested before I go. They have shown interest but who knows in the future. If it makes more sense and gives my wife comfort or money whichever is needed more, I’ve tried to give her the info and a relatively easy way to liquidate so she can do whatever she needs.

 

I did the same thing about 5yrs ago. I sold off $93k of gold at $1308oz. Then purchased a property for my son. Gold then sat dormant for the next 4yrs or so and I was glad I sold. Now gold & silver is on the rise again. But my sons property has increased 3 fold. So it looks like I made a good deal. Now I just have to sell off the rest.

 

I thought about itemizing everything in a spread sheet but found it too much bother to painstakingly itemize every common coin. I decided to only itemize individual coins that had some value. I put the common stuff in sets and gave the sets value. As an example, my Jefferson set has a value as a whole but to itemize each coin in the set, other than a couple, isn't worth the bother. Any rarer, full steps, examples that do have value have been taken out. I'm contemplating whether to send them to get slabbed. I've told my son that if he wants to sell any of the slabbed coins he can use one of the main online auction houses.

 

The fun and still exciting occurrence of having amassed a 50 + year coin/exonumia/currency collection is when while going through whichever safe, one discovers something completely forgotten about? It’s almost like opening presents at Christmas, Birthdays, Anniversaries etc. Lol
Of course “old age” and memory, or shall I say, lack of it, has shown me that I’ve purchased multiple coins of identical grade, date etc. I suppose it could be argued that there are worst things a man could have spent his money on in doubles or more?
But yes, when my time is up and I’m no longer walking vertical, it would give me joy to know that someone is able to take pleasure in what I’ve collected. Giving the collection to a institute of higher learning is another option, enabling many to learn and share the history of coinage.
Strange how as the years start to add up, attitudes of life’s “Stuff” that one collects becomes less of importance! Maybe it is just a old aging deal?, Lol

 

I know Bob. Nice guy. He calls me about once a year to see if he can help. I would trust him to help my family.

 

I have a small box that contains a bunch of coins of little value that I collected over 50 years ago. I'll never get rid of them because when I look at them it beings back memories of the excitement I had looking through change and dreams of owning one of the rare pieces. I still have the 1906 IHC I found while searching through a roll of pennies in the late 60's.