Hello everyone...I have some grading Questions if anyone would like to give me a few pointers... I have a big collection of coins that was left to me. There is exactly 190 coins that are already graded by NGC, PCGS, and a few others consisting of Morgans, Peace, Kennedy and Frankiln Halves, Buffalo Nickels, Dimes Quarters and Eisenhower Dollars. I have a pretty good amount of coins that are not graded but IMO as much as I have learned so far, and compared to the coins that I already have graded side by side are in good shape and might grade well. Some of the coins are already in a plastic holder that holds 5 coins the Franklin halves, Q, N, D and P , and some of the Morgans are in holders that say "100 years of Morgans" along with a Silver Eagle and they look to have been made up by someone. How would one know which coins to have graded? any help would be appreciated... Thank you
I would recommend buying a redbook. It will give you ball park prices, grade descriptions, and mintages.
I've collected coins for sixty years and never had a single coin graded, nor have I ever purchased a "slabbed" coin... so I really can't help you. However, I feel that grading by an accepted TPG is a personal choice, and since you inherited these coins, consideration should be given to what you plan on doing with this collection. Do you plan on keeping it or selling it? Personally, I would keep the collection "as is"; however, if grading is the way you want to go, I would post good photos of the coins under consideration and let the more knowledgable members here give you the advice you seek. Good luck with your coins!
I agree with Jloring. Don't get caught up in the grading game. Unlike him though, I do own graded coins but I've never sent any in to be graded....I've bought them that way. Since you've inherited this collection, think (maybe) of the reasons why the previous owner didn't have that part of his collection graded. One possibility is that the coins are worth under a certain dollar amount and not worth the fee's charged to have them graded.
That is what i thought too. The collection was my fathers, and I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to spend the money to have them graded.....although we never talked abut it..one day the collection became mine and i've been shooting from the hip ever since..
You probably should just hold them for now. Do a lot of reading if you're interested in the hobby but assume your father knew what he was doing and don't put money into the collection until you've learned more. You might consider keeping it intact as is and use it as the heart of "your" collection.
I'm sorry to read of your loss. Take it slow. Read, learn and look at many other coins. It is likely that precious few of the coins really need certification, so you can likely save boatloads of money by following this advice.
Honestly, about the only way you would ever know is to have someone who knows coins look at them in person and tell you. You can read a dozen books and still not be able to grade the coins. Reading the books is the first step, but learning how to grade correctly takes a long time and you can't do it just by reading books. There is just too much to learn. Your situation is a very, very common one. And everyone is always faced with the same problem - what do I do with these coins ? Well, that is a question that only you can answer. And there is a lot more that goes into determining that answer than you might think, things that most people would never even consider really. For example, taxes. If you were to sell the coins taxes are based on your cost basis. And if you don't have documentation showing what your benefactor paid for those coins, then your cost basis will be based on the face value of the coins. That means that you will owe a ton in taxes - if you sell. I know it may seem kind of callous to talk about such things in your time of grief, but that is the reality. So it should play a part in your decision about what to do with the coins. It is also important for you to understand that about 80% of all raw coins (coins that are not graded) are problem coins. So if you sent your raw coins in to a TPG to have them graded about 8 out of 10 of them are not going to even get graded. But you will still have to pay those grading fees. And at $20 to $40 per coin (on average) that could add up to a lot of money, out of your pocket, being spent for nothing. You need to consider that too. The long and the short of this is that you if you decide to sell these coins you might end up spending more money than you take in. And that brings us back to where I started this - what you need is somebody who knows coins. But that is only if you decide to sell. So, that's the decision you have to make first - keep them, or sell them. Once you do that, then we can offer you advice on how to proceed.
The collection was always mine it has been in my possession for quite some time.. ...so there is no tax situation... The reason I was asking this was due to the fact that I am most likely going to keep the graded coins, the proofs, the proof sets, and sell off the raw coins, the coin books and the silver and gold bullion..
Sorry, but there is. Even if you owned it since you were born, there is a tax situation if you sell. OK, the bullion is the easy part. You can sell that just as it is in any number of ways. The books, they're pretty easy too. The raw coins, depending on how many you have, finding out about them could be as easy as posting pictures of them here on the forum. If you have a lot, then you still need somebody who knows coins.
Just to keep things straight, this is not true. When coins are inherited and the estate is settled. the cost basis for the coins becomes their value, the day they were inherited. You would only need to pay taxes on capital gains going forward. If the coins are sold right away, no taxes would be due. If they are sold sometime in the future, taxes due would only be calculated on the gains realized since the day of inheritance. That would be a whopping 28% BTW. Coins do not benefit from the long term capital gains rate of 15%. So, it is a good idea to get the coins appraised, so you have an established cost basis to work from. Now if the coins were gifted as opposed to inherited. That is a different story. The taxes due would be based on the gains from the original purchase price from the original owner. Mike
