The Collector's Age Situation

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by GSDykes, Jun 18, 2015.

  1. GSDykes

    GSDykes Well-Known Member

    I suspect this is a sensitive thread, but I need to settle me mind. For decades the hobby has been carried on by the generation from the late 40's and 50's. I am approaching 69 with no children, a few nephews (whom I am trying to encourage to collect). If I left this planet in a few years, I suppose my wife would be faced with disposing of thousands of coins!! At the present time I really enjoy collecting and will continue, for several reasons: (1) It is relaxing and enjoyable, (2) It helps me pass the time with certain medical issues ongoing. Usually I am into Theology, but decided to begin a 3 year or so sabbatical, and coins and collecting coins and studying different aspects about them keeps me going. I also like the numismatic community (you all). I am happily a very isolated combat vet, my wife and my dogs also keep me happy. Should I perhaps make a will to dispose of my coins? Is their an ANA collection site for old foggies like me? Is there a list of youngsters who would like free coins? I really would like to pass them on to someone who would continue the collection, even a museum, but preferably someone younger. What are your ideas and situations: you older members?? Enclosed is a pretty picture of a rather rare gaming token of 1965 from Harrah's. It is Franklinium I (magnetic, and big), Franklin mint without date. The pic is added to keep your attention, it works for me! DSCN5012.JPG
     
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  3. Aidan_()

    Aidan_() Numismatic Contributor

    There is the ANA Summer Seminar YN auction that you can donate coins to, to help fund scholarships to YNs who can't financially make to the seminar on their own.
     
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  4. OldGoldGuy

    OldGoldGuy Members Only Jacket

    First and foremost, I respect, greatly respect, your generosity with your hobby by entertaining the idea of "giving" it away. Commendable. Coupe things on that. First, be careful that whomever you give it away to doesn't just turn right around and sell it. Second, the museum route, I am not 100% on how donations to a museum works, but I woudl imagine the collection would have to have some significance for them to accept. I know it sounds crazy that a museum wouldn't accept it, but think of the time investment their staff would be committing to if they must sort through, catalog, label, etc, "1000's of coins".

    Here is my suggestion, take it for what its worth. Pick a family member who, even if they are not a numismatist, you feel would at least RESPECT what you are handing over. It sounds like you have a serious sized collection. Give it to someone deserving. I am funny about inheritances and charity. I feel inheritances should stay in the family and charity should be something you actively do, not just something you do at the end to buy your ticket through the gates. I am not saying I think that is what your motivations are, not even by a longshot, I just think it should be something your family keeps. Thats me, and I am weird.
     
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  5. Aidan_()

    Aidan_() Numismatic Contributor

    And also what he said. :D
     
  6. Jaelus

    Jaelus The Hungarian Antiquarian Supporter

    Make sure your collection is well documented. Assume whoever will have to deal with it will not be able to tell a Morgan dollar from a gaming token. Every coin needs to have a label that clearly correlates it to your inventory record, and your inventory records need to be easy to locate. At least that way if someone bothers to look it should be fairly easy for them to find a ballpark value on the coins. Otherwise, if they can't tell what they're looking at, there's nothing to stop them from pawning your entire collection for a dollar.
     
  7. Legacy

    Legacy Member

    Interesting question as I'm 50 and no kids. For my coins of value I intend to liquidate in retirement to continue to fund my bad boating habit! But my common stuff collected over the years I'm using in change everywhere - - mostly dateless buffalo nickels and Indian cents. With my nephews, I trade them coins for work around my yard. Seems to work well as they are now motivated to read about the coins.
     
    swamp yankee likes this.
  8. ace71499

    ace71499 Young Numismatic

    I do agree about how inheritances should really stay in the family (even though I'm 15 and have a long ways to go) but i feel like if his collection is going to be inherited and immediately sold off what good is that. I feel like it should definitely go to someone who would preserve the collection. If none of my future children/wife would like to take care of my collection it would go to the closest person to me interested in collecting.

    My favorite quote from his original post "Is their a list of youngsters who would like free coins"
    Yes there is, the only person on it is me, don't bother asking anyone else.
    Just kidding guys! But seriously this topic should be thought out by everyone no matter the age.
     
    swamp yankee likes this.
  9. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    I somewhat disagree. If none of his relatives are a coin collector, I see nothing wrong with having it sold off. Sold off old collections are the backbone of this hobby. Even by selling off your collection you are doing a great service to new collectors. If no collection was ever sold off, very soon there would be absolutely no coins for anyone to buy except new coins.

    OP, I agree with making sure things are cataloged and categorized. Maybe also leave instructions about a dealer or two, or auction company or two, that would do a fair job of liquidating the collection should your heirs not want it. Nothing is sadder than an heir selling off a coin collection for 3 cents on the dollar since they do not know any better. :(
     
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  10. kanga

    kanga 65 Year Collector

    I'm 73 so I'm probably a bit closer to the end.
    But I've decided that I'm going to pass on with my collection intact.
    And I think that I'll go before my wife goes considering how I've treated my body over the years.
    She gets to deal with the collection.
    I gave her the name and address of MFD (Angel Dee's) and recommend that if she wants to cash the collection in let Andy handle it.
    I don't see her keeping it.
    Since it's 95+% slabbed that should make it easier.
     
  11. wildruler

    wildruler New Member

    I agree with making sure everything is well cataloged. I'm only 28 and just started collecting in February of this year. I spend most of my money on silver coins, but I also have a lot of foreign coins. I'm more active on Reddit than here but there is a sub-reddit called coins and there seems to be about 5 posts per day that go a little like this, "Just inherited grandfathers coin collection. Any idea what these are and if they are worth anything." The only two questions you see from people are what are they and how much can I sell them for. I don't want to die knowing my collection that I spent most of my life building got hocked off and the information about those coins came from a quick post on Reddit. If there's somebody in the family you know for sure that is interested in the hobby I'd leave them to that individual. Otherwise if it was me, I'd probably sell the coins myself and leave a safe full of cash for my family to fight over. At least you know they'd get the full value for the coins instead of a shop ripping off your family. As strange as it sounds coming from a coin collector but I don't like the thought of capitalism. I've seen first hand shop owners taking advantage of women because they think women are stupid. I can only imagine how a coin shop would treat an elderly woman. But these are just my personal opinions.
     
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  12. coinman1234

    coinman1234 Not a Well-Known Member

    I saw a mom with a kids at my favorite coins shop, the woman had no clue with coffee cans full of half dollars, it looks like an ocean. She had no clue about anything, she was on facebook too half the time she was at the coin shop. She inherited them from her dad and had no clue at all about coins at all except face value. Luckly the dealer is pretty honest and payed around spot for the silver based on what I saw, he even bought some wheaties. What amazed me was when she pulled out a COMPLETE album of Liberty Head Half Eagles! Her words were, "Are these worth anything?". The dealer said that he does not deal and gold and that album cost too much money for him (He deals mainly in coins from around a few cents to around $200) Anyways, it just proves that knowledge pays, and if you give your coins to a family member make sure to give it to one how knows at least the value of your coins.
     
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  13. -jeffB

    -jeffB Greshams LEO Supporter

    ...unless, of course, you're the blissfully conscience-free dealer or pawnshop or jewelry store making that offer.

    It is sad to think of a valuable collection, gathered over decades with great care (and at great expense), going to someone who doesn't appreciate its value. But how many of us here have never been the beneficiary of that sort of loss?

    I've got my story of the guy I found trying to dump jars of silver into the CoinStar, the holed and engraved proof Trade Dollar that found its way into a bag of junk on eBay, the ill-photographed pawnshop lot of Peace dollars that included an MS62 1921 and an AU50 1934-S, and many more. I'm mostly a bargain-hunter, so maybe I have more of a karmic burden on this than most, but I'm acutely aware that someone has probably taken a stiff loss on many of the coins I own.

    I joke sometimes about the "numismatic circle of life", where a coin gets found in change, collected, then sold to a dealer, then cherry-picked, then inherited, then cashed in at the bank for face value. @medoraman's comment about selling collections and the backbone of the hobby is another perspective on the same idea. Most coins (with the possible exception of Zincolns) have the potential to still be around, largely unchanged, long after their current "owner" is dust, along with all his or her financial accomplishments and aspirations. That doesn't make them more important than the owner, or the owner's dreams -- just more durable.
     
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  14. EasyE418

    EasyE418 Ca$h Money collector

    Just throwing this out there...

    26 here.. I would relish the opportunity to be the recipient of all of your fine coins.

    :cigar:
     
  15. GSDykes

    GSDykes Well-Known Member

    EasyE418
    Your request has been officially logged. What do you collect?? At the moment I am still searching out possibilities with my 3 nephews. One may be seriously interested, but I will give him some time, to see how trustworthy he is. Documenting my collection is a solid recommendation!! Right now I am trying to photograph them all, and I am building (slowly) up my coins in "Numista" they have a nice system to catalogue your coins, and to print out the catalogues. Free and works well. Thank you all for your posts and those coming. I hope to live until (1) age 95 or, (2) until the good Lord grabs me. If I live to 95, someone will get a lot of coins (but not as many as my man "Conder").
     
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  16. GSDykes

    GSDykes Well-Known Member

    I just visited your store on EBAY. Are you selling duplicates? If you are a dealer, and you appear to be, what coins do you keep if any??
     
  17. Cylii

    Cylii New Member

    My grandpa passed away some 15/16 yrs ago. Always saying "I hope one of my grandkids enjoy these coins as much as I did!".
    For years my brothers and I had no interest in them. Now don't get me wrong. We had "interest" but it was only $$ wise. There was just SO MUCH we didn't have a clue where to start. So one day my dad is talking about taking everything to the bank. I just couldn't let that happen. At least not until everything was looked at. He says by all means go ahead, knock yourself out, with a smirk.
    Then next day I dive in feet first. It took me about 3-4 days before I said holy moly batman. What have I done. What am I doing. This is gonna take me years! So I bought and read all the books, scoured the internet. Needless to say 3 yrs later I caught the bug!
    Nobody would have ever guessed that the baby, the only girl in the family is the one to enjoy grandpas collection.
    I wish so much I had known years ago when grandpa was alive how much fun it is. He could answer all my questions. Mostly on how, why, where.
    With that said, my main reason for telling my tale. Is that although your nephews say they are not interested, maybe first they should find out what they are not interested in. Ask them to read "The Red Book" before deciding. Maybe you need someone to drive you to a coin show (not that you don't drive). I would have love to have gone with my grandpa!
     
  18. EasyE418

    EasyE418 Ca$h Money collector

    I was mostly being facetious as I am sure you can find a better recipient of your coin collection.

    You could consider myself a dealer at the stage of the game I am in now. These coins I sell are technically not my collection, but I do own them. It's my duty as a trustee to liquidate the assets when I feel right it is the right time. I was going to buy out the other beneficiaries and keep the coins and cherish them, but I don't have the capital to buy them out.

    The joy is now looking at all the coins my Father purchased in the past and photographing them, and selling them to be part of someone else's collection. When I was a young pup, in the late 90's/early 00's, we all thought he was absolutely NUTS sitting there with his magnifiying glass at the kitchen table. Now we all think he was a genius.

    If I was wealthy, I would keep em all. Unforunately, just getting married, buying a house, getting ready for a child in the near future, I can't keep em.

    The one thing I do wish is that my Father catalogued them because it made me fear opening up the safes because everything is scattered. Hence why you see my posts about stumbling upon the CC's.

    However, that being said, I will still relish the opportunity to be the recipient to your coin collection.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2015
  19. Jason Hoffpauir

    Jason Hoffpauir Avid Coin Collector

    Here is my two cents worth...A wise man once told me, "We are just caretakers of the coins we own, until someone else is". Saying this, if it was me I would donate to a numismatic library or make a donation (for viewing and or selling to boost the hobby) at your local coin club. Regardless of what you do, like many others have suggested, make sure it is superbly catalogued and properly stored so that whoever gets it can get the most for it. Hopefully not all your collection gets sold off, and someone in your family keeps a token of your years and years of hard work while you collected so that maybe they can share it with yet another generation. As for me....hmmmmm I think I will take 10% of my entire collection and on the day of my funeral I will hide it throughout the cemetary and at the end of my ceremony tell the priest or preacher that hidden all over the cemetery are valuable silver and gold coins that is there's for the taking. (of course I would inform my immediate family beforehand so they could be in on it).Then without the rest knowing, hire someone to film the whole debacle and then get a close relative to post it on YouTube for the world to see. But hey, that's just me. :joyful:
     
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  20. EasyE418

    EasyE418 Ca$h Money collector

    There is one common date Morgan I will be keeping... the first coin my Dad and I won together with my hard earned money.
     
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  21. frech001

    frech001 New but Old

    Check out eBay's Giving Works and pick a charity or two and sell your coins on eBay. EBay does not charge a commission on items sold when 100% of the proceeds go to the charity. There are still PayPal fees though and shipping costs. Selling on eBay is almost as much fun as buying.
     
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