Hey everybody! My wife's uncle gave me three big boxes of coins and told me he is getting old and wanted me to have them. He told me to do whatever I wanted with them. Most of these coins are not worth much. I was able to quickly sift through all the boxes and set aside the silver coins, old mint sets, and other coins that I knew had value. But I still have a ton of stuff left over. There are a ton of proof mint sets. For example, I have (12) 2009 proof mint sets of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar. Dozens upon dozens of these mint sets. A bunch of old nickels and pennies that I know are only worth face value. He has a ton of commemorative coins which I know are face value at best. Don't even get me started on the state quarters. Platinum and gold plated state quarters coming out of my nose. I don't feel like ebaying for the next 15 years to get rid of this stuff, but I also don't feel like going through and ripping and tearing up every single package and case just so I can roll it and cash it. Please help! Thanks, Nate
First, welcome to the neighborhood, Nate! Those plated state quarters are only worth face value except to a bidiot. Do you have any of the 2005-S Silver Proof Sets? If so, be sure to check for the die dent on the buffalo of the Kansas SQ. To date, there are only about 12 known to exist. Chris
Nate, I'd like to learn more. I may be interested in making a fair offer for your uncle's collection.
Notice how Nate said his uncle gave them to him "cause he is getting old" (as in he's still alive). Seems like the old man might still have his mind. Probably gave Nate the junk and kept the good stuff lol. At least Nate didn't pay for them. One of the joys of inheriting overpaid stuff/junk is that someone else paid for them. No matter how much lower true market price is it's all profit baby! Still he should probably ask ole Unk what he did with the good stuff (while winking). See if he gives that wily smile.
Thanks for the replies everybody! The reason he gave me these coins is because he ran into some health issues and believes he is on his way out. He let me look in his garage and told me I could have whatever tools and hardware that I wanted. One day he just kinda dropped these coins off lol. There was a decent amount of silver throughout his collection. He had 100 silver half dollars, had some silver eagles, rounds, etc. I would say probably 800-900 dollars if I were to take it to a coin shop today and cash it in, which I'm not Just not sure what to do with it all.
I have looked through this thread and I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet: Nate, you may already know this but if not, please resist the urge to polish or shine up any of the coins. It tends to make collectors grumpy and it usually drops their value a LOT. Do enjoy going through your haul!!
There's no one size fits all answer. If it were me, I'd hang on to them until I learned exactly what they were and who collects them - and wait for the right opportunity. If you want to get rid of them, you can always do so for face value. Have a garage sale, price them reasonably (face value plus $2 for packaging or whatever). Ask him what he wants you to do with them. Does he need cash? Maybe sell them and help him out? Unless there's a currency call (and the United States bows down to China and turns to Bitcoin as national currency), there's no reason to get rid of them anytime soon. More collectors and unknown errors/varieties are popping up every day. Unless you have a space issue, no sense in hurrying to sell. Just hold them. Never know when they might appreciate.
Take your time to sort thru it and search it. So those old wheat pennies - make sure no keys or semi-keys. My local shop pays about 3 cents for those. You might find several solutions - don't want to sell all those proof sets on ebay, sell them to a local shop assuming they make a fair offer. Remember they might pay a lot less since they might have to hold them for quite a while to unload them. At the same time you might want to sell some on ebay - especially if you do not get an offer you can live with from a local shop(just figure your time, shipping everything to make sure it is worthwhile). Take your time each item might have a separate solution. Just my 2 cents worth of opinion for today.
