My relative thought Grandad's coins were were thousands! Ooops

I run into this all the time with some of my relatives. I have one relative that once approached me with a what penny. She said "Look at that thing, huh? Thing's gotta be worth what, like $50 or so!??!". I had to tell her that it was a 1948 in a very worn condition. I told her the value was more like $0.02. The look on her face was like I had just punched her in the gut.

Anyhow, onto the story based on the title of this thread. I have a relative that has inherited "Grandpa's coin stash". For years, she would tell me that he had tons of silver half dollars stored away. I always told her that if they were really silver, and silver prices were up, she might make a pretty penny on them! I kept telling her to bring them home from the safe deposit box one day and I'd go through it, make a nice Excel spreadsheet for her to know what exactly she had.

Well, one day, she brought the collection home. I couldn't WAIT to go through it. Unfortunately, it was as I had feared. Of the 500+ Kennedy half dollars in the bags and boxes, only about 50 of them were actually silver. There were also a few worn Walking Liberty's (all 1940's) in there as well. I went to Coinflation to get the current melt value on them, and made a nice spreadsheet for her.

After going through it all, rather than her having thousands, it turned out she had only had a couple hundred or so dollars total coin value (that was including the non-silver coins at face value).

I felt so bad telling her that what Grandad had been telling her for her entire life was actually not accurate. Needless to say, she was heavily disappointed and I even sensed she was angry at me (don't shoot the messenger!).

I think that we all, as coin people, probably run into this kind of thing all the time. When someone has an older coin, you'd swear they hit the lottery.. that is.. until we look at it and reveal that it's only worth a couple of bucks!

Just thought I'd share and vent. I have felt so bad for months after what happened!

 

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Most especially here (CT).

 

I see this kind of thing happen all of the time in the shop where I work, Boston.

People are so heartbroken that they don't have a fortune on their hands that they don't quite know how to handle it. I try to break the news as gently as possible, but sometimes even that is not enough.

You did the right and honest thing in trying to help her. She'll get over it.

 

Relatives are tough. They think you'll help them make big bucks and not rip them off, but when you deliver bad news they hold it against you. (Sometimes).

 

I agree. Its a tough position to be in, but no sense lying to them and letting them believe they can retire on the proceeds.

Due to this happening so often, I am a little afraid a dealer will not believe my sons if they go to sell off my collection someday, (I am serious, there are thousands upon thousands of ancient coins here, coins of Cleopatra, Antony, Nero, Alexander, etc. Plus he has like $3000 in face value silver coins and a box of gold coins!). Probably think it is a prank.....

 

Been there, done that and it usually does not end up pretty. BTW, did you look for any varieties in those halves? Missing initials, doubled die, etc.?

 

Sometimes the reverse happens when explaining what coins in your collection cost. "I can't believe you spent that much on one coin!"

Cal

 

And they had probably spent more than that on SDB fees over the years to keep the fortune safe.