Two of many inherited coins....Barber Quarter and American Buffalo

As the post is titled, we have inherited many, many coins from a wonderful husband, father, brother and have been blessed with his collection. Dave is no longer with us and we are trying to make sense of a hobby we know nothing about but are willing to learn. Thank you in advance for any help or direction. -Jon

We just picked two examples of some of the first coins we saw and here they are:

 

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Nice coins you have there. For starters I will mention that the grades SEGS gives out are considered unreliable. The quarter will probably be treated like a raw (unslabbed) coin. And welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome.That is a beautiful Gold Buffalo that is one ounce in weight and has the highest grade in proof condition. I would suggest picking up a copy of the latest edition of the Red Book on United States Coins. A good place to buy one is WIZARDCOIN. They have a website and would be the cheapest place to buy one. I would suggest the mega red 2018 edition, it has a ton of info.

 

Thank you for the advice and the "welcome." I'll be picking up the Red Book!

 

You are quite welcome .

 

And my condolences on your loss. And I just want to mention that keep those coins in a safe. The Buffalo has a value over $2000.

 

I just purchased the Red Book and it has been on my mind since I saw the collection for the first time yesterday to find a large safe


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That Gold Buffalo is a showpiece.

 

BE SAFE

 

Good advice. Don't tell anyone -- including friends -- what you have. One pair of loose lips overheard by a wrong number can invite a burglary or worse.

 

The Buffalo is very nice coin. As stated above, sorry for your loss of a loved one and welcome again to CT.

 

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT

 

@Qualitee
First, welcome to the neighborhood, Jon! I'm sorry for your loss.

I should point out that not all SEGS grades are unreliable, any more so than ANACS or ICG. The old adage, "Buy the coin, not the slab." applies to all grading services.

Chris

 

I really like that Barber!
Welcome to CT.

 

Welcome!! Sorry to hear of your loss.

You did the right thing by coming to a community that will be more than happy to help steer you in the right direction. Unfortunately there are some dealers out there that prey on people like you, who just inherited something that you don't know about. The best weapon in this situation is information and you came to the right place.

With that said, if those are just two examples of what were in the collection, I imagine he was a knowledgable collector and the rest of the collection is probably pretty impressive. The Red Book was a great start to the road you have ahead. Take the prices listed in it with a grain of salt. Think of them as the Suggested Retail Price of the coin industry, they typically are much higher than actual realized prices. The book will give you fantastic information on key date coins and others to keep a look out for, as you go through the collection.

Anytime you have any questions, feel free to post here and you can almost never have too many photo's.

 

Welcome to CT!

And as has already been said my condolences for your loss. This is a great place to learn and get some very valuable information and it only costs time. Many members here love to share there knowledge.

 

Welcome to CT. If these are examples of some of the coins you have inherited you did good. I also like the Barber quarter. If it is indeed MS and I can't tell from the photos it could well be worth $300 to $500.

 

Hello, and welcome to C.T. I am sorry for your loss. I too have recently lost someone very special. I agree with all of the previous posts. You have shown that you have inherited some valuable coins. KEEP THIS INFORMATION PRIVATE. For your own safety, and feel free to post here if you have more questions.

 

Thank you to all who have replied. My Red Book was just delivered! Time to learn!


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Some good advice given, as mentioned the Redbook is essentially useless for pricing or value information. It will let you now what coins should be further researched though if they show a high estimate of value.

Sometimes I think people end up feeling that dealers are trying to rip them off when selling because they'll do as you have and then be given unrealistically high estimates on what their coins are worth. For instance the 2016 PR70DCAM Buffalo above where someone valued it as over $2000. That is way too high a valuation imo as most dealers aren't going to care about the first strike, 1st day of issue label and would realistically probably offer you $1500-1600 if your lucky when selling.


If the collection is extensive with many high value coins it would probably be in your best interest to get a copy of the greysheet which many dealers use in determining valuation or estimation of what they'd pay for a coin. Its not free but it could be extremely helpful in getting an idea of potential real world values that one could realistically expect. Of course even the greysheet is just a guide and not set in stone so depending on the actual coins themselves even those estimates could be off but it's much more real world valuable for pricing than the Redbook is

You can find the greysheet here if interested https://www.greysheet.com/Publications/GreysheetDetail