I am a modest coin collector. Recently, my father-in-law died and left my wife with about 1000 U.S. coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, dollars). Unfortunately, he believed in quantity and not quality. Although there are a few key coins, like 1916d dimes, 1909S VDB pennies, 1889CC dollars, etc., most of the coins grade good to very fine. Due mostly to storage and security issues, my wife has no real interest in keeping the coins and would prefer to sell them. My question to the members is this: In view of the coins' relatively low grading (value), is it better to sell now or wait few years. In my amateur opinion, I don't think the value of my father-in-law's collection will increase substantially. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
I would hang on to them for anywhere from a month to 80 years. If you want to sell them do so around 20-25$ an ounce and you should make a NICE investment from what he first put into the coins. Best luck to you.
Best be carefull with those coins. If you do not know what you really have, you may well be getting rid of something really valuable. Many people dump coins they think are nothing special due to no knowledge of what is what. You may think he didn't know what he was doing but he may well have. It sure would pay to purchase a Red Book by Whitman Publishing on coins. Even a one or two year old version would give you the basics of what you may have. Sure would be funny if you sold a 1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent for $1. Same with a 72Double Die, 95 double die, 22 plain Lincoln Cents. Not sure if you even know about grades of coins. That 16D Mercury Dime could well be worth thousands alone if you knew what it was. I suggest you first learn what you have prior to selling anything.
Boxerchip: Thank you. Just Carl: I appreciate the cautionary advice. As I said in my thread opener, I have a modest collection, but I am not ignorant of coin values and grading. I have Red Books going back several years and also use dealer grey sheets. I've already had a reputable dealer confirm my concerns about my father-in-laws collection and its low grade value. He has also confirmed my concern that two of the coins are fakes. I may keep some of the key coins despite their low grading, but as I said before, due to security and storage problems, my wife would prefer to sell them. Since this forum is the best I've found, I am simply looking for input regarding the coin collections future value prognosis. That is, what are the odds it will be worth substantially more next year. Thank you for your consideration.
No doubt. I would buy an ANA 6th edition and form your own opinion. Or, take the key dates at least and send them in. Even if the 16-D is only a Good, it's worth it to get that thing in a slab. Same with the S-VDBs. Why not? They're still worth good money. As for the future, how is anybody's guess here any better than yours? Lincolns are probably about as hot right now as they will be because of Lincoln's birth bi-centennial this year and all the hoopla surrounding it. 5-10 years from now? Will they sustain these levels? It's anybody's guess.
Next year I cant say... but I think silver is going up and up. Generally the best idea is to sell a % at each level. So for you I would do like 20% at 20$, 20% at 22$ and 60% at 25$
with the recesssion going on lots of people are selling coins, at least here in Northern Illinois, I think you might do better if the economy improves, wether it will or not should make up your mind, if you think we are at the bottom it might be better to wait, if you think we are going up, If you think we could fall further you might want to sell before commodity prices are affected by the recession. My own opinion is that commodity prices will probably rise but numismatic prices will fall further.
If they don't have a spot for your collection, I'd sell them... If you and your wife don't have any sentimental value put on the coins, I'd sell them... If you really really need the money, I'd sell them... I see you have plurals around some of the keys you mentioned.... You have various 16d dimes, 09 SVDB pennies? If so, and you want to keep at least one, I'd sell off all the extras for sure!
Vess1, Boxerchip, tmoneyeagles and Chip: I thank you all for your considered comments and advice. And, yes, I do have multiples of the key coins mentioned above. They are simply not high grade coins, although in some cases worth slabbing to confirm they are genuine.
Since the coins are your wife's inheritance and she would "prefer to sell", that may be the correct course. I can only guess if common grade/date coins will increase in value much in the coming years...odds are they won't. Key date coins are something quite different. You can expect key date coins to do well even in the grades you mention...assuming they're genuine. I would spend the money to have them professionally graded by NGC or PCGS regardless if you plan to sell or not. You didn't mention if you had kids...and, if so, their ages. You might want to hang on to the coins long enough to see if they take an interest...connection with Grand-Dad and all.
Until you really understand what you have, selling quickly or in bulk could be a mistake. You may have a much better collection than you suspect with that may coins to go through. It sounds like you already have a decent understanding of what grades you have and how it affects the value. Follow the advice given above, and take your time to avoid accidently giving away a significant part of the value.
Sell them. Sell them. Silver is up, good coins always bring good money and junk coins always bring junk prices. Let's say your collection grows in value in the next ten years what will that same dollar (paid for the collection now verses then) be worth. Especially I get the felling you want to be done with it why invest much more time and energy in it. Find a knowlegable dealer you like and do it - life is to short to be forever wondering if you could have made 10% more a decade from now, after all it's only money and it's really only stuff and stuff is stuff to worry about, keep tract of, store, hoard up, keep safe, etc. If you had true rarities like proof type coins or gold, 1790's to 1840 type stuff graded or rare patterns, rare branch mint type it may be different. I think we sometimes think to much of this stuff after all it was moved down to us and that is the only thing that we will also end up doing - there is no other choice. We are just caretakers for a second in time!
