We're all gonna DIE

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, May 20, 2021.

  1. ab initio

    ab initio Well-Known Member

    My collection of Greek and Roman Provincial was sold in nine single owner sales in the course of just over ten years. Lots of hard work, as most of the sales were drafted and/or written by myself. But lots of fun too. So why plan for after your departure from this world? Try to leave something behind in writing, no matter how insignificant. Scripta manent.
     
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  3. Jersey magic man

    Jersey magic man Supporter! Supporter

    No one in my family (wife, kids, relatives) gives two hoots about my collection. So when I die I don’t give two hoots if they sell it for scrap. It was a hobby that gave me pleasure, and that is all I care about. I never intended for it to make money.
     
  4. Matthew Kruse

    Matthew Kruse Young Numismatist

    That’s a really good way of looking at it!
     
    DonnaML likes this.
  5. talerman

    talerman Well-Known Member

    You have many exceptional coins which probably deserve to be in a museum. But do you want your very good coins just to disappear into a vault and never/hardly ever be seen again ? Might it not be better to sell them by auction to the next generation of collectors who will appreciate them and give the proceeds to Stanford, ANS or another charity ?
     
    ominus1, FrizzyAntoine and DonnaML like this.
  6. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Despite being in my 60s and having some serious long-term health problems that contributed to my early retirement, I do hope to be around for a while. And I only started actively collecting ancient coins 3 1/2 years ago -- never for a moment for investment purposes or with any intention ever to sell them absent dire financial need. So I give no thought to their disposition. I carefully catalog each coin I buy in a list on my computer (the source of the descriptions I post, including those lengthy footnotes!), and keep receipts, photos, etc., both on my computer and printed out and placed in 3-ring binders, for my own purposes and to make life easier for myself. Facilitating any post-Donna disposition is purely a side-benefit.

    I do the exact same thing, for the exact same reasons, for my antiquities collection, and have done so on an ongoing basis for the last 40 years.

    I trust my son (who will be taking the oral portion of his comprehensive exams for his art history PhD program tomorrow up in Toronto; please send some good karma his way!) to decide for himself what he wants to do with the coins and antiquities when the time comes (I suspect he's far more likely to want to keep the latter, which he's admired since he was a small child) and to seek out good advice whatever he decides. The most I may ever do, if I feel that time is growing short for me or perhaps even the next time I'm seriously ill or hospitalized (it's been three years since I was last in the hospital and two since I was last seriously ill, knock on wood), is make some suggestions for good coin dealers to approach if he decides to sell.
     
  7. Mike Thorne

    Mike Thorne Well-Known Member

    As I've said on this forum before, virtually all of my coins that have numismatic value are certified by one of the major services. This includes even my wife's collection of hammered British coins. That's one step I've taken in planning for the future w/o me. Another is that my wife would contact Heritage, not that my collection is worth a fortune, but I think it would be worth their while. I might add DLRC to this suggestion or even GreatCollections. Good question and something we should all think about.
     
  8. sluggo4787

    sluggo4787 New Member

    I have been a collector all my life. I would wait for my father to finish reading at the time a news paper like edition of COIN WORLD. I will never forget reading about the 1955 doubled die roll for fifty dollars a roll. I was left a thousand dollars from a Great Aunt and asked my dad to take a hundred dollars and buy me two rolls, he told me it would stay in the bank earning 1 percent. It took me years to find 100 doubled die cents. Not near as pretty i am certain as the 100 i would have received from COIN WORLD.
    So what do i do with this fortune? I have contacted several companies who want not only these two rolls but the five thousand doubled die i have collected. Problem with this they will rob you if you allow them to low ball your collection. You can read about me - i am in seven books under CHATHAM PROTOTYPE- just type it in and i will come up - its a good read. There is a time to collect and there is a time when you have toooo much, which means you should have sold and bought, ten 10x10 bank box's will do me no good when i am dead, best to have allow someone to offer a fair price and get it out there for collectors to love and collect them. Not bragging but simply saying some of us collectors get a little to carried away in collecting. Turn it lose while your still alive- chuck
     
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  9. Limes

    Limes Well-Known Member

    Excellent advice. In case I am lucky to live for another 50 years or so (i am still quite young) i'd love to take the @jamesicus approach. Only keep a few: the most precious and cherished ones, and carry them with me where ever I go. I would sell the rest before that time arrives and enjoy a travel with the family from the proceeds.

    In case Im not that lucky, my wife knows where to go.

    +1 karma sent!
     
    DonnaML likes this.
  10. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

  11. clembo

    clembo A closed mind is no mind

    My wife will get everything. A trusted friend who is a dealer will sell them for her to maximize profit.
    He will get a cut for his time and effort.
     
  12. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Wikipedia... "The Guinness Book of World Records lists the shortest will in the world as "Vše ženě" (Czech, "everything to wife"), written on the bedroom wall of a man who realized his imminent death.[1]"
     
  13. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    He passed, "with flying colors and no doubts." So now he's just a dissertation proposal short of being ABD! I am very proud of him. He's always been brilliant, so I never had any doubts myself!
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2021
  14. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    Congrats, Donna.
     
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  15. Limes

    Limes Well-Known Member

    Congratulations to you and him. You must be proud indeed :)
     
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  16. masterswimmer

    masterswimmer A Caretaker, can't take it with me

    Congrats to both of you. A wonderful accomplishment.
     
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  17. Orfew

    Orfew Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

    Excellent news Donna. Before I took my comprehensives many people I knew mentioned how difficult they were. In my experience, the comprehensives were actually quite enjoyable. I had fun with the written components and the oral defence. I wish your son much success!
     
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  18. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    That is so much more important than the money. After all, the goal is to prepare the next generation to be able to fend for themselves and not be reliant on getting your 'contribution'. Certainly I will never know but it would hurt to find out that my grandson became a collector in 50 years after selling them now.
     
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  19. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    Thank you! He was a bit concerned after the written portion because he didn't completely finish answering every question. But he had 20 minutes at the outset of the oral exam to supplement and clarify his written answers, and after that he said it was more like a conversation than an interrogation, because they made clear very early on how pleased they were with what he wrote. And then they didn't even go through the exercise of withdrawing at the end to confer privately before telling him that he passed. Which certainly made the process less stressful! Now, he has three months to write his dissertation proposal. It would be nice if Canada opens the borders sometime in the not too distant future, so he can go back and forth to the USA without quarantining in Canada for 14 days every time he returns (despite being fully vaccinated). And so that I can visit him.
     
    Orfew likes this.
  20. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

    My youngest son has his PhD and I recall how nervous he was before his interview. But he said it went more or less as your son described. He was ABD for nearly 8 years before his faculty advisors convinced him to finish his dissertation. He was just as nervous when he went to defend it, but again, it turned out to be very congenial. In way of explanation as to why it took so long, he was working for the government and married during those 8 years, so time to finish his dissertation was a luxury.
     
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