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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 1071000, member: 27832"]And don't forget to schedule your death at a time that's convenient for your heirs. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie4" alt=":mad:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> "Be informed and inform themselves"? Sure. In the midst of distributing an estate, they can go and study up on coin collection. They can find their way to sites with pictures of coins, check the ranges in which those coins bore silver, calculate the silver value -- easy, right? And then they're all set. Well, except they still need to "inform themselves" enough to know the difference between a 1928 and a 1928-S Peace dollar. So, you know, they know whether they're looking at a $30 or a $300 coin. Oops, but they're not done yet. Because until they can tell the difference between F and AU/BU, they don't know whether that 28-S is a $30 or a $150 coin. And if it's "BU", they'd better learn the difference between MS64 and MS65, so they know whether it's a $1000 or a $20000 coin... As others have pointed out, not even dealers can quickly and accurately judge the value of a large collection; they have to make simplifying assumptions, and as businessmen they need to be conservative in their offers. But bidding 40% of melt value on a collection with obvious numismatic value isn't prudent, it's predatory -- IMHO, at least.[/QUOTE]