Help with estate coins

And you probably already know this: don't clean your coins for any reason.

 

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Great people and very fair when buying.
You may want to call Ian Russel at Great Collections

 

I have bought through them and was happy. Selling there would be an internet auction, so the experience would be different from having the entire collection bought by a dealer. You may want to investigate both approaches.

You can find out about selling at http://www.greatcollections.com/main-sell

 

we took them to a dealer who cut one in half to check the gold content,

Good grief, the mind boggles, and then the swine lied to you about the gold fineness. I am totally gobsmacked that anyone would propose such a 'test', and for that matter, anyone agree to it.

 

Let's do some math.

Did the swine give back the gold dust created by cutting through? If the coin is thick and broad, and the cut is wide, could he have removed one-fiftieth of the weight? 3 oz of gold is $5000, so he could already have taken $100 and maybe more.

Then, by reporting 14 kt he would undervalue the coin by one-third, which would steal another $1300.

Swine, indeed.

 

Does bullion price mean gold value, cause I heard gold value is pretty good.

 

Yes, bullion value means the price of gold per the precious metals market. Most gold coins have both bullion (metal) value plus an additional numismatic value.

There are many places to check the gold price online. One of them, with an easy to remember name, is http://goldprice.org/. Or just put "precious metals prices" into Google or an online search engine.

The price can fluctuate hour to hour and day to day, but it rarely leaps and jumps. As of this post gold is showing at $1,335.95 an ounce.

That dealer story engorges me with rage. I can't believe such people can look themselves in the mirror or sleep soundly at night. I can see them trying to make some profit, of course. But to try to take complete advantage of a family experiencing a loss. Augh! That's just utterly reprehensible.

 

The coin he cut was a 5 cent one, still a thick one, but the 50 dollar one is in tact
Thank you everyone for the help. I went through a lot of the world coins and wrote them down, I had to do this out side as they smell so bad, they were in a safe deposit box I assume from many many years ago

 

Please keep in mind that these silver and gold coins have actual value that is quite different from their face value.

An American Silver Eagle is a $1 coin and the mint produces many each year. However, they contain one ounce of silver. Silver has been near $20 an ounce lately, so this coin would be worth this much no matter how beat up or ugly it was. This is bullion, or "melt" value, and the value of the coin will always be at least that. If you sell it you may get $4 less than that so the dealer can make a living.

If the coin also has interest to collectors then there is a different marketplace. Now different concerns take precedence. If collectible, you need to know about condition, scarcity, and market demand to determine a value.

You may want to divide the coins into the two categories. The ones that only have their bullion value can be divided by weight into seven pools and split up now. The others you could sell to a dealer or at auction, and then the cash split up.

 

We are in no hurry, The most interesting ones are 1980 lake placid winter Olympics 4 piece set silver piedfort struck by the china mint figure skating and skiing, my brother found them on an auction site and it sold for 16 thousand dollars. We have 2 sets of those and 2 sets of brass ones. Also those coins that one got cut in half, my sister a paper that said a dealer from low mintage coin club in Vermont wrote to my uncle saying I just returned from paris where I completed arrangements for your shipment of the French gold proof piedforts to the US. We had to arrange rather elaborate security and shipping precautions

 

I am in Rhode Island

 

France 1975 Gold 5 Centimes Piefort; Mintage only 44 coins; 8.8g of 920 fine gold; .2603oz AGW; Proof

Well, there are no more than 43 of them now. Or 43 and 2 halves. :-(

 

I am also in RI. Take a quick trip to Bellingham, MA. Heritage Coin. Terry is a good guy.

 

Oh my. They are your coins and you can do with them what you want, of course, but my advice would be to let no one cut into, drop acid onto, clean or alter these coins in any way whatsoever. That 1975 Piefort sounds like it's essentially destroyed and any numismatic value it had is now very likely completely obliterated as well.

 

I'm going to guess, maybe 20 minute drive for you.

 

My guess is that the "dealer" who cut the coin in half deals in gold and not in coins. I don't think any coin or numismatic dealer would ever cut a coin in half or even suggest it. They have far less obtrusive and destructive ways to validate coins than saw blades.

Sad sad sad...

 

From HA auction results, that was about a $500 coin. Melt on the remains is around $340.

 

Too bad she didn't take it to a jeweler with an XRF gun to check gold content safely

That said, you have an awesome inheritance there. Yes, very overwhelming to people with zero coin knowledge but easy for most of us. I'm half tempted to fly from cali to RI to help & sort it all out for you

 

Lol Cascade, I have done so much research I may end up staying on this forum, I also have done enough work on my uncles estate that I may also become a probate lawyer. Good thing I have summers off