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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 24798071, member: 101855"]I am not a big fan of museum donation. Museums can be the best and the worst. If they display their items with informative write-ups to support them, they are great. If they lock them in vault, where no one can see them, they are the worst. Add to that some very poorly informed museum people who might clean their coins, and you have another reason not to donate. I have seen coins that were wrecked by cleaning in museums. That even goes for the nation's coin collection, and perhaps the largest in the world, the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian shows very little of what they have. It also seems that you need to be a 12 year old intern to see it. If you are a collector, who has studied hard for 50 years, your chances of seeing anything are low. Given the fact that the Smithsonian gets public money, you would think that photos of their coins would be available. When I assemble an exhibit, I have used Smithsonian photos from time to time. I was able to download an use photos of the unique 1849 double eagle. Other photos were blocked. That should not be. Sorry for the rant, but I am not "all in" for museums. If you have nice, but not the greatest coins, I think it's better to put them up for auction and let another generation of collectors enjoy them. End of rant. [/QUOTE]