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<p>[QUOTE="Lostinspace, post: 7384535, member: 119576"]First, a bit of background. My grandfather's formative years were as a poor cotton farmer in north Alabama in a slapboard shack during the great depression. So, he hoarded coins his whole life. My father had the same habit most of his life. He passed about 15 years ago and I inherited bags and bags and boxes and banks and cups and Mason jars and any container you can think of, full of coins. Mostly he was looking for silver (from what I can tell). And I have a lot of common date, modernish silver. Most of it likely from roll hunting so, it's all fairly well circulated. I have FINALLY gotten all the pennies sperated (10,000 + pennies, still sitting in bags that I will sort some day). I have all the silver separated and I'm organizing by year so I can find the best examples of each year and then figure out what to do with the rest (likely sell, someday). The vast majority of the nickel clad, post 64 stuff, has gone to the bank. I have a deluxe edition 2017 redbook and the small portable one from the same year. I also have a 2013 "Standard Catalog of World Coins." All obtained at Ollie's or half-price books. I need a better world coins book because dad has A LOT of 20th century (a smattering of 19th c.) foreign coins he got at flea markets and yard sales. I have found a few US coins that were obtained in the same fashion. Nothing earth shattering. But, some things interesting to me.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, some questions. I have done quite a bit of reading in the redbook and have spent countless hours trying to understand what I actually have. I know the values in the books are not accurate on any given date. And I see people post that you have to look at "realized" auction values. I know how to look at sold listings in ebay. Where else would you look for these auctions? I see people talk about special "members only" auction records and such and such and I have no idea what that stuff is or where to find it.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'm also struggling because, with all the time I've spent with these coins, I love some of them. So, I want to protect them. I was thinking of slabbing some. There seem to be many strategies on slabbing but, the gist of it seems to be, is the coins value at least as much as the cost of slabbing. Right? So, if it's worth 20-30 bucks and I really want to keep it, go ahead and slab it? And what things should I absolutely slab? I have a few quarter eagles and a half eagle - definitely slab those, right? And the good examples of morgan's etc, right? I don't know. I have some stuff I want to have graded and cased just because they will be the start of my collection. I think Dad inadvertently created a monster.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, I'm trying to make educated guesses at grades. I'm going to attach an 1831 half dollar. I would love some of opinions on grade. (One of the very few "interesting" coins out of 10s of thousands). I don't see any luster but, the strike looks good and the wear is pretty minimal. I think. I don't know. In the future I'd like to post some things I think might be MS, just to see if I really understand what the standard is. I'm always a little biased and tend to think little scratches, etc. aren't fatal.</p><p><br /></p><p>It's intimidating to post here because I do see some community members lack patience for us newbies. For instance, I can't spot a fake. Have no idea what to look for. I'm not an idiot, I can tell if something is or isn't silver, I've looked and touched enough to know. But, silver cast fakes or some of the stuff that gets posted that fooled coin grading services? Yeah, I'd get duped. And I have reached out to the local numismatic group but, it was a few years ago, before I really tackled the hoard and decided what my sorting strategy was. I didn't even know what all was there. I have since sorted everything (except pennies) and will probably reach back out to them once the vaccine is more thoroughly distributed. In the meantime, I was hoping to make some connections on here. Alright, that's my pitch. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Lostinspace, post: 7384535, member: 119576"]First, a bit of background. My grandfather's formative years were as a poor cotton farmer in north Alabama in a slapboard shack during the great depression. So, he hoarded coins his whole life. My father had the same habit most of his life. He passed about 15 years ago and I inherited bags and bags and boxes and banks and cups and Mason jars and any container you can think of, full of coins. Mostly he was looking for silver (from what I can tell). And I have a lot of common date, modernish silver. Most of it likely from roll hunting so, it's all fairly well circulated. I have FINALLY gotten all the pennies sperated (10,000 + pennies, still sitting in bags that I will sort some day). I have all the silver separated and I'm organizing by year so I can find the best examples of each year and then figure out what to do with the rest (likely sell, someday). The vast majority of the nickel clad, post 64 stuff, has gone to the bank. I have a deluxe edition 2017 redbook and the small portable one from the same year. I also have a 2013 "Standard Catalog of World Coins." All obtained at Ollie's or half-price books. I need a better world coins book because dad has A LOT of 20th century (a smattering of 19th c.) foreign coins he got at flea markets and yard sales. I have found a few US coins that were obtained in the same fashion. Nothing earth shattering. But, some things interesting to me. So, some questions. I have done quite a bit of reading in the redbook and have spent countless hours trying to understand what I actually have. I know the values in the books are not accurate on any given date. And I see people post that you have to look at "realized" auction values. I know how to look at sold listings in ebay. Where else would you look for these auctions? I see people talk about special "members only" auction records and such and such and I have no idea what that stuff is or where to find it. I'm also struggling because, with all the time I've spent with these coins, I love some of them. So, I want to protect them. I was thinking of slabbing some. There seem to be many strategies on slabbing but, the gist of it seems to be, is the coins value at least as much as the cost of slabbing. Right? So, if it's worth 20-30 bucks and I really want to keep it, go ahead and slab it? And what things should I absolutely slab? I have a few quarter eagles and a half eagle - definitely slab those, right? And the good examples of morgan's etc, right? I don't know. I have some stuff I want to have graded and cased just because they will be the start of my collection. I think Dad inadvertently created a monster. Finally, I'm trying to make educated guesses at grades. I'm going to attach an 1831 half dollar. I would love some of opinions on grade. (One of the very few "interesting" coins out of 10s of thousands). I don't see any luster but, the strike looks good and the wear is pretty minimal. I think. I don't know. In the future I'd like to post some things I think might be MS, just to see if I really understand what the standard is. I'm always a little biased and tend to think little scratches, etc. aren't fatal. It's intimidating to post here because I do see some community members lack patience for us newbies. For instance, I can't spot a fake. Have no idea what to look for. I'm not an idiot, I can tell if something is or isn't silver, I've looked and touched enough to know. But, silver cast fakes or some of the stuff that gets posted that fooled coin grading services? Yeah, I'd get duped. And I have reached out to the local numismatic group but, it was a few years ago, before I really tackled the hoard and decided what my sorting strategy was. I didn't even know what all was there. I have since sorted everything (except pennies) and will probably reach back out to them once the vaccine is more thoroughly distributed. In the meantime, I was hoping to make some connections on here. Alright, that's my pitch. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.[/QUOTE]
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