Quelpolisson Posted February 21, 2014 Report Share Posted February 21, 2014 Hello everyone I recently inherited a coin collection. I was wondering if it was worth the effort to sell it or should I just keep it. I have taken photos of some of the coins. Thanks everyone for your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burks Posted February 21, 2014 Report Share Posted February 21, 2014 I haven't gone through the coins to look for key dates or anything but you do have a nice little collection. Are you going to retire on it? Nope. Is it worth something? Sure, I do see some silver in there at least. One place to start is: https://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/world-coin-price-guide.aspx All you need to do is enter the Country, Region (normally going to be All), and Denomination (Florin, Centavo, etc). That's what you need minimum to get an idea of what you have. Enter the date for a quicker search. That'll at least get you on your way. For the most part I'd be looking at the VF prices, as you have few coins that would go any higher grade than that. The 1940 and 1943 Australia Florins are worth at minimum $7.34 (melt value), but I bet you could get $10-$13 each. They are pretty nice condition. Each is 0.33oz of 92.5% silver. It is time consuming, but you'll learn a little bit at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quelpolisson Posted February 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2014 Thanks for your help and fast response. I do have some desire to keep the coins and maybe even keep my grandfather's collection going, but I wouldn't know where to start. Everything is a bit overwhelming at the moment. He seems to have accumulated a very general collection with little specialisation over many years. Thanks for the link. I will try to identify the silver coins and put them to one side. I had also considered keeping the coins from one particular country, say Australia as there is quite a few of them, and selling the rest. I could use that money to buy to replace the sold coins with more Australian coins. Do you think it is better to have 100 different coins from one country or 100 different coins from all over? Regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazinta Posted February 21, 2014 Report Share Posted February 21, 2014 Thanks for your help and fast response. I do have some desire to keep the coins and maybe even keep my grandfather's collection going, but I wouldn't know where to start. Everything is a bit overwhelming at the moment. He seems to have accumulated a very general collection with little specialisation over many years. Thanks for the link. I will try to identify the silver coins and put them to one side. I had also considered keeping the coins from one particular country, say Australia as there is quite a few of them, and selling the rest. I could use that money to buy to replace the sold coins with more Australian coins. Do you think it is better to have 100 different coins from one country or 100 different coins from all over? Regards That depends on your interests. If you like Australian coins do only those butt also of the others some are very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 Two excellent responses :-) To add, I see several silver coins that'd be in the $10-20 range retail wise, but as Burks noted, nothing that stood out, which is pretty normal since rare pieces are rare by nature and definition. My only advice on collecting is to keep it fun - whatever works for you works for you :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burks Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 Sorry I've been sick, so my response is late. Picking what to collect is rather hard to do. If you like only one country of coin, go for it. But realize you'll eventually reach a point where all that is left are semi-key and key dates which can cost you multiple hundreds, if not in the thousands, for a coin you can barely read the date on. That's where I'm at with most of my US collection. I don't have the resources to pay $300 for a coin with a barely readable date/mint mark, so I've focused more on upgrading my "cheaper" coins and doing more world coin collecting. Currently I'm focusing on nothing in particular. Basically if I like the coin, I'm buying it. Forget the value. Forget the rarity. Forget the country. I won't overpay (unless it's an amazing example or somewhat rare) though. Get on eBay once and just browse the world coin forum. You'll be amazed at some of the designs out there that are CHEAP. I'm talking mint state examples for $1-$5 for nearly the entire type of that coin. Some even have the "key" dates for under $100. To sum it up: Collect what you like and your pocket book can afford. Edit: I know my local coin shop probably frowned on it (not sure why they would since I was making room for stock.....) but I was that guy sitting at the 50% off world coin bin for hours at a time digging from one side to the other. I might buy $5 worth that day, or walk away with a sack full for $50. I'd say over half my collection is bought like that. Yeah, I don't feel like I "fit in" with a lot of collectors because I don't own $10k worth of coins (or a single worth $10k), but it makes ME happy to find a cool coin or pay far less for something (hey, they marked it $1!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just carl Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 For the most part it shouldn't really matter how much it is all worth. As a momento of someone that thought enough of you to leave it all to you, that alone should make it worth keeping. However, I'd suggest taking your time and sorting it all out by country and then denomination, then dates, etc. Yes that could take some time but that is one of the things about any hobby. Fun, spending time with it, learning about what you have. As a start I'd suggest looking into buying some books on coins. As a decent start look for a copy of what is called the Red Book by Whitman Publishing. Check out the Whitman web site for possible other books on coins too. Not sure what books you need for the foreign coins though. Regardless, you have to be carefull with those. IF, for some reason you planed on selling them and not knowing what you have, you could be really cheated badly. Many dealers would give you a fraction of what they are worth knowing you have no idea what they are. So be carefull and get to know what you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyd Posted March 1, 2014 Report Share Posted March 1, 2014 I agree with Carl -- you could really get the coin collecting 'bug' from a start like that! A World Coin catalogue would also help.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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