Selling Estate Coins
Believe it or not there is a very simple process to selling estate coin collections. Often times, people simply take the entire collection and shop it to various buyers as seen on my Home Page. If you happen to inherit a coin collection that you are considering selling, I would recommend taking the following steps:
Separating The Coins – Part One
The first step is to divide all of the coins into the different types. Here you want to put all of the similar coins together. Create piles of Morgan Dollars, Peace Dollars, Franklin Half Dollars, and so on. It is easy to pick out the similar coins and create these piles.
Separating The Coins – Part Two
Once you have all of your “like” coins together, you will want to further separate certain “like” coins again. All of your modern coins such as half dollars, quarters, and dimes may or may not have silver content. All of the aforementioned coins minted 1964 and before are made of 90% silver and they should be separated from the others. Any half dollars that you have minted 1965-1969 contain 40% silver. Even if the coin is damaged or well worn, it will still have value based on the silver content alone. These coins are often referred to as “junk silver” and I wrote a post about it here – Junk Silver.
Documenting Your Collection
Once you have all of your coins separated, I recommend creating a spreadsheet that itemizes the coins. First break this list down by type of coin and then for each type note the quantity of each date and mint. When I buy estate lots, there are sometimes thousands of coins. It saves a lot of time if you are able to send me the spreadsheet that you created listing the coins in advance. This gives me time before we meet to get a good feel for what you have and a value range. Then when we get together, I can spend my time looking at condition and will also know if you may have any hidden gems in the collection. Some people think that creating this spreadsheet is a hassle, but, the majority that do this actually have a lot of fun and really get a feel for the history of the coins.
Selling Coins
It is not uncommon for people to decide to save the collection for their children once they document the coins. The sentimental value sometimes far outweighs the monetary value the collection may have at the present time. If you would like to sell coins (either all or part of the collection), you can always reach me at 910-805-9616 or by using my Contact Form. It is always great if you can share your documented coins spreadsheet with me up front. I may also ask for a few photos of some coins to get a general feel for condition. Once I provide you with a potential value range we can get together and go through the collection. I typically purchase 2-3 estate coin collections per month and am willing to purchase all or part of a collection.