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Posted

I have some old coins and stamps from my grandfather. I have no knowledge of these things and I’m trying to decide what to do with them. The cynical part of me fears unscrupulous vendors at coin stores. Can anybody here give me any guidance? Thanks in advance.

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Posted

All US coins & stamps? Some details or photos might help.

Dimes, quarters, dollars, and half-dollars minter before 1964(?) are actually silver, so have that much going for them, at least. Collector value can be a real toss-up.

I know absolutely nothing about stamps.

Posted

The 90% silver I will probably keep for buying bread and toilet paper over the next few years.  Things like mint sets and coins of collectable interest are what I want to move along.  We have no interest in such things and someone else may.  Stamps are from various countries, in booklets, and individual in plastic sleeves.  Clueless on these but notes from Grandpa to dad indicate they may be of some interest to philatelists.  I get the stuff out from underfoot and someone who cares may get something of interest.  Win-win, eh?

Posted

I expect this will be barely useful, but when I was working with a downsizing specialist on one my parent's moves, they asked him something like "Do we maybe have some vintage/rare coin/book/etc. that we don't know about?" his reply was he's never seen a case of someone owning something rare and valuable and not knowing about it. The reason we see such stories ("Picasso discovered in attic!") in the news from time-to-time is because they are so rare (the equivalent of "man bites dog.")

Good luck. Sounds like an interesting collection. If you don't mind sharing, I'd welcome hearing more about your grandfather's collecting.

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Posted

When anyone comes up with a good solution, please let me know.  We have something over a hundred pounds of silver coins of all kinds and a bunch of books of stamps that an Uncle who collected them left to us.  He didn't have any children and we were the closest and only ones who ever helped him with anything.

They're in a safe deposit box on the floor of that room in the bank.  There are some old ones in there, but I've been afraid to trust the job to anyone else and no time to take it on ourselves.  I'm sure my Uncle didn't know anything about them other than just collecting them.

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Posted

When asking for an appraisal ask for 2 numbers. A dealer will not pay full price. They pay at a discount to retail. I dont know how much the discount is. Wholesale, retail and if highly valuable ask for auction price.

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Posted

How do you keep an appraiser honest? Are you going to be there when they are looking? I would. It might take several sessions. One coin could be 7 figures...Set up a video?

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