What is the best way to get coins appraised?

[austin552]

I inherited a large collection of coins, mostly silver dollars and fifty cent pieces. Some special bills and foreign coins as well. I need to get them appraised from a trust worthy source.

[bell]

How was the trip? Did you leave your sis and her dog at home?

Sorry can't help with who appraises.

[austin552]

Originally Posted by bell

How was the trip? Did you leave your sis and her dog at home?

Sorry can't help with who appraises.

Huh???

[BRPORSCHE]

bell, that was legion you were thinking about.

[Joeaksa]

Had the same thing happen and we took them to a couple of shops and split the appraisal costs. Was a lot of coins and some very old and a few pretty valuable.

I ended up keeping the ones that I was attached to (some old $20 gold coins and a couple of Roman ones) and sold the rest.

Joe A

[austin552]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Had the same thing happen and we took them to a couple of shops and split the appraisal costs. Was a lot of coins and some very old and a few pretty valuable.

I ended up keeping the ones that I was attached to (some old $20 gold coins and a couple of Roman ones) and sold the rest.

Joe A

I'll have to do a search for coin shops. Just pawns here.

[bell]

LOL yep you're right, it was legion.....
I crack myself up

Carry on, nothing to see here......

[targa911S]

Send them to me. I can count pretty good.

[austin552]

Originally Posted by targa911S

Send them to me. I can count pretty good.

Okay, just return their weight in New Castle chili and Coney dogs.

[targa911S]

Here's a start.

[on2wheels52]

From what I see most of the paper money and foreign coins are a tough sell. ie, ask the appraiser what he would pay for said appraised collection.
The silver $ and 1/2's should be fairly easy to do.
Jim

[legion]

Originally Posted by bell

How was the trip? Did you leave your sis and her dog at home?

Sorry can't help with who appraises.

Haven't made the trip yet, it's in three weeks.

My mother has decided my sister does not need to come, so I'm operating under that assumption for now.

I'm curious about the same thing. My grandfather literally has thousands of coins, and I don't want to leave them with anyone out of my sight.

Is there a such thing as a coin auction?

[bell]

I think the biggest thing would be to catalogue and photo each one/set, I'd look at it like parting out a car, if you have the time you could probably find buyers for all of it and come out farther ahead.....
It would take a while, so develop a system and it shouldn't be too bad, If a large collection was mine I would feel more comfortable handing a detailed portfolio of the collection rather than the coins themselves, a good expert shouldn't need to have the coin in hand unless it was very very rare imo.

[competentone]

Originally Posted by austin552

I inherited a large collection of coins, mostly silver dollars and fifty cent pieces. Some special bills and foreign coins as well. I need to get them appraised from a trust worthy source.

This site could be a good start (they haven't always updated prices timely to reflect the increase in silver prices -- which is important for coins with relatively low numismatic value, but have value primarily due to their silver content):

http://www.coinsite.com/default.htm

You can see some of the current prices some coins are being offered at here:

http://www.apmex.com/Category/161/Bulk_Silver_Dollars_1878_1935.aspx

The problem you will run into with "appraisals" is that usually the one doing the "appraisal" is also potentially an interested buyer, so you may not be getting an objective opinion.

If you have something that looks like it is really valuable, you could pay for an appraisal and get an accurate value, but just "talking with dealers" will likely get you the "wholesale prices" on the coins.

[ruf-porsche]

Take the jar of coins to the local market with one of those coin counting machine, dump the coins into the hopper of the machine. After awhile, the machine will have completed counting your coins and will issue you the correct amount for your coins.

LOL

[austin552]

Originally Posted by ruf-porsche

Take the jar of coins to the local market with one of those coin counting machine, dump the coins into the hopper of the machine. After awhile, the machine will have completed counting your coins and will issue you the correct amount for your coins.

LOL

I always wondered what % those machines get.

[MBAtarga]

last time I looked, it was 7%.

[Steve Viegas]

You can probably get a rough idea from e-bay.