Family coins and a 7070

Well, I've had a crazy couple of days with family coins that I thought I'd share. After the events of last weekend and working with all of my wife's grandfather's coin collection, I decided to call my parents and tell them that I wanted silver for Christmas. They always ask for a list to choose from, from my brother and I and our significant others and I thought it would be fun to just add to the collection with some silver half dollars or dollars or whatever they would find and decide to buy for me...little did I know how that would turn out.

I told my mom last night about this idea and she said, "how about I just give you your grandpa's coin collection?" I about dropped! I had no idea such a thing existed! She said she didn't know exactly what was in it, but she had a box around the house somewhere and she would dig it out and let me know. She called back today and said she found the box and it had a small tin with dimes in it along with a roll marked mercury dimes, one marked Roosevelt dimes, a roll of '64 JFKs, some SLQs, at least one silver dollar, a few rolls of pennies, some silver certificates, etc. That's just what I can remember and what she knew to tell me. She said it was about the size of a shoe box. She also said there was a bank around the house somewhere that should only have pre-70s coins (some silver maybe?) that she would dig up for me! And apparently my dad has been collecting coins too, but he's still working on his collection. I didn't even know he collected!

Then my mom called back and told me to call my grandmother (dad's mom), so I did...she told me that my uncle who passed away a few years ago had collected coins since he was 5yrs old and she had his collection in a safe deposit box. She said I couldn't have all of them straight out since they would be divided up when she passed away, but if I wanted first choice since no one else in the family has shown any interest, she would pull them out of the box and I could stop by and pick out whatever I want. I have no idea what the collection includes other than she remembered that he had Indian head cents, buffalo nickels and "a bunch of other books," and one gold coin that she sold already but now wishes she hadn't because gold is worth waaaay more than when she sold it.

We were already planning to go visit my wife's family this weekend, but now we're making a couple of stops on the way back on Sunday to see my grandmother and parents. It could be interesting and quite an explosion for our collection that was just a couple of albums and a small box a couple of weeks ago. It's really crazy to see that so many people in my (and my wife's) family have or currently collect coins and I never knew about it! When I made the call last night, I was really hoping that I might get an American Silver Eagle for Christmas...instead, it sounds like I'm about to inherit a fun collection!

AGCoinHunter: Yeah, I'm pretty excited just to see what all is in these collections! It should be a very fun weekend just digging into everything and discovering what everyone collected. We already had a similar weekend (see earlier posts in this thread) with my wife's grandfather's collection and were planning on placing an order for several Dansco albums. Now that is on hold until we see what all we have after this weekend. The order might have just gotten bigger! Really looking forward to getting everything together and then slowly being able to continue where all of our ancestors left off. One day our children will have an even larger, more impressive collection to inherit and (hopefully) enjoy and continue adding on to!

WheatBackBill: Thanks! Keep reading...hopefully it will stay interesting in the coming days :)

okie-colin: Thanks! Sounds like you were in a similar situation. Much of what my wife and I have and will be receiving was pulled from circulation. I have never seen my grandfather's collection, but I believe that it is likely circulated coins. I also didn't even know about my uncle's collection...I have no idea what is included in that other than the vague description that my grandmother gave the other day over the phone. I'm very curious. I'm expecting it to be circulated stuff as well, but it's possible that there's something more to it.

I'm not sure if we'll be selling off any of it to fill holes in sets. That was sort of my initial thought, but then I've also been wanting to buy silver anyway with the way prices have been going. I feel like at this point, I should probably hold on to any silver given to me and just continue to add to it slowly but surely. We'll see how it looks after this weekend though...

I went through the mercury dimes from the photo above as well as the ones in an old Whitman folder that was from my late uncle's collection. Between those two collections, I was able to upgrade about 20 of the coins in my circulated set (still missing only 16d) to much nicer versions! Probably bumped most of those from the G/VG range up to F or so.

I was also able to combine Roosevelt Dimes and Washington Quarters from my wife's grandfather's collection, my grandfather's collection, and my uncle's collection and we have a really good start on those two sets now...just a handful missing from the Roosevelts and a bit more from Washingtons.

It'll take a little longer, but eventually we'll get Lincoln Cents, V - Buffalo - Jefferson Nickels, Standing Liberty Quarters, JFK Halves, and possibly a few others together. I'm going to have to place an order for Danscos now...

Moe145: That's really amazing to discover! It sounds like your dad was able to enjoy some high dollar collecting once the kids were raised and moved out It will be very interesting to find out what all is in the collection!

Sorry, couldn't help myself after Wheezydog's advice:






Now how about pics of the other sets you've been working on?