What Will Become Of Your Collection When You're Gone?

I am young (relatively) but have already started to think of this...

As a coin collector... I believe the collection is not ours to keep we're mearly the currators for a short period of time. There's certainly something to be said for having a will... even if there's nobody to leave your stuff to... it's great to make sure all your affairs are in order and things will be done as you wish.

I would love to see my kids also pick up the collecting "bug" and if that happens GREAT.. but if not.. I have an extra file attached to my will... it mentions a few of my other assets... sculpture, art, furniture and yes my coin collection. I don't have a lot of "BIG ticket" items right now.. but it simply states what I have, what they're worth and where one can go to get the best value for sale.

I would hate to see some of my coins just pawned or even worse taken to the bank.. as a collector I believe I have some historical responsibility to make sure that what I have that has been passed to me will also be passed on to someone else who will appreciate.. if that's not my own kin .. so be it... at least they will get a few bucks.

Thanks jbuck. It was the second time in 24 hours and I was a little impatient. I'll learn. One small step at a time.

If silver prices don't move up, my sister and brothers (3 total) will inherit plenty of pre 1965 silver coins. I have successfully filled about 90% of the silver dime, quarter and half albums - at "junk" silver prices.

Still stacking silver -

LastGold

I too, am in the " who cares " camp. I will be long dead and gone. They are memories of many years spent, searching, relaxing , bidding, bartering, admiring. Every coin has a story, every coin has a memory, but after I am gone, so will the importance of the coins to me. So, honestly , who cares what happens to them.

Right now it looks like its going to end up with one of my cousins kids but I just might have kids myself, if I cant have kids and my cousins kids arnt right for my collection I'm screwed and my collection is screwed. The big thing with me is that I want to keep it in my family and in hundreds of years from now I want it to be with someone that's related to me. We all need to remember that nothing lasts forever including all our coin collections and that someday the coins will just be gone and there's nothing we can do about that. When I'm around my 70`s I'm thinking of leaving a big paper of instructions on my coin collection saying all the stuff someone needs to know, how to store it, why its important to preserve, to keep them in the family... stuff like that. I wouldn't be able to rest in actual "peace" if I somehow found out after I died that my collection was turned in to the bank and sent to the refinery to be melted or something like that.

If I have nobody interested in my collection, I think I would just sell it all and perhaps use the money for other stuff. Of course I say that, but I'm probably too attached to even sell it as long as I'm alive.

When I am gone out of town I make sure my stuff is secure in my safe deposit box. But I live in a secure neighborhood and have some special hiding places also. So I really don't worry about my collection when I am not home.

Hopefully my collections will be GONE before I am , I intend to sell everything before I die so that my missus can get full value for what I have squandered on my selfish obsession.
In the event that the Grim Reaper calls me before I am prepared I am in the process of getting just about everything graded by PCGS so that there is NO dispute about the grade or authenticity of my small collections