My Late Father's Coin Collection - Help

Thanks very much! I'll try and get some photos uploaded. There are values on the back of a lot of these coins but I think they are what he must have paid for them initially. If I get photos of the ones with the highest values will that help? 220 is quite a lot of photos + I'm not that good at taking them either. :(

I've just had a quick look through - couldn't get any photos yet BUT the most expensive coin here has a price of £500.00. The writing on the card says something like this:
AUGUSTUS 27BC-14AD DANARIOUS OBV "CAESAR AVGVSTUS" BARE HD. R.
AR DENARIUS VB 3/4 R.C.(W?) 1599 ASH. 300 ?B p.72 149 REV "C.SVLPICIVS PLATORIN" AUGUSTUS & AGRIPPA STD ON PLATFORM DECORATED WITH THREE PROWS.

On the back it has the following:
"MINTED BY MONEYERS" MINTED IN ROME 13 BC
ADVERTISES AGRIPPA'S POSITION AS HEIR APPARENT.

There are online sites that are useful for getting estimates of value. Here are two sites, all you have to do is enter your legend in the search function.

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/index.html

http://www.coinarchives.com/

Keep those coins in those cardboard holders (known as "2x2s" because they're two inches square). The details recorded on it will help anyone wishing to evaluate the coins.

The strange codes and abbreviations are catalogue references. For instance, "Ash 300" is the Ashmolean Museum catalogue; RC(N) 1599 is the reference in the new edition of the Sear catalogue of Roman Coins (my copy of Sear values this coin at £500 in VF condition, £1100 in EF); RIC p.72 149 is presumably a reference to the huge multi volume catalogue "Roman Imperial Coins". The prices on the backs of the 2x2 are presumably what your father would pay for them.

For insurance purposes, you'll have to take it to a coin dealer for a formal evaluation; some numbers given you by folks on an Internet forum aren't going to be authoritative, as far as they're concerned. Nor can you simply get a friend or relative to value your coins for you.

Check with your insurance company, but they will probably have a list of recommended dealers with credentials that they recognise. Here in Australia, for instance, most insurance companies only recognise valuations given by members of ANDA, the dealer's association. The British equivalent might be the BNTA.

If you can, find out where your father purchased most of the coins from, and whether a valuation from that dealer would be acceptable. That dealer would probably either recall or still have records of the sale of those coins, and the valuation would take less time.

You should be aware of two other things:

1. A formal valuation won't be free. Some dealers advertise "free valuations", but they're talking about an immediate offer to buy, which will be a quick at-a-glance valuation. In a full evaluation, the dealer will sit down with his books and catalogues and look up the price of each coin. That takes time, and time is money. The dealer will probably charge an hourly rate.

2. If you plan to sell the collection, don't expect to take your coins and the formal valuation down to a dealer and be given that much money for the coins. An insurance valuation is a replacement value, not a resale value. Expect to get 50% to 70% of the insurance valuation in an immediate sale, assuming you could find a dealer with that much ready cash.

If you decided to sell this collection, an auction house would probably be your best bet.

Thanks so much for all the information Sap. Invaluable - I would never have known those details. I will certainly take your advice and enquire with the BNTA and my insurers. I don't have any aspirations to sell them but my mother could very well use the money as she has to now leave Spain where they lived and buy a house in the UK and she does not have an awful lot of money. I may sell these and give her the money even if it is only 50-75% of the value.

I can certainly try and take dome more pictures too if it is of interest to people on here.

BrianUk, if you can please don't sell them... They are a legacy of your dad's... I'm sure he wants them to be passed down for many generations to come...

Thanks everyone. I really don't know where he got the coins from but I do know that he would spend hours in local spanish markets and junk shops so this is probably where he got most of them from. I don't want to sell these to be honest but my mum sure could use the money. But for now I'll just get them valued, insured and stored safely away. I've taken a picture of each page in the collection so if anyone can spot something rare or interesting please let me know and I will take a better close-up picture for you. Sorry about the picture quality and that some are rotated but I hope it's enough for you to get an idea.