Should I Ask To Be Put In A Will For Coins?

Realistically, unless it's a very large estate, he will have probably put the assets in a trust to support your grandmother until her death with the remaining value then distributed to his children. The grandchildren may (or may not) receive a nominal amount.

The collection will be sold to fund the trust.

That's what both of my grandfathers did. And it was a good thing and very smart - theirs was a generation when women didn't handle money beyond the household account. One grandmother lived to 99, remaining comfortable in her own home.

The other grandmother was the kind who could never not reply to a well-written fund-raising appeal from a worthy organization. Because she had little actual income (the trust handled most expenses), the IRS chose to audit her one year for her $3,000 in charitable deductions.

After several go-arounds, the IRS wouldn't budge in having her accountant show up at the IRS office IN PERSON.

The story is that he walked in with a stack of 200 checks (remember when banks returned the checks), rubberbanded with an adding machine tape (remember those?). He removed the rubber bands, put the tape to the side, and tipped the stack of checks so that it was laid on the table as dealers do with a new deck of cards. He then looked at the IRS agent and said, "Read them and weep".

He was a very, very good accountant. And he had clearly had it up to the eyeballs with the IRS giving him grief over his smallest account, one that he kept only because of his fifty-year association with my grandfather (class of 19xx at that P school).

. If you don't know him very well, I would recommend to stay and touch and spend more time with him. By then you can only cross your fingers.

If you kind of know him, maybe bring up a couple of coins that hold the most importance, and possibly have been in the family for multi generations. He will want those coins with emotional attachment to go to a good home.

If you know him very well, be frank with him and ask about the entire collection. Describe what is most important to you, and maybe you both can work something out.

Whichever path you choose, it'll probably work itself out. Sooner rather than later is your best bet.

i agree with jgfindring. if any of my children or grandchildren came to me and had an interest in coins, I would leave them the collection if I did not need the funds.

i recently sold part of my collection as no one expressed an interest over the years. if grandpap was a collector and not just put them away because they were old, I'm betting he would feel the same way.

this is one thing that all collectors struggle with as they get on in years. Do I sell it or pass it on. most would sell it if no one stepped up with interest

if it was me I would sit down with grandpap and say that you were going through some of the coins he gave you over the years and that you appreciated the ones he gave you and that you graded them and put them in holders or a album or whatever (this will let him know you will take care of them). I would tell that if he has time you would love to spend some time with him going over his collection and talking how and why he collected them.