A Pet Peeve (That Is Probably Unwarranted)

If it really matters to someone, then it is up to them to leave instructions on what happens to their estate.

I have three sons, one who collects with me, and considers every coin we buy together a " prized " possession. It is an effort to get him to upgrade any coin. I have another son, that would keep the collection out of deference to the joy and relaxation he saw as I collected. My oldest, would liquidate in a second. The only time he examines my coins is to ask " how much is this worth ? " or " How can you sit on a coin that is worth $2000 "

Point being, it is up to me to make sure that these coins get into the right hands when I pass. Yes it is heart breaking to see people's life's work get sold off for pennies, but if they really cared .........

I hope I can get one or my two little girls into it, or hope they someday give me a grandchild who likes collecting.

In a bit of irony, a planned liquidation of a collection passed down to me by a great aunt actually instead inspired me to dive full force back into numismatics.

She passed this modest along to me in the 1980's when I was about 12. It intrigued me at first, and I spent many hours initially searching through the family change jar to fill holes or upgrade coins.

About two years ago, I was going through clutter in a storage closet figuring out what to get rid of, and thought, let me see what Aunt Mary's coin collection is worth and I'll sell to the highest bidder. As I researched values, the only thing of any signicant value were two Indian Head cents (1867 and 1871) in G-4. Everything else was too low-grade or common. While doing the research to value the coins, I again became intrigued, and instead of reducing clutter, I've increased it the volume of coin-related "clutter" about 20 fold as I branched out into all other types of coins.

At the end of the day, I might part with the lower-end stuff from her collection or pass it along to my kiddos to get them started, but those two Indian cents I'll hold onto for quite awhile as sentimental pieces, even if I upgrade.

I wouldn't say it's a pet peeve as much as it just makes me sad. I wish everyone appreciated coins like we do, but they don't. And you're right, if no one ever sold them then we couldn't buy any.

I got a whole bunch of foreign coins and some very nice silver US coins from this kid who walked into the coin store I frequent and said "My grandpa left me this junk. I just want to sell it." The dealer asked him to wait a moment since he was with a customer. The kid got impatient and walked out. I went out and asked if he would sell some of the collection to me. Got a TON of old Canadian cents, 3 Morgan dollars, 10 Walking Liberty halves, a War Nickel set, 4 Barber quarters and 5 Mercury dimes. I asked how much he wanted for it...he gave it to me for $50.00. Usually I feel bad for taking advantage of people, but that kid had no respect for what he had. Nothing in that bag was "junk." I'll take good care of it.




I seriously though about putting this in my will.

I'm sure you were joking but in case you weren't...What kind of solution is that? You'd be better off giving it to a homeless shelter or a needy family. At least they could use it.

matthewvincent gets it.

This thread is a real eye opener for me as it touches on my early life and also today. When I was a teenager in the 1950s we visited an uncle in Arizona. His next door neighbor was an avid coin collector and he and I really connected. He brought me some coins every day during my stay and not that they were valuable - the man was awesome and so generous to a 14 year old. A couple of years later I heard that the neighbor had died and had left his huge coin collection to my uncle. I asked my Dad to talk to uncle and offered my entire net worth of $20 to get me some of the coins. Alas, uncle sold everything to the first bidder and bought cigars, booze, and went to Vegas. Of course, that was his choice so I accept that.

Rolling ahead to 2013 I have a substantial collection and many old coins minted during the infancy of our country. I'm 68 and my daughter and son show no interest in being collectors. I've documented my collection for them in a database with prices I've paid, and Redbook/Bluebook prices in case either of them want to sell and get a reasonable return for these awesome coins.

I do have a 10 year old grandson and a six year old grand daughter and will explore their interest, but it's really too early for them to understand all of this.