My Dad Gave Me His Coin Collection And I Don't Know What To Do With It

Some of these have an x and that's because he actually doesn't have that coin upon my further inspection.

to the CCF

There is a thread in this subform on a member asking for advice to search through thousands of pennies. Go read that for some good advice.

The coins in the folders you posted appear to be modern low value coins.

Ask your dad to point out the error coins and post them individually with in focus photos. We can help you evaluate their potential value.

Agree with all above. Eager to follow along and see where this leads.

To the OP:
You are now a member of the CCF, with lots of numismatic friends around you. Encourage your dad to be one of us also.
You can still communicate with him via the CCF, when he is not in your presence, with your shared numismatic interests.

It will also much easier for him to finance new numismatic additions to the collection, via Christmas and birthday presents, without him having to think too much about it.

Good father / son relationships are amongst the most valuable things in this World.
In this case, numismatics is the perfect vehicle to carry that relationship forward.

I second what all these guys said, especially about inviting your dad to join this forum (if he's really into coins he may already be here or in another forum).

I was in the same boat some years ago with my Grandpa's coins. The first thing I did was organize by type (pennies, nickels, dimes, etc.—some of that was already done for me, but I'd find stray nickels in the tackle box that had the dimes, etc.). Having each type in one place just made it a bit easier to do homework.

I do recommend doing some homework, just so you have at least a general idea what you have and don't get rooked when you go to sell. The site that helped me most when I was doing this was https://www.coinstudy.com/ It'll help you identify the coins, get an idea of their condition (it'll be a very vague idea, but it will be helpful), and some idea what the coin might sell for. There are other sites that will have higher values based on auction prices, but I think coinstudy is closer to what you can expect if you sell the coin to a dealer (In many cases it's still probably a bit high—keep in mind that a dealer is going to give you a wholesale price. They have to make a profit, and they have overhead, so don't expect full retail value from them.) Another site that's been recommended to me here on this forum is http://www.numismedia.com/, but to use it you're going to need to learn how to grade a coin on a scale of 1 to 70 (Coinstudy just gives basic values for Good, Fine, Extremely Fine, and Uncirculated—much simpler, but obviously the values aren't as fine-tuned.).

And if you have questions about a coin's condition or some detail you notice on a coin, here's the place to ask questions. You'll usually need to be able to show good photos (the bane of my existence—it's HARD to get good detail shots of coins!).

Hopefully, you'll end up like I did—totally hooked on coins yourself. It's a fun hobby. I hope this is helpful.

It really depends what type of collector your father was. Some coins have value in any condition because they are of low mintage or other reasons such as because a coin contains metal content such as silver that has value by itself), while other coins such as modern coins you will likely find that only the very top condition examples when sent in for grading at a cost are worth extra value. There are also errors and varieties which you mentioned that can add extra value to a coin. So the first step is to sort what you have by type (pennies, nickels, dimes etc) and then look them up in a general guide such as a cheap book on amazon/at coin stores called A Guide Book of US coins 2023 https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Book-U.../079484961X/ You can also use free sites such as https://m.numismedia.com/rarecoinprices.htm to look up general value and https://www.coincommunity.com/us_coin_facts/ and https://www.PCGS.com/coinfacts or https://www.coinstudy.com/ to look up info about a coin. You can visit a site like ebay and look up a coin for general value (but should check 'sold listings' 'completed listings' on the left side if your researching what items actually sell for rather than what prices sellers may ask (but may never sell at that price and giving you a false impression about a coins potential value) . For rarer coins this can also be done at auction sites like https://coins.ha.com/

There are separate resources for learning about grading condition and general info about error/varieties can be found in a book called Strike it rich with pocket change 5th edition or on free sites such as https://doubleddie.com/ and http://varietyvista.com/index.htm which at least covers the basics on some that have added value, but not all, and of course you can post a coins photos on the forum to get some advice on that specific coin. Really the starting point is just determining which are worth time to investigate further or may have error/variety, special metal or low mintage, are in amazing condition and which are likely just common modern circulation coins that only have value in very top condition which might only happen if pulled from rolls, bags, and mint sets rather than pocket change after being circulated for awhile, or they have some type of special error or variety. The time can be worthwhile as it only takes 1 or 2 findings to have a high value... but its not guaranteed a collector ever had anything special.

what you've photoed so far has little value above face, other coins you've not shown us may have value beyond face, particularly if they date before 1934 or contain silver/gold

Wow thanks so much for being a supportive community. I think all the resources everyone posted looked great and I'll have to sift through them and send them my dad's way. And to the folks that mentioned to get him on the site, I'll definitely show him the site. I think he would enjoy talking to fellow collectors even if what he has isn't good. It's a fun pastime he picked up unexpectedly but he does get excited whenever he shows me new coins he finds.

I'll sift through the resources myself just because I didn't realize how big this community is in general and so that I can try and help him however I can but hopefully I can be an extra resource for him so he can enjoy the process of collecting and re-homing some of these coins.