Over the years, I heard many horror stories about how large expensive collections can turn into small less expensive collections. Up until last year, I only heard these stories, I did not expect to have one my own.
It all started back in June 2011. I had just celebrated my 8 year anniversary. This should have been a moment of celebration, but dark clouds were on the horizon.
Up until July, I had a collection that included many gold, silver, and even platinum Eagles. My collection of Roman Coins was becoming quite vast. I already had all Twelve Caesars and was beginning to expand that series to include the Adoptive Emperors and the Severan Dynasty.
For regular issue
US coinage, I had the desired 1916 D
Mercury dime, 1909 S VDB, and key coins for other series.
All that changed in July 2011. My wife and I split up for good. My collection of coins was literally cut in half. I managed to take out some of my collection before the divorce process started to take place, then everything in the house was considered an asset.
What I took out was of little value, but it meant a lot to me such as my
Lincoln Cent collection, and a few miscellaneous coins. The rest would reside in the house my ex was living in.
As the days turned into months, the need to obtain my coins had less to do with their collect ability, then their value. The truth is, I was going broke. Divorce can become very expensive, very quickly. My credit cards were getting maxed out and I was finding it difficult to pay my bills.
So the battle over the collection began. We went back an forth. She claimed that all were purchased during our marriage and were subject to being split 50/50. My claim is that about 1/3 of the coins were purchased during the marriage and the other 2/3 were brought into the marriage.
Before I got married I brought 16 years of coin collecting into the marriage, but I soon found that it didn't matter. Her lawyer and my lawyer fought back and forth. In the end, I couldn't prove I owned any coins prior to my marriage, therefore the collection was subjected to being split down the middle.
So here I am on the verge of getting my coins back, but I had to buy her out for her half. Now the games begin.
My ex wife never understood the value of coins and showed no interest in them at all. I would use this to my advantage.
In April we met at her lawyers office. I was on one end of the table with my lawyer, and she was on the other with hers. We agreed on many things through out the divorce, but when it came to the coins, the games were about to begin.
The new strategy was to accept only 50% of the collection leaving her with the other half to do as she pleases. Before I dive into this further I found out that she had the whole collection "appraised." The number given was $7,000.00. For a fact this collection was never appraised by anyone with any knowledge of coins. Because, my divorce is still ongoing, I won't talk about their real value, but I will say that her number pales into comparison to the real number.
As I said, my lawyer and I had a new strategy, accept my half and leaver with hers. Some might say that I was giving in too quickly, but there was a method behind my madness. She wanted me to buy her out, instead of walking away with half of my coin collection.
I knew she wouldn't want any coin and just wanted money, but I didn't want to accept money. I told her I couldn't afford to pay her any money because I was broke (which is true). But she insisted on not having half of the collection. After going back and forth for about an hour we came to an agreement. I would buy her out for her half which went from $3,500 down to $3,000.
This would seem like the story had a happy ending, but I was still in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. I had to make a decision, continued debt with no end in sight or using the proceeds made off part of my collection to get myself back on my feet. I chose paying off my debt.
The reason I chose eliminating my debt over my collection was simple.
Keeping a collection was not going to feed me, put a roof over my head, etc. They had to go. So I began to sell off my collection. I kept the coins I had when I was a kid. Basically, I sold all but 9 gold coins (out of 42), all but 1
ASE, all platinum eagles, all my Roman coins except 1 Antoninus Pius aureus, 1 valens solidus, 1 Bosporos Electrum Stater and a number of common bronzes.
All key coins had to go, silver proof sets, complete
Franklin halves, and various other coins.
With in a month my collection went down 80%. 3 weeks ago was the turning point. I stopped selling and within a week I was able to start purchasing again. My collection pales in comparison to what it once was, I sold off a lot of coins and Precious metals.
As I look at my current collection I was able to keep the coins that meant the most to me, some because they were hard to come by and others because they held a special meaning.
So my advice to anyone who thinks they might be going to a divorce is to understand that your collection is no longer your collection, it becomes and asset, unless you can prove that you owned it before you were married. (This might not apply to some states). If you protect yourself early, you may not have to go through what I and many others have gone through.
Christopher
Posted 05/27/2012 1:04 pm
