The Art Of The Deal

I feel your pain, robbudo,
Dad and Great Aunt Tootsie left coins of, how to say, less than marketable value.
SO, despite the feeling of betraying one's elders, I closed my eyes and SOLD THEM OFF!

Neither Dad nor Toots ever bought a coin. They pulled out coins from circulation.
But Matthew wheels and deals, from time to time. If I can take common coins collected from my family and turn
50 or so into a single, NICE coin I think it a good move.

I am too old to hold onto bullion.
I am quite happy to purchase coins which are outstanding.

And, as my collection grows smaller, it grows better in quality.

Oh, and nice find on the Isabella Quarter, matthewvincent! I love the color.

I think I'd be concerned that my local dealer is teaming with up ebay's tracking of you in order to market to you.

BTW - beautiful coin.

Matthew... I've never seen or heard of that quarter. I assume this is a token or commemorative coin? Can you tell us a little about it?

The Columbian Exhibition (World's Fair) in Chicago 1892-93.

Three coins were made: a quarter, a half and a dollar. This was
the first time that the US issued commemorative coins. Izzy was the first and only quarter made
until the the bicentennial in 1976. And were issued for circulation as well as proofs.

The quarter and the dollar are quite expensive. The half is quite common and inexpensive.
What I like about my quarter is that it was SPENT!

Now, IF I find a nice one, I'll add the dollar and have all three.

grancap74,
Boy, it was all I could do to not cry when I heard the offer on Sunday.
The emotional ties to coins is exceptionally difficult to ignore.

But, facts must be faced with reasonable courses of action.

So, here are a tip or two:

ANY Barber coin with a full liberty is worth separating from the AGs.
Halves and quarters in VG-8 are also to be separated.
You see, Halves were spent more often than quarters, and quarters more often than dimes.
Years ago, these coins were lumped together: good and very good were priced alike. No longer.
Even very good, full reverse rim coins are quite difficult to find. Any Barber collector would tell you
that.

Really, 14x is the going rate. Sad when you think where came from and from whom.

So, take each denomination in turn and do what I did: pull one or two out for the nice pile
and one or two for the not-so-nice pill. As you do so, ask yourself why a certain coin pleases your eye
and which coin is just butt ugly.

If you can assemble a roll in each denomination of nice looking coins, then you can pat yourself
on the back. When the time comes, you will know which to sell/trade and which ones to keep as a link to your past.

Depending upon one's age, there comes a time when one must think of how the coins will be disposed.
I struggled with this for a few years. As much as I have been selling I still have managed to save and acquire coins which make dealers drool.

Look, you are not the first and certainly not the last collector who has these thoughts.
Be brave.

Matthew, thank you for the comments and advice. I was given the collection only 8 years ago but had known about it since I was a kid. My grandfather worked on Wurlitzer jukeboxes and Gottlieb pinball machines which is where he collected the coins from. There are lengthy stories he told me on this but that's for another post
He had simply bagged up coins in the bank bags to clean the machines out when he worked on them. So that's what I inherited, 8 bank bags that weighed about 40 lbs. a piece. There were very few AU and above coins obviously and it took some time to separate them out.
The Barber series has always been confusing to me as there seems to be much fewer examples of high grades than many other series. Of course now I understand that and can know why high grades in these series command such a high premium. I've pulled out the rolls and will start searching them according to what you wrote. I don't have a much of a problem selling them now because I'm keeping so much of his collections that there is plenty left over. I guess my sadness came more from the 14x offer being the same for a 1892 Barber quarter as a 1962 Washington. Of course on CCF I have learned about the QUALITY of the coin is what I want to collect now.
My main issue is WHERE to sell, I've been to LCS in other areas which seem to be far superior to what is around me, and most around me sell on ebay anyway. I know from posts I should sell on ebay and not just buy, just have been nervous about it reading disaster scenarios which have been written about here. With as many rolls that we have I know I could add some very nice coins to our collections while still preserving most of my inherited collection.
On another note. He had saved about 25 Capped Bust Halve Dollars that I remember him telling me always stopped the machines up, those coins have become some of my favorites out of all of them. Can you imagine....people using those coins in pinball machines because they thought they were of less value than what was modern at the time.