Widow Gets Taken, Badly - Let's Hope For A Good Outcome Soon

This appraiser should be out of business & put in jail.
Very sad.

It does sound as if the widow has been conned but there may be facts, requirements and contracts of which we're not aware.

I doubt that any person except one experienced in numismatics, would be able to describe a collection well enough for a "coin expert" to say accurately that the appraisal should have taken three to four hours to do and cost a few hundred dollars.

Equally, I would be very hesitant in engaging an 84 year old to appraise anything. My late father retained his faculties right up to a few months before his death at the age of 90, but he gave up advising people professionally at the age of 75; he felt that he could not keep up his knowledge after that.

I recently did an appraisal for an old lady. The solicitor's letter stated the requirement to describe every coin individually, with grade and probate value. There were hundreds of coins, most not worth listing. I queried this with the solicitor and told him that my fee would greatly exceed the value if I listed every coin.

Initially he told me to go ahead but when I let slip that I had told the old lady the same thing, he was clearly annoyed and told me to list the most valuable. I proposed to list everything with a probate value of more than £5; there were only 7 and total probate value was £160.

I suspect that if I had not told the old lady that most were not worth listing; he would have recharged her a huge fee and certainly more than the collection was worth.

Wonder how many more snakes like this there are out there just waiting to prey on older folks like this.
This guy should have the book thrown at him.