What Are The Chances Of Finding Anthing Valuable In This Mess?

Maybe begin by sorting into specific countries. You can post the ones that are unknown to you and we can help you with the ID. I see plenty of copper in there, but perhaps something silver will pop out too? This could be an interesting project with a son/daughter/nephew/niece where you push pins into a map as you discover coins from the various countries. Good luck!

99% of the time, such accumulations are worth much more as a memento of a passed family member than they could possibly fetch on ebay.

Your odds of finding anything very old are very slim. If these were all from circulatuion, there are probably very few that are as old as 1960; WWII devastated the European economy to the extent that just about every involved currency either debased, hyperinflated, or ceased to exist by 1945-1950. My grandfather was in the Navy during Korea and his ship stopped by a few European countries; the only coins he snagged that were more than 5 years old were from gift shops.

Your best shot at finding something valuable would be to look for rare dates or known varieties; he could have just gotten lucky, just like a tourist in the US could theoretically get a 1999 WAM cent in change.

Thanks guys,
Initial walk through reveals the majority are from Kuwait, Barbados, Greece, Spain, England, Mexico, Germany, France. I'm familiar with French, German and Spanish languages. I think its the northern Asia coins (which compose a decent percentage) that I'm struggling to identify.

Found this 1964 peso. I think it's silver

Pick out anything that appears to be in excellent condition before about 1950,
or appears to made of silver.

Doesn't matter what country.

No offense intended, but the biggest problem with Americans is that they solely focus on the USA in every aspect and expect the rest of the world to do so too... Now have a look at a world map. Then empty the treasure chest and start digging. There's literally a whole world of coins waiting for you there!




Well, just that he brought it home in 1985-1987 doesn't automatically mean that all the coins were minted in those years. You know, even we in good ol' Restoftheworld try to make our coins last a bit longer...

For the value... I guess most coins will have a scrap metal value as absolute value. But isn't it more about the emotional value and the memories of your uncle sharing these coins that counts? If you happen to have any coins from Sweden (Sverige), Netherlands (Nederland) or Switzerland (Svizzera, Suisse, Schweitz, Svizra, Helvetica), then you might have silver (older ones). Also, some West-German 5 Mark coins (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) have silver and if I do recall correctly, even some Austrian Schillings (Osterreich). The rest of Europe stopped with having silver coins in circulation before that. However... Europe also produced a few modern oddball coins which can easily do a few thousand dollar without being made of precious metal. Chances are minimal that those just pop up here, but one may hope. We just need a more detailed description or pics to see what's happening. I can't help you with the Asian coins unless you can tell more about where they're from. Or just post a few pics or so.

The best way to start? Just empty the box and start sorting. Use a site like numista.com to find out more about the coins, like composition or mintage numbers. Most countries here actually have had their name on it in Latin script, so you can just read it. If you really can't figure out what kind of a coin it is, then you can always post it here or in the unidentified coin forum.