Posted 01/06/2006 10:57 pm
Richard, I've been asked to look over quite a few informal collections pretty much like the one you described. I've long since learned to preface any agreement to an appraisal with the caution to the owner that it has been my experience most such cigar box collections don't have very much value beyond bullion; an old coin doesn't mean it's a valuable coin. Having thus dashed their hopes for finding a million dollar coin, I then state that there always is a possibility that something uncommon might show up, but the only way to determine this is to go through the coins one by one. The idea is to not let them get their hopes up.
In most instances, I don't find anything of any significant value, but I usually find a couple well-circulated Mercury dimes (seems that it's always the dimes) which have a book value slightly above the others (say, two bucks), so I'll give them a flip in which to store them. In one collection of a relative in which her deceased husband had purchased mint and proof sets over the years (among other individual older coins he had acquired), there were a few sets which actually had value above their purchase price; the other coins mostly had values between $10 and $20 with a couple Morgans which might value out to $50. She sighed and packed everything back into the box: no undiscovered rare coins, no instant riches.
Lately, I've been approached by neighboring travelers with the same request and I have to caution them that it is uncommon that a rare coin is actually found in a shoebox collection, but I'll take a look as long as they don't get their hopes up, something which seems to be a side effect of Coin Vault and other TV coin sales shows.
In most instances, I don't find anything of any significant value, but I usually find a couple well-circulated Mercury dimes (seems that it's always the dimes) which have a book value slightly above the others (say, two bucks), so I'll give them a flip in which to store them. In one collection of a relative in which her deceased husband had purchased mint and proof sets over the years (among other individual older coins he had acquired), there were a few sets which actually had value above their purchase price; the other coins mostly had values between $10 and $20 with a couple Morgans which might value out to $50. She sighed and packed everything back into the box: no undiscovered rare coins, no instant riches.
Lately, I've been approached by neighboring travelers with the same request and I have to caution them that it is uncommon that a rare coin is actually found in a shoebox collection, but I'll take a look as long as they don't get their hopes up, something which seems to be a side effect of Coin Vault and other TV coin sales shows.
