Collecting Coins, And Also Collecting Books On Coins?

If they bothered to check, they might have had thoudsands of dollars in books. I bought a stack of model train magazines for five bucks, sold several hundred dollars out of it.

Very true. In fact, I have heard stories of coin collections being thrown out because "those coins were so old that there was no way that they could still be spent" or "those coins were from other countries, so they must be worthless."

Books on numismatics also are subject to such treatment since many coin dealers refuse to buy old books when entire collections are bought from collectors and book dealers often don't know what to do with them. They presume that numismatics is such an esoteric field that the books would never sell. But on occasion this assumption can lead to great deals on books in book shops where the owner understands the value of the tomes to numismatists.

Try spending a 2¢ piece sometime. Hard enuf to spend a current $2 bill.

First thing I thought of too. If I was younger I would have rummaged their garbage for all those plane books. Many were from at least the 40's and 50's. Magazines, articles, pamphlets all on planes and dumped into the garbage.
Most people that know little to nothing about a hobby assume it's all junk. I too could believe this happens with all sorts of items when someone passes away.
A sort of funny thing they told me as they cleaned out the house was they were also dumping bags of potting soil into the garbage. That too was just to old to be any good.

biggfredd- Yes, many are quite ignorant, but even the ignorant enjoy turning perceived trash into money. While I find the throwing out of literature to be quite a poor financial decision, it also just seems like a waste since the owner/ person throwing it out is not making any money, yet others who would enjoy the books are denied access.