Estate Valuation - Need Advice

Here's one solution my accountant used for a similar situation with gold coins, he had a little private auction with the heirs in his office for each coin. High bidder takes each coin (or lot) with the money then split equally. With 50 coins you might group them into lots of 5 or something.

I was at my coin dealers' shop a few months back. A couple came in with over 70 pounds of silver that their uncle, who just passed away, had hidden in a large cooler. They asked my dealer, Mike, for an estimate. They were happy and sold Mike the silver, and the check went to the estate to be split amongst the family.

I'm sure you can do something similar. Like you mentioned, just give a 1/3 of the estimated value to each of the other two children. And I would bring those two adult children along on the trip to a coin shop. I would also slide the dealer a reasonable sum relative to the time it takes him/her in giving an estimate, since you won't be selling him the coins. Maybe they won't take it, but I'd still offer.

I would take out a loan to buy any amount of Morgan dollars offered to me in the "low $20.00 range." There are over 20,000 Morgans currently available on ebay via Buy It Now, and the cheapest of them is almost $35 shipped. Given the current price of silver, the melt value of a Morgan stands at about $28 today.

I'd say that the "base" value of a Morgan today is about $35, for all but coins worn to obliteration. AU coins won't carry much of a premium excepting for notable rarities/varieties.

CoinsKelly, understanding that you're not out to achieve the "best possible price" but to do something fair by *all* of your children, I think a lot price of about $2000 for 50 Morgans would do right by everyone. I suspect that the dealer evaluation (as you've concluded, absolutely the right thing to do here) will come in somewhat lower.

Now, the caveats: First, counterfeits are known with Morgan issues. There's a non-zero chance (greater with the "key" dates) that one or more may be found among your group. Second, Morgans are collected by variety. It's possible that among these may be coins which have additional value (possibly considerable additional value), but it would be a strenuous bit of research to make this determination for all of them.

Might it be possible for you to create a quick listing of dates/mint marks for us, so we could inform you of any which might warrant further attention? This would be useful for your son's future collecting interest, as well as ensuring fairness in the transaction with the stepchildren.

I'll give you a few "immediate attention required" issues:

Any "CC" mint mark

Any of years 1893, 1894, 1895

1878 Philadelphia ( no mint mark) with 8 tailfeathers instead of the normal 7

The first two are of interest because demand/rarity gives them premium pricing. The 1878 8TF's have many varieties which carry large premiums even in circulated grades.

CoinsKelley you may also be entitled to a portion of the collection.(or) The coins are personal property and would pass to you 100% in most states. You need to check the laws. If the coins are sold there may also be some tax liabilities. It may be necessary to keep records for a tax basis on each coin if/when sold in the furture.

Good Luck

Thank you everyone - I am not quite sure how we will do it but your advice has been helpful. There are two coin dealers I purchase from regularly and I will contact them to see if they have the time to help with this. I will definitely be totally upfront with them and find out what the fee would be. I was not clear earlier that I am divorced from his father (we stopped calling each other ex's since it just sounded yucky) so all this will be for the kids. I am confident that making sure everyone is involved, we can make sure this does not cause any problems.