I did a quick search & don't see the topic of inherited stamp and coin collections

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Dr_One_L_1993@reddit

The biggest hassle of dealing with my father's estate was dealing with his extensive coin collection. Sounds like a lot of you didn't bother to get that all appraised first before dispersing the estate? Dad was big into silver dollars (and had several other silver coins) and had been collecting the 1940s; there was so much stored in his bedroom we were actually surprised the floor didn't collapse into the basement.

We (my sister & ) ended up lugging what we thought was valuable to the first place I found that would assess the value and spent 3 hours there before selling everything they wanted for several thousand dollars (technically we should have just gotten the "appraisal", but that would have incurred a fee vs just selling it outright, and my sister & I were the only heirs). They told us all the "collectible" quarters & dollars the US Mint has been foisting off of folks since the state quarters weren't worth more than face value. Ditto with most of the proof sets after like 1965 (mainly because most dealers can't move them quickly). We ended up rolling all those that weren't already rolled (and, yes, that meant breaking up the proof sets) and depositing them. Kept a few things for sentimental value, but otherwise it was a decent chunk of the Estate value that I needed to account for.

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EverythingScrolling@reddit

My parents each have multiple collections, and the topic of what will happen to everything upsets them. I'm an only child, and we don't have other family. I'm single, and my house is half the size of theirs. They get that I can't possibly keep everything they have, but the idea of an estate sale offends them, especially my mom. She's always saying to me that I'll have a yard sale table set up at their funerals, which I find offensive that she would even joke about.

My dad collects coins. He used to collect old glass bottles, but I have no idea what happened to them after he retired because his collection was in his office.

My mom collects sterling silver compacts from the 1920s, among other things.

They have some impressive furniture and books, but I can't keep it all and they're not inclined to make anything easy.

I live 2 hours away and work full-time, and I regularly have nightmares of being all alone trying to clean out their house while having no idea where anything important is.

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Apprehensive-Bag-900@reddit

My mom has 200+ beaded earrings she's made herself. I don't wear jewelry. She gets mad when I tell her I'm probably going to toss them after I've doled out what I can to friends. I've repeatedly told her she is welcome to sell them at any time, I will set up an etsy account or whatever she wants! Stop telling them what you'll do when they're gone, it's not worth the argument. If they don't care enough to deal with it on their own they don't really get to have issues when they're dead. My mom has a full binder of death instructions, including the number of an company that does estate sales.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

♥️ bless your heart (in the kindest way). I feel like your situation sounds perfect for one of those estate/caring transition services would be a life saver.

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Dragonnuttz@reddit

I inherited my dad's guns, coins, knives, records and comic collection. I don't have the energy to go thru them all to see what he has. They are all at a property he left me collecting dust. I told my kid that I will let them sort it out and they will also inherit my shoe and car collection. I also have a shipping container full of vintage cast iron from various family members over the years. The apocalypse we were promised in the 80's never happened so all that stuff never got used.

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ONROSREPUS@reddit

I personally see that as money just sitting there doing nothing. If you want some extra cash for just doing some research it really isn't that difficult.

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Apprehensive-Bag-900@reddit

It is when you have too many obligations and not enough time and energy. Add an auto immune illness that zaps what little energy you have left and I can understand why that person doesn't have the energy or time to do yet another job.

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Tigrisrock@reddit

I inherited a stamp collection as well and have no clue how much it could be worth (if anything at all). Don't have the time to start researching on my own either and honestly I don't know if they have any value at all.

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Acceptable-Regret398@reddit

This is wild to me. I have a 19 year old that would love to have inherited coins! He has gone through both living grandparents stashes and advised them of their value and set up sales for the valuable ones. Coins of just face value were sorted and traded in at the bank. One set of grandparents can use the money, the other simply spent the earned money on the grandchildren. He cleared some space for the grandparents and I don’t have to deal with it when they pass, so something good came of it for everyone involved.

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StrangeAssonance@reddit

Coins: if they are silver, you can get good money for them. Coins older than 1800 you might be able to get something for, otherwise, they are just coins. Use them as money.

Stamps: I have like $4000 in stamps at face value. No one will buy them as no one is collecting stamps anymore. The guy told me to just use them at face value. Honestly, feels bad. The stamp collection is just too big. You know how many books are needed to carry all those stamps...stamps that for years was 5-30 cents each...yeah a lot when you add it all up to like $4000. How can I even use the majority of my stamps? Envelopes aren't big enough!

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kbivs@reddit

How about 45s (the little records). My dad collected hundreds upon hundreds of these. Almost exclusively music from the 1950s. They're sitting in a closet in my house and I have no idea what to do with them.

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DantesGame@reddit

Vinyl is selling for a premium now that they younger generations are getting back into it. You could be sitting on a virtual gold mine.

Just took my kid out for "Record Store Day" last Saturday. Lines at three places we went to were effing crazy long. People lined up waiting to get in and buy shit.

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Phog_of_War@reddit

Dad was a collector and has a shit ton of Morgan's. I'm talking treasury sized coin bags. Can't wait to get my hands on that collection. It's been sitting in a bank vault since 2004.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

That's your retirement right there sitting in a bank vault!! Congrats!!!

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Phog_of_War@reddit

Depends on how many CC coins there are and their quality. There were also some crazy coins in there too if I remember correctly, like a US minted Chinese Opium Dollar or some such thing. I don't remember exactly as it's been a decade plus since I laid eyes on it.

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Reddiculusness@reddit

1000.00 bags ? lol

I mean melt value alone is 58.56 each today

With that many, there have to be some worth well over melt.

I'm drooling just thinking about going through a bag like that, multiple bags would probably cause me to call in sick for a week or 2 , just to go through them.

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XerTrekker@reddit

My grandfather was huge into stamps and coins. He made money trading and selling them. He tried to get all his kids and grandkids into it but no takers. I tried as a kid, just to spend time with him in his hobbies. He sold most of the valuable stuff before he died. He left the family a large stamp collection that was quite rare, but not worth much. We donated it to his philately organization.

I still have a handful of silver coins for sentimental reasons, along with a stamp book I started as a kid with him.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

I love that. Kinda easier to know when you're keeping a select set just for life sentimental value. I have a shelf full of model railroad train cars my dad built

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Demostecles@reddit

Oh, man.

On my to do list this moment is “Check out trains”.

There is a collection of electric toy trains, tracks, buildings, tunnels, and other paraphernalia packed away in the storage space above the garage that has been there since 1984.

I may get to that today.

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NoKing9900@reddit

Really love that you gave most of his collection to his philatelist society!

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Anonymo123@reddit

I have boxes of stamps and old coins.. i don't have the mental energy to go through them so they are in storage. And post cards.. blank post cards, pages and pages of them. why?

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DeaddyRuxpin@reddit

My father had a huge stamp collection. It took up several file boxes. A friend of my sister’s collects stamps so he went through them to get a rough idea of the value. His opinion was the collection’s greatest value was for the unused stamps to just be used to mail things.

His coin collection wasn’t as big so my sister looked all those up herself. There were only a handful of coins worth more than face value.

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Agrippa_Aquila@reddit

I hear you. I've been sitting on the following mess of stamp and coin collections:

30 "Postage Stamps of Canada" year books. Several of them are still unopened in the original shrink wrap. There's also 3 binders of First Day Covers and two of general stamps. There is a small box full of semi-recent Royal Canadian Mint collector coins, souvenir coins, Cuban convertible pesos, random coins from somewhere, and an entire jar of non-silver 50 cent coins. I swear those 50 cent coins are a prank being played by the Royal Canadian Mint.

And I haven't had the courage yet to do more than peek into the coin purse that I suspect belonged to my grandfather. I saw a lot of 1919 Canadian nickels in it, but I still need a chunk of time to sort through it and figure out what's what.

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ivyjade42@reddit

Sigh. I feel you. I have a coin collection from my parent’s basement. Haven’t touched it since I took it 3 years ago.

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lsp2005@reddit

Stamps that are uncirculated can still be used as stamps. By all means, check if you have that one rare one that is incredibly valuable, but it is not like they are not still valid stamps to be used.

Coins are a different matter. If they are silver or gold, they will have melt value in addition to the value stamped on their surface. So do check their value, but they are all legal tender, so you will have that going for you as well.

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Reader47b@reddit

Yeah, but you'd have to put like 14 of them on just to mail a letter.

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lsp2005@reddit

So what? Put them on. It’s your money, why let it sit there?

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Reader47b@reddit

Not enough room on the card envelope...

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lsp2005@reddit

It can go on the back ?

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TheJokersChild@reddit

My mom fell for those 50-state quarter collections from on TV. I have no the fuck idea what I'm gonna do with 'em. I don't want 'em. At least some of your circulated ones may actually have some value.

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sev45day@reddit

If they aren't painted they are worth 25 cents a piece. Go to a casino and play slots.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

Bingo!

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Demostecles@reddit

Fourth generation coin collector here.

Father’s side.

The collection was divided three ways with me and my two siblings a year after his passing.

I will probably purchase my sister’s portion as they don’t mean anything to her.

My brother will keep his as he helped with the collection for eleven years of his youth.

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Wild_Read9062@reddit

I collected stamps for a little bit. After I got the ones I wanted, I stopped.

It was beyond a dead hobby when I took it up (late 90’s), but I think I got in for the right reason: I really appreciated the art. I only collected stamps that were engraved, monochromatic landscapes (eg national parks) and monuments/points of interest (eg St Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow). You can see that someone really put a lot of care and skill into the engravings.

The other interesting thing is watching the transitions, from heads of state (eg Kings and Queens), to points of national pride (eg worlds fairs, treaties), to everything under the sun, and then onto mass printing methods. By the 1960’s, stuff looks like a lot less effort was put into to it, and by the 90’s, it’s very lazy art (sometimes photos) that are printed especially for ‘collectors’.

I never cared or bothered to look for what was deemed valuable (rate prints, misprints, etc), because most of them aren’t aesthetically pleasing. The first stamps (heads of state) are pretty boring.

I considered collecting coins, because I’m a little fascinated that an object can survive world history (plenty of old Roman coins around), but it’s such a ‘market’. That is, people seem to care more about the perceived trade value than the art, and that’s just not appealing.

It’s funny that as soon as money enters a hobby, it often kills it.

And that’s my two cents on collecting coins and other valuables.

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drinkslinger1974@reddit

My dad collects ricks and minerals. Some of his pieces cost close to 5k. I doubt I’ll get anything though, he’s much closer to my sisters.

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new2bay@reddit

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sev45day@reddit

Just because they cost $5k does not mean they will sell for $5k.

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No-Hospital559@reddit

I have my grandfather's stamp collection in a safe. No idea what I will ever do with it. I don't think it's really worth the time to even go through it but maybe one day

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AlRad42@reddit

I ended up with my grandfather’s stamps, which my mom insisted were worth a lot of money. I had them looked at by the local philatelists who said there was nothing special in there. I put the collection into their monthly auction, eventually they got rid of everything and I made almost $200. Woohoo….

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sterrecat@reddit

I inherited my fathers many years ago, and I had a very similar experience. It was really heartbreaking in a way to sell them but I was given them with the intent to help fund a house down payment. I did not earn much from it, I think about $800? And I called Mom, crying over it, but she assured me he would have sold them to help me had he been alive. It became part of our home down payment. Thank you Dad.

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MaxFischerPlayers@reddit

Stamp collection?

Ha ha!

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Reddiculusness@reddit

There are many valuable coins that would have been collected before we were born . 64 and earlier dime quarters and halves are 90% silver and worth 54.7 X face value -- Dime 5.47 , Quarter 13.69 , Half 27.38.

Besides Silver content there are many coins worth way more because of rarity , and parents and grandparents collection before we were born gives us a better chance of finding pieces that have that large numismatic value.

If you have enough interest in researching them, The Red Book is a great way to find the information you need.

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jvlpdillon@reddit

I inherited a few silver dollars and a jar of wheat and steel pennies. The pennies are not worth much. 2 of the dollars are worth their value in being melted. The other is 1928 Liberty in circulated condition. It is actually worth a little more, only maybe the value of a nice dinner out.

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Reddiculusness@reddit

Morgan and Peace Dollars are almost 60.00 in melt right now , I could have a few good meals for that price. Condition, variety and rarity are where collector/numismatic value steps in .

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

Yeah. I agree. But where to even begin! Looks like I might have "a few nice dinners" worth of silver value. But the decision to separate into pay a professional to look at vs take to a pawn shop is...ughhh - tedious. And I'm about to throw my hands up and give it all a genuine gen x "$uck it" 😵‍💫

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Reddiculusness@reddit

Just breathe deep, and relax. There's zero rush in going through it . Your best bet is to inventory first, and decide how to sell it later on . Unless you're in a spot that you need the $ right now.

Please take a look at some of the coin subs here, there are some very knowledgeable people that can help .

Appraisals can cost too much, and pawn shops don't have the best reputation when it comes to getting the best deal when you sell. I'm more than happy to talk in DM if you're comfortable with it . There are better options for getting rid of a coin collection .

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

I agree. And I know/learned enough through my vague childhood recollections and modern Google to have a gist of that. I've run across a couple of those collectible coins from the US and British mints that have an aledged attractive value, to know there's probably some other chump change in the piles. But it is daunting, neverthe less. I know I need to sort and divide and conquer enough that a coin appraiser doesn't laugh me out the door.

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Reddiculusness@reddit

Do your homework before you ever try an appraisal.

Start by denomination, then by decade, then by year . I've sorted many collections and bulk purchases. Sometimes it seems you'll never get done , but hang in there !

If you get stuck on identifying anything Numista has a search feature where you can use photos you take to search and identify coins and bank notes.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

Wow, great advice! Thank you. I know AI and the robots taking over absolutely sucks - but I got one of the AI assistants to break the impossible feeling task down into "chunks" I could tackle over time. Your advice is basically what I'm doing this weekend!

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Reddiculusness@reddit

Once you have an idea of quantity on each denomination , specifically 90% silver, you can go to Coinflation to find the exact price based on the silver market that day.

There are coin subs here that may also be able to help you once you get a better idea of what you have in hand .

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LadyNorbert@reddit

I inherited a chunk of my grandfather's coin collection. It was something we did together, so to me the value of the memories far outstrips the value of the coins themselves. But I know a lot of people are less sentimental than I am, lol.

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LayerNo3634@reddit

My aunt collected Hummels. Thousands of them. Had appraisals for some rare ones from decades ago. Completely worthless today. The estate company groaned on the phone when they heard Hummels.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

I can only imagine! And do you remember those collectible plates??? Like, what in the hell? Honestly. I thought I was right to scoff at the small Precious Moments set in all my mix. BUT - turns out there are still living breathing people that want (and are willing to paayyyy with) that little nativity set! Go figure.

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gmhelwig@reddit

What is the value of a collectible?

It depends on the agreement between the current possessor and the want to be possessor. The trick is to get the collectible into the hands of the person who will pay the most for it, but that takes time and effort.

Frankly, my dad's coin collection is not worth that effort to me, but I also do not want to sell it to someone who is just going to reclaim the metal from it. I also do not want to keep it. My dad was ... not a very nice dad. I should probably make an appointment to visit some coin dealer in town to show them what my dad had in his possession when he died.

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inigo_montoya@reddit

r/coins has some good info and stories. I had a collection of coins that had been given to me over the years and what I had brought home from living abroad. After my mother died I found the classic shoebox full of coins. I ended up putting all of it in flips. Two full 3-ring binders. Easy to look through. Probably no one will ever care, but who knows. Could be fun to go through them with a grandkid. No one carries change around any more. I think within a generation they will be a curiosity even if they aren't rare coins.

If you have a stash like this, don't clean them in any way or wipe them down. There are safe methods, but for the most part, leave them as-is.

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umbathri@reddit

Never got into coins or stamps, seemed so nerdy. But that didn't stop me from getting into MtG when it came out. Objectively more nerdy? Yet at least you could play with them, and that is what I did, no real collecting.

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lsp2005@reddit

Go look up the value of the power nine.

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OldHead1776@reddit

My dad had a pretty decently filled out Scott's stamp book that he handed down to me. I went through a teenage phase where I continued to try and fill it, and did a pretty good job with it. I also got into collecting themed stamps, plate blocks and first day covers of the US space program. Several decades later, with what was something I continued to haul around and never look at again, I contacted the American Philatelic Society and donated it. At least I can hold some hope that it's all useful to someone.

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ActionCalhoun@reddit

In my experience most “collections” aren’t worth shit and you’ll be lucky to get someone to come and haul them away.

So glad my mom did a ton of downsizing after my stepfather died

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

Amen - I aspire to live out the. Swedish Death Cleaning philosophy (as soon as I have more free time, lol)

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Keefer1970@reddit

My late father was a big stamp collector from the time he was a teenager. He had books upon books full if them, all stacked neatly in the closet.. When we were kids, he used to joke that the stamp collection was our "inheritance," or that my Mom would be "a rich widow" when she sold them after he was gone

Dad passed in 1999. The stamp collection sat in the closet till about five years ago when my Mom finally got tired of looking at them and said "Find somebody who will take these damn things." After some searching, my brother found a stamp dealer (which was harder than expected - apparently there aren't as many of them as there once were), and he was a stuck up douche who acted like he was doing us a favor by coming to look at them.

He offered is $125 for the whole load, and we took it just to get him the fuck out of our mother's house. We took our Mom out to dinner with the money and said "So much for being a rich widow!"

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

Ohmygoodness! I'm laughing and in sympathetic pain at the same time!!! (God - don't get me started on the 3 or 4 complete sets of my great grandfather's books that moved from attic to storage room, or storage barn. OMG - they should have been worth a hella lot more - but nope. Someone thought they'd be "fine" in storage barns. 😭😭😭😂

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sev45day@reddit

Stamp collections are likely worth almost nothing. Very few people collect stamps any longer. That doesn't mean it's not enjoyable to look through (or not).

Coins may be worth something depending on the strategy of the collector. If they were looking for complete sets (e.g. all Roosevelt dimes to today) its likely worth less than a type collection. A type collection usually consists of one if each type of coin (Buffalo nickel, Mercury dime, Barber quarter, etc.) and many times type collectors will upgrade the comm over time to get the best collection.

But there are some doozies out there. Morgan dollars are worth the price of silver at least, and rare ones much more than that. Pre-1900 us coins in great condition can be worth alot, etc.

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

Exactly. Maybe my Grandmom assumed that one day I, her granddaughter would finish raising children and "just" be a stay at home wife that needed a good "treasure hunt" and way to contribute to the household income. Incredibly short-sighted, but plausible I guess

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CitizenChatt@reddit

No stamps or coins here. But I do have some baseball cards....

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jag-lkn@reddit (OP)

I would have zero clues where to even begin - good luck! OR!!! 🤯 We could just pack all this stuff back up and leave it a "treasure hunt" for our kids. LOL 🤣 (although I am seriously trying to attempt to put a stop to the generational "stuff". Maybe that was fine when there were 8, 6, even 3 kids, but I have 1 sister and my husband was an only child and we only had 1 child.

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LilJourney@reddit

Depending on the coins, their melt value may be worth more than their face value, though doubtful it would be worth life changing amounts. But before certain years, some coins were made partly of actual silver, which can be valuable.

Currently I'm trying to complete my deceased dad's penny collection as an homage to him (and because I always liked pennies) so the current penny cancellation is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it means there's a definitive end and a curse because I'm probably going to have to go online and buy some pennies to fill in the gaps. (He was working on getting an entire roll of each mint mark for each year of the Lincoln head pennies.)

So basically for everything there is most likely a buyer. Finding a buyer, and finding one willing to pay a sufficient amount to cover the time/trouble of selling it would be the challenge.

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shawncollins512@reddit

For my brother and I, it was my dad’s giant record collection, we figured we were going to get a windfall and nobody wanted them when we put a ton on eBay.