Prepping and assessing collection for sale 0

[OceanKid]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and to the world of coins and have a couple of newbie questions. I'm sorting through my late Dad's coin collection so we can sell them. There are several thousand from around the world, many from Europe (esp. Great Britain) and the US so far. They been in storage 36 years and most are in labelled sleeves but they're not organized and most aren't high value enough to warrant professional grading. My questions are:

- Whats the best way to categorize/organize and prepare them for sale?

- Are there any good resources you'd recommend that can help us assess their potential value (NGC is great but we might need others)? I know there are a ton of variables to assessing coin value, but for us to have even a sense / range of value would be really helpful.

I'm prepared for the process to take a very long time and that's OK - so far it's been a fun and great learning. Thank you for any advice you have.

[Woods020]

OK,

Welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear about your fathers passing. We will be happy to help you if we can. I know I speak for many forum members. 
 

The good news is it seems you understand the task ahead. It won’t be quick and it won’t be easy, but it will be fun if you want it to be. The first thing I would do is categorize what you have. A potential starting point would be:

Sort by nation of issue 
   - sub by denomination or year

Tackle one nation and coin type at a time. If you tell us a high level of what you have and where you want to start we can provide rules of thumb for the coins at hand. Based on what you have there may be good guidance we can give on what to focus on. 
 

Once you have a starting point we can point you to resources. Pricing is not as easy as you may think, and the best resource is sold coin prices that are analogous. Whether it be eBay sold prices or auction houses like heritage. 
 

But let’s start with baby steps. Sort them, pick a group you want to start with, and give us a high level overview. Then we can ask for pictures or give guidance. Best to take it in bite size chunks. 

[Woods020]

One last thought just to level set expectations. Many world coins are sold in bulk and hold little monetary value. Not to say in the least there aren’t many very sought after world coins, but usually when someone has thousands of ungraded world coins it is likely they are not special. But let’s see what we have as we go. 

[James Zyskowski]

Welcome I am fairly new but I recall a great piece of advice. Handle with care hold by edges and leave as is until the folks here can comment try to not add to the other problems it may have. Also never clean coins. Good luck and I look forward to seeing this wonderful journey unfold🤓

[Lem E]

Welcome to the forum and my condolences. Here is a video that may help a little. As Woods020 says, there are many people on here that will help you out. Good luck.

 

[JKK]

Unless there's a lot of silver or gold, expect the world coins to disappoint from a return standpoint. Some time back I went through a six-binder collection of very nice (but mostly not silver) world coins. The man had excellent taste, with great original surfaces and many fascinating pieces. Since I was volunteering to assist a friend of a friend, and she had not indicated resolution to sell, I did not feel I could ethically broach the subject. Deep down I was hoping she would, because I'd have loved to have that collection. But here's the salient point. I figured a dealer would pay maybe $1500 (I'd have paid notably more). That's for six binders of very nice coins including one sheet of ancients, a bunch of jetons, and so on--and much of this was 1800s stuff.

The NGC guide is sort of a start, but I wouldn't expect a dealer to pay more than a quarter of guide prices.

[Jason Abshier]

Sorry hear about your father passing away …. The Krause price guide book is for world coins , if they are older Great Britain coins most of the old old Great Britain coinage is worth something they were made of out silver but they are plentiful there are several world coins that carry high premiums if you know what your looking at … but sounds of it your father was collecting in bulk loads at one time and still to today a lot coin dealers sold world coins in bulk loads … The US market and collectors/dealers tend to look down on “world coins” like they are trash or something nothing better than US coinage at one time it was easier to buy scarce world coins because dealers didn’t want anything to do with them they focused on US coinage and market for US coins … Now a days some dealers see some world coins are worth more than some US coins they are starting to grow in the market today but still a “small crowd” of collectors 

but some of the designs on world coins , makes US coinage look plain and simple like they were minted by little kid engraving the dies at the mint some of world coins the designs and dates that go way way back painstakingly engraved in dies with fine such details (some aren’t worth anything but only beauty in the eyes of beholder)… Take your time to learn about them , separate all coins in to country , and denomination break it down from there look on eBay or auctions to find out what coins you have 

also some people collected to be collectors they didn’t care about future “how much money am I going to get for this and so on” some folks didn’t see collecting like it was their retirement plan so collecting lower value coins was their goals just to put a collection together … 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Jason Abshier

[boybacon]

Hello, and Welcome to the Forums!

I can recommend a book by Beth Deisher called "Cash In Your Coins: Selling the Rare Coins You've Inherited".  I have that one with my coin collection, and the book is for my kids and my wife in the case that they need to sell my coins.  Solid advice in that book.  Wizard Coin Supply has it for $15.00 roughly (plus shipping), or you can find it on the auction site beginning with the letter "E", also.  

The book is written specifically to help someone who is new to coins or knows a little about coins and has been given the honor of selling or disposing of an inherited coin collection.

-Eric

[coinsandmedals]

So far, the advice provided is all excellent. Let me reiterate that this process will not be quick, and it might be best to set expectations very low as they can only go up from there. You seem to have the right mindset, so I hope you stick around here and learn with us!

There are several very knowledgeable world coin collectors here that are generally speaking very generous with their knowledge. If you have questions about a specific coin, it will not hurt to start a new thread here and post clear, tightly cropped, and correctly oriented pictures of the coin in question. You specifically mentioned British coins, so if you have any copper coinage dated up to 1837 and need help, please tag me in your post or send me a private message. If I do not know the answer to your question, I am sure I know someone who does.

[OceanKid]

Thank you everyone for your insight and advice so far - really helpful! I'll keep you posted on my progress and any interesting or curious coins I find. Thanks again.

 

[James Zyskowski]

3 hours ago, boybacon said:

Hello, and Welcome to the Forums!

I can recommend a book by Beth Deisher called "Cash In Your Coins: Selling the Rare Coins You've Inherited".  I have that one with my coin collection, and the book is for my kids and my wife in the case that they need to sell my coins.  Solid advice in that book.  Wizard Coin Supply has it for $15.00 roughly (plus shipping), or you can find it on the auction site beginning with the letter "E", also.  

The book is written specifically to help someone who is new to coins or knows a little about coins and has been given the honor of selling or disposing of an inherited coin collection.

-Eric

I love this place. I so needed this book and wizard has it.  They had a slightly different one same author and same information on sale. So I bought it and next month I’ll look into a copy of cash in your coins 
 

 

[VKurtB]

In world coins, the marketplace is smaller and usually segmented. Many collectors are nation-specific. I love Swiss, British, and Vatican coins, and some older French material as well.