The one rule: inventory before you sell anything
Inherited collections are lost to panic more than to bad markets. Someone remembers that "old coins are valuable," walks into the first coin shop they can find, and accepts a bulk offer on a shoebox that hadn't been counted yet. Sometimes that is fine. Sometimes there was an 1893-S in the shoebox.
The fix is order of operations:
- Do not clean anything. Cleaning removes value permanently; it never adds it. Old toning is original skin.
- Inventory first. Count and list what exists — country, year, denomination, and any holders or slabs. Photograph anything that looks certified or unusual. A record of what existed also matters for the estate.
- Sort by metal. Separate silver and gold from base-metal coins: their floor value is the melt price, which you can compute at current spot. The silver pile alone is often worth more than heirs expect.
- Value in two tiers. Bulk/melt value for the common pile; then research — or pay for appraisal of — the likely keys: key dates, certified slabs, gold coins, errors.
- Then decide. Keep, sell to a dealer, consign to auction, or distribute among family — with the inventory as the record of who got what.
Getting honest appraisals
A dealer's bulk offer is a bid, not an appraisal — useful information, but the lowest number in the market. For real collections, pay for an independent appraisal (the American Numismatic Association maintains appraiser guidance), or compare offers from at least two dealers and one auction house before choosing. Expect auction consignment fees in the 10–20% range and dealer resale markups well above their bids.
Keeping the collection instead
Plenty of heirs catch the bug — the collection was, after all, somebody's decades of care. If you keep it, the work is the same as any collection: records, storage, and a valuation that stays current with metal prices, so that the next generation inherits an asset with a story attached instead of a mystery box. Our organizing guide is the practical starting point.