Father's collection - need advice

[karzi]

My father in law was a coin collector and passed away more than 25 years ago. In the last few years of his life he suffered from Alzheimers and his coin collection kept him busy so we are not really sure if what he was doing with them in those years were even reliable. When my mother in law moved, she asked us to go through his collection but we are overwhelmed by the task (so many nuances of coin collecting!). Included in the box were proof sets, loose coins (some sorted in tubes), Coins in marked envelopes, Franklin mint memorial coins (inauguration, presidential) some uncirculated coins as well as first day issue sets and a few stamp sheets.

I have so many questions and would love some guidance.

SORTING/GRADING QUESTIONS:
• How do I begin to sort through it all?
• How do I begin to grade them - some of the descriptions for grading vary slightly and one side may be a higher grade than the other?
• Who can I trust in the coin world to help me?
• Are there apps and other trustworthy websites you can recommend?
SELLING QUESTIONS
• Are the value and sale price the same?
• Where is the best place to sell them as I sort them?
• What information is key to a collector as I sell them?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[mikev50]

right here is a good place to start---ask away and post pictures---good luck and have fun--

[PetesPockets55]

Welcome. :thumbsup: There are some great people here that can offer sound advice. Also there are members here that have gone through what you are going through. Do a search here (inheritance, father's collection, husbands collection, etc?) to find relevant posts and see what they learned along the way. There will be a lot of interest in an older collection.

I got back into collecting three years ago and you're right, there are a lot of nuances to the hobby.
Hopefully your father in law had most things labeled with some notation of what he paid.
Doing an advanced search at auction sites, Google, Bing, etc. ( :ebay: Ebay has an advanced search feature for sold items) can give you a realistic value you can expect (less commission+_ 20%). One of the best things online for buyers are good clear images to see the details of the coin. Good wishes with whatever you choose to do.

Find a source of terms used in numismatics to help you learn how to describe the items.
And remember to please come back here and include images and we will be glad to help.

[Daniel]

Welcome to the forum. You have joined the correct forum and website to ask your questions and for help.

You need to first separate all your coins by denominations, then by design type, then by date and mint mark. You can look through these pages of this website to select the key dates; here's a link to the values by date and mint http://coinauctionshelp.com/United_Stat ... uides.html

I would not worry about grading since that's the least of your worries. You need to know what you have and that it is authentic before you start trying to grade by value. I know collectors who have been collecting for years and they still are not that great at grading. Here's a photograding age with links to compare your coin and find and approximate grade once you have them organized http://coinauctionshelp.com/US_Coin_Grading_Guides.html

You can always post images here and ask as many questions as you like; we never tire of helping collectors in your situation. What you don't want to do is post this in other forums or Facebook groups because some will do anything they can to steer you away from the facts and places like this so they can take advantage. So if you listen to anyone, listen to me. I have been in this business all my life and designed, founded and built this website for people like you.

[karzi]

Thank you! I will definitely come back here and post to your community and will start by separating them as you suggested!