Leave the coins exactly as you found them, gather any receipts or Mint packaging, and make a rough count by type. Then get a written, item-by-item offer from a buyer who separates collector coins from melt coins, share it with the executor and family, and sell only once everyone agrees. Cleaning coins or splitting them up early tends to cost the family money.
Leave the collection as you found it
Coins keep. There is no need to sell anything in the first weeks after a loss, and the most helpful thing you can do early on is leave them alone. Keep them in the albums, flips, tubes and Mint boxes they came in. Do not wash, wipe or polish them, since cleaning lowers a coin's grade for good.
Try not to pull out the shiny ones to look at. Better coins sometimes sit in plain envelopes or unlabeled rolls, and a coin taken out of its holder or rubbed to read the date can lose much of what made it worth saving.
Keep the collection together in one secure spot while the family talks it over. If the coins sat in a closet for thirty years, they can sit there a few more weeks.
If the house is going on the market, move the coins somewhere secure before cleaners, contractors or estate sale crews come through. A locked closet or a bank box is safer than a basement shelf that strangers will walk past.
Find everything before you count anything
A lifetime collection is often spread around a house. Check closets, dresser drawers, the basement, old suitcases and any safe or lockbox. Ask the executor or the estate attorney whether there is a bank safe deposit box. Coins, small bars and old bills turn up in all of these places.
Look for paperwork too. Receipts from coin dealers, Mint invoices, certificates and handwritten lists tell a buyer what was bought and roughly when. A parent's notebook of dates and purchases belongs with the coins, even if the figures in it are decades old.
Set aside anything that is clearly not a coin but may matter, such as gold jewelry, pocket watches or a box of old paper money. These often travel with a coin collection, and a buyer can look at them in the same visit.
Bullion deserves its own note. Bars and rounds are often stamped with weight and purity, and a parent may have kept the dealer invoices that came with them. Put those invoices with the bars so a buyer can match one to the other.
Make a rough inventory
You do not have to identify every coin. A rough count by type is enough to start, and it gives everyone in the family the same picture before anyone talks to a buyer.
Use the table as a starting guide for the most common finds. If something does not fit any row, put it in a pile marked 'not sure' and let the buyer sort it out in front of you.
Price nothing yet. The goal is a shared list, so every sibling sees the same count of silver dollars, gold coins and albums before a buyer comes in. A phone photo of each pile helps family members who live out of town follow along.
| What you find | What it often is | How it is usually priced |
|---|---|---|
| Rolls or bags of dimes, quarters and halves dated 1964 or earlier | 90% silver coins | Mostly by silver weight, unless a better date or high grade turns up |
| Large silver coins dated 1878 to 1935 | Morgan or Peace dollars | Silver content plus collector demand by date, mint mark and grade |
| Gold-colored coins, U.S. or foreign | Gold coins | Gold content, plus a collector premium for some dates and grades |
| Flat cases or sets packaged by the Mint | Proof sets or mint sets | By the coins inside, including 90% silver in many proof sets |
| Coins sealed in labeled plastic holders | PCGS or NGC graded coins | By the grade on the label and collector demand |
| Albums of pennies or nickels | Date sets | Coin by coin, by date, mint mark and grade |
| Bills larger than today's money | Large-size notes issued before 1929 | By type, condition and collector demand |
| Bars and rounds | Gold or silver bullion | By weight and purity against the spot price |
Agree as a family before you sell
Most family disagreements over a coin collection start with guessing. One sibling remembers Dad saying the gold was worth a fortune, and another assumes the whole lot is pocket change. A written, item-by-item list puts a number beside each coin that everyone can read.
If an executor or estate attorney is handling things, bring them in early. Our written lists can help an executor keep track of what was offered for each piece. They are offers to buy. They are not formal certified appraisals for court, Pennsylvania inheritance tax or IRS use, so ask your attorney or accountant what the estate needs for those purposes.
Families also decide whether to keep a few pieces. A grandchild may want a silver dollar from a birth year, or a sibling the proof set from a wedding year. Pull those out once the list is made, so everyone knows exactly what is being kept.
Siblings sometimes want to sell their shares separately. That can be done, but splitting coins before they are listed makes it hard to tell who received the better dates. Pricing the whole collection first, then dividing the money or the coins by the list, tends to keep things fair.
Get a written offer and compare
Ask any buyer for an offer listed coin by coin. A single price for a whole estate hides which coins carried the value, and it makes comparing two buyers close to impossible.
When a family meets with us, every coin is looked at in their presence for date, mint mark, grade and eye appeal. Metal is checked by non-destructive testing and weighed on a calibrated scale. We separate collector coins from melt coins, and the offer follows the live spot price and current collector demand.
Large or heavy collections are often easier to see where they sit. Philadelphia estates fill rowhouses with steep stairs and Main Line homes with decades of storage, so ask about a home visit when you book.
Decline the offer and the family keeps everything, along with the written list. Accept and you are paid that visit by cash, check, or wire for larger sales. Whoever does the selling should bring a government-issued photo ID.
Mistakes that cost families money
The same few errors come up in estate after estate. Each one is easy to avoid once you know about it.
Most families sell a collection only once, so none of these slips is unusual. If any buyer pushes you to decide on the spot, take the written list home and talk it over with the rest of the family. A fair buyer will understand the wait.
- Cleaning coins so they look better before a sale
- Selling the silver by weight before anyone checks for better dates
- Dividing coins among siblings before they are listed and priced
- Taking the first offer from a hotel buying event or a mail-in buyer
- Throwing out Mint boxes, certificates and receipts
- Letting one family member sell without a written list the others can see
- Taking graded coins out of their PCGS or NGC holders
Estate coin collections in Greater Philadelphia
Many of the collections we see around Philadelphia were built slowly over a working life. A father who spent his career at the Navy Yard might have saved silver from his pay envelope, or a grandmother in Germantown might have bought a proof set every year for each grandchild. Those collections pass to children who now live in Bucks County, Cherry Hill or Wilmington, and the coins often sit in a house that is being cleared for sale. Some include gold coins bought decades ago, still in the dealer's envelopes, sitting next to jewelry and old paper money we can look at in the same visit.
Families in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware each handle their own estate paperwork, and we do not give legal or tax advice. Our part looks the same in all three states. We meet privately, write up each item with its offer so the executor and the heirs can review it, and pay the same visit if the family agrees to sell. A list like that makes it easier for siblings in different towns to agree without everyone coming to the appointment. If the estate attorney wants a copy of the list, it is yours to share.
Clearing a parent's home is hard work on its own. If the coins are scattered through a stone house in Chestnut Hill or a South Philly rowhouse with a packed basement, ask about a home visit when you call 215-798-9204. We return calls the same business day, and the meeting place is settled when you book. Whoever signs for the estate should bring a government-issued photo ID, along with any receipts or lists you have found.