Antique appraiser? (insurance, houses, auction)

[KerryB]

My family has a very old collection of coins, some stamps & a bunch of old political buttons/badges. To give you an idea of how old some of these badges are, some are made of wood & are dated with events from the early 1900's on up.

Anyways, does anyone know where in the area I can take these antiques to get them properly appraised?? I'm sure they're worth something to someone, but I have no idea where to start with this. Thanks!

[riveree]

I'm not familiar with political collectibles but I know a bit about other types of antiques so maybe this will be helpful.

Before you pay an appraiser - which can easily be $75-$100/hr - consider what you want to do with these items. There are different types of appraisals.

If you're keeping the items, you want an appraisal for insurance purposes. In this case, paying an appraiser is the way to go *IF* the items end up being worthy of insuring. Keep in mind your insurer will require you to get updated appraisals in future years, this can get costly.

If you're selling the items, you may not need an appraisal at all. A reputable auction house will review your items and give you an idea of what they might fetch at auction. Some of the major houses (like Sotheby's and Christies) have satellite offices in Florida/Georgia, but you might even be able to send a pic to their NYC offices via email to get an idea of what you have. Most auction houses are eager to see items that are resurfacing into the market (old family pieces, etc.).

Try and research campaign antiques to see what some of them are worth before going to too much trouble.

For the coins, I'd start with the American Numismatic Assoc:

Money.org | Home (http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home - broken link)

The magazine Antiques is well-respected and has a Directory link where you can find appraisers and auction houses:

The Magazine Antiques


You can send me a check for 5% of your millions, thanks Kerry!!