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To the OP, I would take a sample of the collection to a couple of coin dealers, and see what he offers you. Ask him to price them individually, or at least some of the better items. Pick out one or a group that he says is worth about $20 or so, Photograph both sides of all the coins, and put them on EBay, and see what you get for them. That will give you a good guide about whether the dealer is offering you a fair price. Some of them you won't even have to photograph, if they can just be described as "1972 Proof Set" or something. For any coins that have ever been circulated, condition is extremely important in evaluating the price.
Haggardhouself, I'm assuming that these are coins and notes that have been brought back by a traveler as souvenirs. In that case, they are worth next to nothing. However, if they are older than about 1975, there is a good chance that there are quite a few silver coins in there, for which a dealer will give you about 20-times the coin's intrinsic value. You can guess this by the size of the coin. A foreign coin the size of a US quarter should be worth about $5, assuming its minted value was about 25c US.
Foreign coins are no different than US coins, in that the common everyday coins have no collector value at all. So a coffee can full of foreign coins is worth less than a can full of US pennies and nickels, because they can't even be dumped into a CoinStar machine.
Same for the paper money. It's all common everyday notes, most of them in used and mutilated condition, of almost no collector value. If they are fairly recent bills, nobody will exchange them at the current exchange rate. Remember that the prices you might see online or in catalogs are for brand new, unfolded currency with perfect margins all the way around, and the price drops steeply as soon as they get handled in commerce.
Unless you really need the small amount of money you might get for them, just save them for future grandchildren to have as interesting curiosities.
Thanks jtur88... it's just really confusing because... we have literally hundreds of items from about 20 different countries... and I don't know where to begin.
I've started cataloging what we have, and as I go I look the item up to try to learn more about it.
We have a 1900 gold $20 coin that is exactly like a few I saw on Ebay that were selling for $1300 - $2000.
We also have several brunei ringgits that people are asking $1999 for (each) on Ebay...
The only difference were the serial numbers... Ours begin with "A" and the ones on Ebay started with C or D...
I'm even having to look up arabic numerals because many of the coins and paper currency are in arabic (from the middle east, mostly from the 70's, some earlier)...
I am in the process of scanning all the paper money and creating an online photo album of what I have. I am trying to handle the bills with my hands as little as possible...
Soon as I get them all scanned I can post a link to the album.
DO you have to sell items right a way ? If not start with a few items on e-Bay, Do your research and homework.........I should have asked did you ever sell on e-Bay ? Good Luck !!
If you wanna get a fair value, I think you gonna have to learn a little about coins
I think the worst option would be for you to sell one by one on EBay. Too much work and too many headaches.
I think the suggestion of a consigner is great, the problem would be finding one you can trust. Find out what the commissions are, how they insure expensive items etc. The headaches you will save are worth losing some profit. Besides they are experts and they will try to get the highest selling value.
You can also build a catalog and sell it to a dealer. That would be the easiest choice but you need to make sure you get a fair value. I would ask different dealers. Just be careful you get scammed by a con artist and make sure you have the money( if it is a substantial amount I would ask for a wire or a check(and wait until it clears the bank)
Well for sure I'm not gonna get a coin collection inheritance any time soon but I don't think I would be interested in Selling one by one. It's too time consuming for those who have zero knowledge about coins and notes.
Last edited by ♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥; 03-09-2012 at 10:02 AM..
OK I have most of the paper currency scanned now... there's still another book to go through but it's mostly U.S. stuff and I don't think it's really anything special ($2 bills and stuff...)
Sorry when I scanned them some of them went a bit crooked... we have an old scanner...
I'm just trying to get everything scanned and cataloged as best I can, then I'm going to go get the books and do the research.... it's going to take forever...
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