😮

That certainly seems like an impressive investment, and I know this is not as cool as collecting coins, but over the last 60 years from 1964 to 2024 the S&P 500 has had a rate of return of 10.15%. So if you had invested that $17 back in 1964 in an ETF that mirrored the S&P 500 you would have $7,314.41 right now to show for it.

This is an interesting thread and the subject of leaving things to our families is something I have thought a lot about recently after Mrs. Irish's mom passed away and my Dad passed away and we had to spend a considerable amount of time going through their "things."

Collecting stuff is cool if that's what someone is into, but chances are our kids won't be into the same stuff we are and will just be looking to liquidate it all when we die so they can pay their bills off or build their own nest egg.

It's good that you are going through all that stuff for them.

I think the best thing we can leave our kids is great memories and a bunch of cash in a joint account.

Sorry M48, I don't know anything about coins or silver.

Irish, you are so right about leaving our children an easy way to deal with our estates when we go home. After helping my wife with her parents estate which took a couple of years and still has a little to go and dealing with the disaster my father left my mother in I’ve tried to have everything organized and easy to deal with. You’re so right. Cash is King when it comes to estates. Money is easily split up but property and other assets can become a nightmare. One other thing on your coins, very few coins are actually true collectible coins because of condition. A great looking barber half dollar might only grade 75% and is neat but has not real collectible value unless it’s a rare date or mint mark. Most silver coins are only worth the silver value.

We just went through a similar situation. My wife’s father passed and he left her and her brother his coin collection. Her brother lives in Nashville and took the collection to a guy up there who then documented each coin. After that he made an offer which they took. It took some time for him to go through it. There has to be a level of trust because he could have easily taken the good stuff and they would not have known. In the end they had no idea what else to do and didn’t want to spend the time trying to go through each coin. They let it sit in a closet a couple of years and decided they to do something.

Look on eBay sold items for collector coin values. If you are willing to invest the time

This^^^

This is going to give you a more accurate assessment of what you can actually get for one of the coins today.

You can look here to get an idea of prices. https://www.pcgs.com/prices But keep in mind that 99% of all old coins are just worth the metal. If you have a rare date or mint mark, then even an ugly coin can be worth more than the metal.

It will give you an idea of what you can get for a coin. However it will depend on the grade of the coin. For example, a 1916 D Mercury dime had the lowest amount of mintage of Mercury dimes. One in circulated condition could be worth between $600 and $15000.

The other thing which nobody has mentioned. Do Not Clean those Old Coins! Scratches and chemicals from cleaning significantly reduce their value. Just leave them dirty, collectors like them natural.

Skinny I saw that on Pawn Stars. Rick said you cleaned it didnt you "Yep" You just took the value way down.

I need to read up on those mercury dimes and then carefully look through the collection. Some of the rolls are labeled “mercury dimes” but I don’t know if that literally means it’s multiple rolls of those or not .

Thanks for all the advice

Sounds like you've got something to do on a rainy weekend.

Rolls of Mercury dimes are trading between 15 to 20 X face value. $5 in Mercury dimes = about $90.00 (80-110 range)

This is why I scratch my head when people are like “buy gold and silver for SHTF”. Even in good times valuing this stuff is a mess.

Today's run on silver or gold for that matter makes your sack of old silver worth a good bit at the current rate. The low-end dealers are paying for pre-1965 silver is at 18x face. They pay more for half and whole silver dollars.

So, I've divided the collection up into 1) "silver coins that do not have obvious super numismatic value, and ARE silver coins, and 2) not silver OR have unknown numismatic value.

I've decided to take #1 to what I think is a reputable place in town to "have a discussion"

Final tally: 392.9 troy ounces, $474.15 face

This counting was done "best I reasonably could hand counting", and with a digital kitchen scale converting to Troy oz.

Should be interesting. I am not wanting to be unnecessarily greedy, but I don't intend on taking a bath either. I have each bag (grouped by general packaging, denomination, sub type, sometimes grade) obviously labeled in face value and troy ounce. While they will be operating at an information gap with me, I want to communicate some level of knowledge and intent not to get a haircut. If I get a weird feel, I'll just say thanks for the information, I think I'll hold onto to and watch the market.

I'll let yall know what ends up happening.

Thanks for the follow up. Keep us updated. I'm interested.

You might want to get 2 opinions from 2 shops, just to keep them honest.
As Irish said, thanks for the follow up, keep us post, and I’m interested as well.

Here is a good you tube video to figure out how much that junk silver is worth. Its a video by a coin and bullion dealer in Spring Hill, Florida. The first half of the video he covers Gold, 2nd half silver. So skip to about the middle if thats all you want to know.