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When One Thought Leads to Another

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coinsbygary

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Last month I received a notice that the bank I stored my coins at was closing and I had until February 4th to vacate my safe deposit boxes. Fortunately, I was able to rent another box close by and for cheaper than the boxes I had. Having secured a new and bigger box, the next step was to transport the coins to the new location.

I was very uncomfortable transporting my coins from one location to the other and in particular standing at the teller window with my coins in a shoebox waiting to close out the old safe deposit boxes. You see, my bank had the misfortune of being held up last year and I did not want something like that to happen with thousands of dollars' worth of coins in my hand. Fortunately, both the clearing of the old boxes and the transfer to the new box went off without a hitch.

That said, moving my collection did present a wonderful opportunity to reimage many of my coins. This meant that coins which haven't seen the light of day in years could now be easily reimaged to reflect the refining of my photography skills.

Now, instead of driving from one bank to the next I made a detour home for pictures. To tell the truth, it sure felt good to hold these coins in my hands again after not looking at some of them for years. Now I like the security of a safe deposit box but if I want to easily view my coins, I will need to buy a home safe.

After reimaging and editing my coins I thought to organize all my pictures into power-point presentations mirroring my NGC registry sets. For instance, I started with my 1834-1933 gold type set minus the 1907 high-relief St. Gaudens double-eagle. All the coins in the presentation are organized according to the definition and order of my NGC registry set. Thus, when I decide to sell my set and pull it down from the registry, I will always have my former coins to look at assembled as a set. To tell the truth, this is all I  had with the online registry since all my gold coins are off-site and not all that easily accessed. So, if I have the pictures why do I need a home safe? All these are important questions we need to answer for ourselves as we assess what level of risk we are willing to live with.

Oftentimes, when I get to thinking one thing leads to another and I began to think about eventually dissolving my entire collection before I pass away so as not to leave my wife and kids with that responsibility. Don't worry, reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

What got me thinking this way is that my wife and kids have no interest in collecting coins. Thus, I think it is unfair to leave the liquidation of my collection to them when I am much more knowledgeable in the buying and selling of coins. Another point to consider is that who is more likely to get the most for the coins? I can't rationalize around that one, it's me.

None of this is going to happen anytime soon as I am still actively collecting but at a much slower rate. Still, it is good and necessary to have a plan in place to make this happen before I am bedridden or worse. For my wife and kids, I'll offer them any coin from my collection they want for sentimental reasons. The other coins will be offered to certain collectors who might be eying my coins for their own collections. Otherwise, the low-cost coins will be handled through e-bay and the rest to a major auction house.

In the meantime, I'll eventually have all my coins organized into power-point and word documents to enjoy for the rest of my life! Please enjoy this slide reimaged and made for my personal presentation! Gary.   

1855_ty-2_gold_dollar_slide..jpg

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There is nothing wrong with responsible estate planning.  I commend you for thinking ahead and committing to get the best value for your heirs by handling the eventual disposition of your collection yourself.

As for a home safe, I recommend a large gun safe that can be bolted to your basement floor.  The better ones have good fire resistance, too.

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9 hours ago, jgenn said:

There is nothing wrong with responsible estate planning.  I commend you for thinking ahead and committing to get the best value for your heirs by handling the eventual disposition of your collection yourself.

As for a home safe, I recommend a large gun safe that can be bolted to your basement floor.  The better ones have good fire resistance, too.

A clever manufacturer should design a safe that looks like a water heater.  (:

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I like the powerpoint idea, I might have to try that, I've been wrestling with how to digitally display my collection as well. I tried making PDFs of sets, and I might do my own online gallery on my website, but I hadn't thought of powerpoint. I just want something that's a bit cleaner and better organized while the Registry is such a split mess here. 

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I would say why not have a safe at home? I sure a safe would cost you maybe the value of one decent coin and gives a nice piece of mind.

As far as estate planning goes that is a tricky one. Not so much about who can get the most for the coin because that is of course you but mostly could you part with the coins before your passing. My father in law was a big gun and coin guy and had his buddy still sneaking hem into the safe until the very end. I did not see anything from his collection after he passed so can only assume the mother in law pawned it all off at local shops for pennies on the dollar. Which I assume is what will happen to yours in the event you pass and still own them. Hopefully your wife knows of your excel sheet listing prices paid as a reference guide.

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