Inherited collection 0

[James T. Cooper]

My Father James T Cooper recently passed away and I am charged with liquidating his collection for my mother.  I am not into coins and am finding out just how vast his collection is.  He instructed us to set up with Heritage Auctions for the selling of his collection.  The question I wish to put out there is should we pay to  have the entire collection appraised before we even begin to present to a auction house.  What is the best way to go forward so the collection is fairly liquidated?

Greg Cooper 

[Sandon]

      Welcome to the NGC chat board.  I am sorry for your loss.

     Before responding to your question, I would like to note that the NGC Registry forum is for topics regarding the NGC Registry. You will likely receive more responses by posting an inquiry like this one in the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum. (The moderators may move this topic there next week.)

     The laws of many states require that the property of a deceased person go through a probate process before it can be sold or distributed to the person's estate beneficiaries. This may be the case whether or not your father had a will and even if all of his property is to go to your mother. The probate process generally requires the appraisal of estate property by qualified appraisers.  You should, therefore, consult a lawyer who is experienced in estate administration in the state in which your father lived at the time of his death before taking any further action.

    Heritage Auctions (ha.com) is one of the larger players in the rare coin market and could likely perform the appraisal or recommend an appraiser if one is required. Even if an appraiser is not required by law, you may wish to obtain an appraisal to determine which items are worth auctioning by this major auction house and which are of low value and should be sold in some other way or perhaps retained as mementos. To the extent your father owned coins that were graded and encapsulated by NGC, PCGS or ANACS, you could see their current retail list values on the NGC Price Guides (under the "Resources" tab on the NGC home page) or the PCGS Price Guide at pcgs.com. (I noted that your father had NGC registry sets of American Eagle silver bullion coins, which would be on these price lists.)