Collecting Friends: When Coins Are Inherited

When Coins Are Inherited

Dennis: When I was in my thirties and forties, I probably thought about coin inheritances more than most collectors my age. Not because I inherited a collection myself, but because, as publisher at Whitman Publishing, I worked with authors who emphasized the importance of organizing your collections in preparation for “the inevitable.” 

Dave Bowers, in his delightful Expert’s Guide to Collecting and Investing in Rare Coins, advised, “You may plan to keep your collections for all your life. If so, it is highly important that the future of your rare coins, paper money, and other items be included in your estate planning. It has been my experience that 19 out of 20 heirs who inherit coins have little interest in continuing the parent’s hobby, and as an early order of business they set about selling them—often in the wrong way.”

Tom Bilotta shared similar observations in Collecting Coins in Retirement: An Action Guide and Estate Advice for Hobbyists and Their Families: “For someone without coin-collecting experience, the task of managing the disposition of an inherited collection can be daunting. Trying to obtain fair value for hard assets that you do not understand is both stressful and likely to produce poor results. Many inheritors do not know where to start and are completely overwhelmed. As a result, many sell the collection quickly for cash, but this method frequently returns only a small portion of the potential value of the collection.” Tom recommends that heirs approach the task methodically, spend a few weeks in research to build their confidence, and create an accurate inventory.

Beth Deisher even wrote a whole book on the subject: Cash In Your Coins: Selling the Rare Coins You’ve Inherited. As editor of Coin World for twenty-seven years, she fielded many phone calls, letters, and emails from readers who had inherited coin collections and knew nothing about them. “Not everyone who reached out to me inherited coins of great value,” Beth says, “but it seems almost every family has a stash of ‘old coins’ that’s been passed down, and their stories have been remarkably similar. The heirs knew very little about the coins, and they were apprehensive about selling them, fearing they’d be ‘taken’ by buyers.” They have good reason to worry. One dealer I know bitterly described what he calls “the widow game”—when unscrupulous hotel-ballroom buyers and other fleece artists heartlessly rip off widows who don’t know the true value of their inheritance.

Image: A 1938 press image of Mrs. Edness Wilkens, Secretary to Nellie Tayloe Ross, Director of the Mint studying a coin from her collection of more than 400 coins, ‘from halfpennies to old silver cartwheels.’ A collector is often best-equipped to manage the sale of their coin collection. Courtesy Library of Congress. 

Longtime dealers understand the pitfalls that heirs can face when they don’t know about coins, paper currency, medals, tokens, and other collectibles. Many give this advice: Sell during your lifetime. Don’t leave the majority of your collection to your heirs, unless they’re collectors themselves. The process of selling your coins before you shuffle off this mortal coil increases your enjoyment of your collection. It gives you control over the process, in a field you understand and can navigate. And for your heirs, cash is always easier to divide than coins.

Steve, I’m older than the Bicentennial dollar, which allows me full-blown card-carrying membership in AARP, and the clock is ticking. You, on the other hand, are far too young to even start thinking about estate planning. But you’ve been in the coin biz for a long time. What are your thoughts on numismatics and inheritance?

Steve: Dennis, nearly twenty years ago I helped Heritage Auctions edit a revised edition of The Collector’s Handbook, a guide that helps collectors with estate planning regarding collectibles. I wrote in the introduction: “A true collector buys items because he or she loves to collect. But, a well-chosen collection can have the added benefit of appreciating in value. While as collectors we spend time planning for our more traditional investments, often our collections are neglected,” before advising, “As a collector, you immediately know your collection. The likely situation is that your heirs do not.” 

A bit of thoughtful preparation goes a long way in making sure that your collection is handled with care once the collector is gone. Even simple things like a basic inventory with information including acquisition cost and date can be extremely helpful and help heirs avoid mistakes. Including the name of a trusted dealer who can help sort things out can also prove helpful. 

Of course, since I come from an auction background, I’m prone to lean towards a collector selling while they are alive to help be a part of the process (and to save heirs from the hassle). A lot of collectors are surprisingly relieved when they sell, knowing that the fun was in the building of the collection, not necessarily the holding of objects. 

Be on the lookout for another installment of Collecting Friends next month or subscribe here and never miss a post! In the meantime, explore beautiful coins from the ANA's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum Virtual Exhibits.

About the Collecting Friends Blog

Hello! And welcome to the ANA’s blog series, “Collecting Friends.”

We decided to approach this much like a conversation between friends. One of us starts with a topic, then the other responds. Simple as that. Along those lines, we’ll keep the tone conversational as much as possible. 

We both write about coins professionally, and will keep our relative style guides in our writing. For Dennis, Publisher at Whitman Publishing, that means capitalizing “Proof” and italicizing Red Book and never saying anything bad about Ken Bressett, who’s awesome anyway. 

For Steve, who’s written with Coin World for 15 years, it means Winged Liberty Head dime instead of “Mercury” dime, and similar nuances and oddities. And, it means writing A Guide Book of United States Coins (better known as the “Red Book”). 

Both of us started collecting when we were little, introduced to coins by a chance encounter with an old coin that sparked our curiosity. One of Steve’s interests is coin valuation, and he gravitates towards the intersection of art and coins. Dennis enjoys medals and world coins, and studying modern U.S. coins in the context of older series, what came before.

We met in 2012 at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia at an event hosted by the Austrian Mint where there was both a Ben Franklin and a Betsy Ross impersonator. We’ve become great friends in the past decade. We even were appointed together to sit on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee starting in 2016, but Steve resigned soon after he was appointed to accept a full-time job at the Treasury Department while Dennis was re-appointed in 2020.

We taught a course together on numismatic publishing and writing a few years ago at the Summer Seminar, and while life has gotten in the way of us teaching another class, we jumped at our friend Caleb’s suggestion that we write a column. We hope you enjoy it! 

About the American Numismatic Association

The American Numismatic Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and encouraging people to study and collect coins and related items. The Association serves collectors, the general public, and academic communities with an interest in numismatics.

The ANA helps all people discover and explore the world of money through its vast array of educational programs including its museum, library, publications, conventions and numismatic seminars.