My husband has a coin collection,has been collecting for over 50 years. He told me "if something happens" to him, go to this certain coin dealer and either sell him the whole collection or have him sell it off and make a commission. He feels this man is honest and will give me a good price. You might want to buy a good coin reference book and look up the prices. My husband has two, The Blue Book Handbook of Coin Prices and the Red Book Handbook.

Thank you so much jannie for responding. Wonderful info. I apologise for this belated response.

I wish my FIL were like your DH. Here is an update: I was so ignorant, but I bought the red book and have chatted to a few decent coin collectors. I went to a coin show and met at least two wonderful sources (I also ran a mile from a couple of other "appraisers", they were seriously scary.)

We are gearing up for a real appraisal, just in case I missed things when I went through the red book, but . . .

I do not have high hopes for FIL's coin "collection" helping him financially much at all. So sad, because he really thought it was his nest egg. The truth is that there is some bullion, but not a lot. For the rest -- he got in the clutches of a "coin by mail" company. Think coin of the month club wothless stuff. Lordy, the poor guy thought he was "collecting." In reality, he was totally conned. He paid for the display cases not the coins, and he had no idea in the world.

So the message is really to collect what you love, but don't expect others to love it too -- or expect it to be worth anything.

My FIL got enormous pleasure from his "collection." We are holding on to the pleasure he got from it.

Hey, I have my own collection of worthless things that I love because I think they are beautiful. It is all relative.

But, if you do expect it to be your nest egg, do your research. This poor man did not.

Off my soapbox now, and FIL will be OK. We are committed to that.

Thanks again, and beware the con-artists.

Gillian