Need help finding appraiser for coins

[mgivens818]

Hello all.

I am new to this website and I apologize if I am putting this in the wrong forum.

I live in Baton Rouge, LA and my father recently passed away and left me a collection of coins. They range from old 18th, 19th and 20th century coins to newer uncirculated and commemorative sets. I also have a large collection of foreign currency and coins. I am trying to see about getting them appraised and am looking for someone in this area that can come to my house. I have talked to several companies, but they want me to ship the coins to them for appraisal. These coins are in an old bank safe and, when this filled up, he started putting them in plastic containers. As you can well imagine, there is no way I could ship these to anyone. They had recommended I send them a small portion at a time, but I am not comfortable doing this. Any help someone can give me to find a local appraiser would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mark from Bayou Country

[FinalLastDays]

Hi Mark. You may want to look in your local yellow pages for auction appraisers. Many of these will appraise items in estate sales as well as old coins. If they are not able to do it, they can most probably recommend to you someone who does do coin appraises. Also, Baton Rouge does have a few fine antique malls... contacting them may be of help.

~Stephan

[Wyatt Earp]

It would seem a good time to learn a little bit about grading.....and study the offerings on eBay. Dealing with auctioneers and antique malls is not your best route....unless you want to sell for about half of what they're actually worth on the street. Those kinds of businesses do not profit from appraising items, but rather by buying and selling them. Both of those trades are fraught with "used car salesman" ethics.....and I wouldn't trust most of them to pick up my lunch. Knowledge is power....educate yourself. Grading is not all that difficult until you get into super high grade Mint State coins.

You're too far away from the Pittsburgh Pa area, or I'd help you just because I love to study (and dig up) old coins.

Check with the ANA and see if there are any qualified appraisers (coin dealers) in your area, but be prepared to pay for their services.

Wyatt

[rip]

I would have to go with Wyatt on this one.Ebay is one way to go but you need to have an idea of the grades of the coins.The red book of US coins should be a help on grading.You could also post some pictures and give us a shot at it !