Help - inherited coin collection - want to sell.

Cluker

What is the best way for someone that knows little about coins to sell an inherited coin collection?

OK, I know the very basics regarding pre 1947 and pre 1922 ( IIRC ) silver coins, my dad told me about it 30 or so years ago.
It was his collection but I had little interest in coin collections even though he sometimes tried to educate me.

Lots & lots of coin cash passed through my dad's hands as he, in later years, used to work for a credit company and if he found a good coin he would take one out of HIS pocket and swap them to make sure the books balanced OK.
He used to get that ( can't remember the name ) coin collectors magazine for years and years so he knew what he was looking for.

Most of those pre '47 & '22 silvers were sold to dealers in the mid 80's after he died but only the common coin ones ( florins, half-crowns and shillings etc ) that we could identify.

The remainder of the coins we couldn't identify we didn't sell in the '80's because we didn't want to be ripped off and, metaphorically, have been a very useful doorstop packed in their various containers for the past 20 odd years.

And there are loads of them ( he used to buy them too ) - muchly we don't know what they are or their value but most are British ( some Victorian or even earlier ).

There are also loads of old pennies ( he he - that 1933 penny of his was swallowed by our cat one day - if only, where's those rubber gloves - LOL ), threepenny bits, farthings etc etc.
There are so many I think he is not likely to have saved them if they didn't attract a premium price in the catalogues of collectors.

He tried to educate me about mint and other marks and various rarities, but I wasn't really that interested then in my early 30's though some of it stuck ( ie - the 1933 penny joke ).

Oh - and did I say - my sister has loads of doorstops too that passed to her. And she doesn't know what to do either - just take them away she once said, no I said, I have enough of my own that I don't know what to do with.

I thought of scanning them and putting them on eBay but it would take an eternity.
Even then I wouldn't know how to describe most of them.
And am I really that interested in getting 50p for a sixpence with all that trouble and posting, risks etc.

OK, if some of the coins are worth £100 each I'd do it if I could identify them.

There are about a dozen coins of mine that I think COULD possibly be worth something out of the, must be, hundreds of mine and excluding my sisters. But mostly they are not denomination marked - British yes, but I don't know what they are.

Any suggestions to avoid us being ripped off by an unscrupulous dealer or how we could realise their value without being ripped off.

cyberbob

Take the collection to your local auction house and see what they think the value is.

Pembroke

Visit this website of the British Numismatic Trade Association http://www.numis.co.uk/bnta.html and find your local dealer. The have a code of ethics which should mean there's less chance of being ripped off.