The right and the wrong of coin collection
By vanny
@vandana7 (101950)
India
June 11, 2025 2:01am CST
Numismatics and philately have been my hobbies for quite a while. I started with philately then one day, I accidentally tore many of the first day covers...and boy was I depressed.
I shifted to coins simply because they cannot be torn. LOL. No, I do not have many of the old coins. Only the last forty or fifty years. Some almost 66 years old.... yeah...not older than that. Few are valuable...most are common.
But the thing is, even the common ones, in fine and extra fine condition are giving me......................200 percent return on my investment. Which is more than what I can get from banks or even share markets.
Recently my aunt left for the US for good. She had some collection. Kinda, whenever she got some change, she used to empty it in a plastic box because change does ruin our handbags, does it not?
My cousin decided to hand it over to the central bank...total number of coins, most of which was small change would have been around 300 odd rupees. I doubled that. I said, I will take it for 600 let us not go to the central bank. Kinda...it would be awkward. Foreigner, handing over 300 rupees small change. She gave it to me.
Now, in that supposed to be worthless collection, I found valuable coins....so the total collection would be near about 10000 for investment of 600 in a span of two months.
Now, I am filled with pangs of guilt and confusion. This is family, should I hand over the coins of value, and settle for common ones? Return on them is not less.
Or should I keep it to myself?
Or should I share fifty fifty?
Handing it over does not make sense. She would have to spend for flight ticket (she travels business class), to sell a few coins just 10000 worth.
Moreover, going to exhibition, and taking me along with her, will cost her. I can travel in ordinary class, she cannot. So she would end up spending about 500000 to cash 10000.
Half value seems fair, but for that, I have to sell the coins, and I want to hold them for sometime.
Do you face such dilemmas? I really get confused.
What would you do in my shoes?
5 people like this
5 responses
@DaddyEvil (150662)
• United States
11 Jun
You offered to buy the coins for double their apparent value. She happily agreed to accept that value and sold you the coins. IF she was worried about you making money off "her" coins, she could have taken them to a collector and had them evaluated and sold them to the collector. She didn't want to take the time or bother so you shouldn't feel guilty because you're willing to do that to get your money plus back from the coins you legally bought.
Do you think a collector who buys coins from you, and then find another collector who will buy them from him at a much higher markup will run back to you and pay you MORE for the coins you sold him? Of course not! That's not how the world works.
Just because you sorted through the coins and can make money from them doesn't make you responsible for her lack of interest. She made double the perceived worth of the coins by selling them to you. When you sell them on to someone else, any profit from your coins belongs to you.
Yes, I'm a greedy American. I buy coins or find them in change I got from selling something or getting change back from buying something... If I recognize a coin as worth more than face value and then reap a profit from selling that coin on, the money I make from that coin belongs to me.
I buy bank proofs and have sets of them put back so they, hopefully, gain in value the longer I'm willing to keep them. Some day, when I'm gone, Pretty may be able to sell them and have money she can use however she wants to use it. Some of the coins I bought when I was in my twenties are now valued at much higher prices...
I looked up one coin a few days ago. When I found it in change I was given from a store, it was worth face value .o1 cent USD. I recognized it as valuable and took it to a collector who offered $400 for it at that time. When I looked it up online a few days ago, the price listed for that one coin is now $2,000 USD. I have found two of those coins in my 61 years...
If I sell those coins tomorrow, should I run back to the store that gave them to me in change and give them the $2,000? I'm sweet and innocent, but not stupid... That profit is mine (or Pretty's).
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (150662)
• United States
11 Jun
@JudyEv The coins I was talking about are Lincoln Wheat Pennies with a double stamped bow tie printed in 1943.
I keep all the wheat pennies I get back as change and hope I haven't missed any others that are worth money but I still have them, just in case. I know some of them are older than the two I found so might be steel wheat pennies. I'd have to spend more time looking through them at dates and which mint coined them to be sure.
A friend use to work in different countries around the world installing steel tanks for his company... He brought back coins from all those countries and gave them to me... I've kept them and hope some of those are worth more than their face value, too.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (101950)
• India
12 Jun
With strangers it is fine DE. With family...small amounts often sow seeds of mistrust. Then every other thing starts aligning to point at lack of trustworthiness. I am so scared of such a situation. Kinda people say...oh she sold your chair for 4000, it was worth 10000 she pocketed something. Like that...
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (191302)
• United States
11 Jun
You made a deal. It's not worth it for her to sell the coins. Don't worry about it.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (101950)
• India
12 Jun
I would explain it to her. And if she wants any of it, which she would naturally refuse because it would not look nice taking, I will hand over the cash. I am not a great one for losing family like that. Money is not that important. Want to be trusted.
1 person likes this
@ARIES1973 (11964)
• Legaspi, Philippines
11 Jun
Perhaps, you can inform her about it. If she decides that you split, then you will be free yourself from guilt. Same way as if she gives you the whole amount.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (101950)
• India
12 Jun
Splitting was the way I wanted to go about it. But selling it right now does not make sense for me. I mean, I would have to travel ..spend on traveling to sell just that one coin. I recently collected few more collectible coins. I paid for them. So I have to wait till they increase in value. I would go when I have decent amount likely to fall into my kitty, after covering traveling and stay costs, right? 10000 would leave me with barely 2000 or 3000 after covering the costs. Even I would be a loser. If I sell it in future, it might be worth 30000 and my other coins another 30000 my traveling stay 15000, I could offer better returns I feel.
I really can get entangled in such thoughts. LOL. I would hate to think my cousin feels I cheated her, which I did not.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (117590)
• Marion, Ohio
11 Jun
You made a fair offer and she accepted. They are yours to do what you want. I would not say anything to her about what some are worth. She was not going to check them out.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (101950)
• India
12 Jun
Being family is not easy...LOL. She must've felt guilty passing on the waste coins at double price. So she asked were they any good. I had to tell her to put her mind at ease. Her husband who was in the conference call with me at the time, told me to keep it, but cousin seems to be a tad unhappy. I mean giving just 600 for 10000 plus. She believes I knew their valuation when I took them, I feel. I did not examine the coins at the time - took them lock stock and barrel because I did not want people at the central bank laughing at her. God created this small situation in which trust is damaged I think.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (101950)
• India
12 Jun
I agree with it being a trouble...loads of it...LOL. Unless you are in it for long, you would find it cumbersome. If she had as many coins as I to sell, then it would be worthwhile, perhaps...provided she knew their valuations as I do. As things stand, she would only hold one coin. Nobody would sell it for her. She might expect me to. But, I have no plans to do so anytime soon. I have a few coins I recently acquired, and naturally, I would wait for their value to increase. Going only to sell one coin is giving her net only half the value.
Family relations often go sour when feeling of cheating comes in. She asked me were the coins any good, and I had no choice but to reveal the truth. I offered to hand back the coin, but her husband who was in the conference call, said no, you keep it. You deserve it. She has been a tad silent since then. Maybe she is unhappy.
2 people like this
