10 COINSOCTOBER 2019
Review of
The Collector’s Handbook
10th edition
H
aveyougivenanythoughtto whatwill
happentoyourcoincollectionwhen
you’renolongeraround?Areanyofyour
childreninterestedincoins?Yourspouse?
Otherrelatives?
Andhowmuchis yourcollectionworth?
Shouldit besoldtoa friendlydealeryou
havedonebusinesswith?Soldatauction?
Is therea guidethatmighthelpyouanswer
thesequestions?
Ifyou have a valuablecoin collection,
thenit wouldbeworthyourwhileto procure
a copy of TheCollector’s Handbook:Tax
Planning, Strategy and Estate Advice for
CollectorsandTheirHeirs. PennedbyJames
L.Halperin,GregoryJ. Rohan,andMarkJ.
Prendergast,TheCollector’sHandbookwas
publishedbyIvyPress,Inc.,in Dallas,Texas.
Youcanfindit forsaleonAmazonandeBay.
Although the first editionof this book
was devoted exclusively tocoins, over the
years Heritage Auctions has branched out
considerably.Today,theybillthemselvesas
oneof thelargestauctionhousesin theworld,
offeringcollectiblessuch ascoins,comics,
currency, art, wine, luxury handbags and
watches,sportsmemorabilia,andbooks.
The book is divided into four parts:“AdministeringYourCollection,”“Estate
PlanningforYourCollection,”“Evaluating
Your Collection,” and “Selling Your
Collection.”
Thefirstpartopenswitha chapterstress-
ing the importance of a good inventory,
somethingI havepreachedforyears.I cannot
tell you how many collections I’ve been
askedto appraisethatdidn’thaveinventories.
Aninventorycanbeassimpleassome-
thing you keepwithpaperand pen, orit
canbeconsiderablymoreelaborate.Google
“coin inventory programs,” and you will
score morethan 7 millionhits. Although
there’s undoubtedly a ton of duplication,
therearealsosomeusefulfinds.OnethatI
sawwasa CoinInventoryLogBook,avail-
ablefromAmazonfor$5.99.
Frommyexperience,oneofthebestand
least expensive coin inventory programs
is theone that’s available from HeritageAuctions. In fact, it’s so inexpensive that it
won’t cost you a cent; Heritage gives it away.
Of course, you do have to register on the
Heritage site, but that seems a small price to
pay for a powerful coin inventory program.
Not only does “My Collection” allow you
to indicate each of the coins in your collec-
tion, you can also include the amount you
paid for a coin, when you bought it, from
whom you bought it, whether or not it’s certi-
fied, any identifying features, and so on. You
can even include a picture of the obverse and
reverse of the coin.
Perhaps one of the best features of the
site is that for each item in your collection,
there’s a table of values, both wholesale and
retail. Even better, these values change over
time so that there’s always a current amountyour coins and the whole collection is worth.
The remainder of Part 1 is devoted to
caring for and safeguarding your collection.
For coins, you should consider having them
in sealed inert capsules (e.g., slabs). If they’re
not stored, then be sure they’re kept in a
low-humidity environment. If you live in the
Deep South, like I do, then the low-humidity
environment may be hard to achieve.
In terms of security, you may want to keep
your best coins, or perhaps all of your coins,
in a lockbox at your bank. Since the bank
is undoubtedly air conditioned, chances are
good that it provides a relatively low-humidity
environment for your collection.
If you keep your collection at home, The
Collector’s Handbook suggests having a
monitored security system, a home safe, and
ways to camouflage your valuables. There
are also tips for transporting your collect-
ibles and for obtaining insurance.
Part Two of The Collector’s Handbook
examines “Estate Planning for Your
Collection.” Of course, a lot of this discus-
sion depends on the value of your collection.
Perhaps the best way to approach it is to sell
your collection during your lifetime, as it is
much simpler to divide cash among your heirs
than to decide which relative gets which part of
your collection. There’s even a chapter in this
part that looks at whether you should sell yourcollection during your lifetime or bequeath it to
a museum or other nonprofit institution.
There are tax ramifications for differ-
ent actions, and it’s worthwhile making
yourself aware of these before deciding on
actions to take concerning your collection.Chapter 7 looks at “Tax Options for Estate
Planning.” Here, Heritage recommends that
“...you engage the services of a competent
legal professional... and a tax advisor, prefer-
ably a CPA.”
Part Three provides a brief look at issues
surrounding “Evaluating Your Collection.”
As you would expect, there’s an examina-
tion of third-party authentication and grad-
ing. One interesting question asks what you
should certify. Because there is a significant
cost to have coins certified, the book offers
the following advice: “... the finished product
[certified and graded coin] has to be worth
more than the raw (ungraded) item, plus the
certification fee.” In other words, if your coins
are worth less than the cost of certification
plus any added value of being certified, then
you should not have them certified.
The final section looks at “Selling Your
Collection.” Various options are considered,
such as selling through outright sale (e.g., to
a trusted dealer or dealers), selling through
an agent (i.e., hiring someone to handle the
sales for you), or selling at auction. Again,
determining the best approach depends on
the value of your collection and whether you
have rare and expensive coins that are best
sold at a well-publicized auction.
Although the 10th edition of The
Collector’s Handbook contains a wealth of
valuable information for collectors, it’s not
exclusively geared toward the coin collec-
tor. If you don’t have any valuable collec-
tions other than coins, then a better source
of similar information can be found in an
earlier version of this handbook: The Rare
Coin Estate Handbook, published in 2000.
Whichever version you choose, you’ll be
better informed after you read it. In addition,
you might want to keep a copy with your
collection, so that your heirs can profit from
its information.Basics and Beyond
Mike Thorne, Ph.D.