I'm so sorry for your loss. Coincidentally, my father-in-law was also employed by the postal service and was another coin "collector"! This is an almost identical post to the one I made over a year ago, especially the description of the coins. (See link below). There ARE valuable coin collections out there, I'm sure. Perhaps your father was more informed than my FIL, but . . . our outcome was not good. My FIL was, frankly, scammed by various "coin of the month" club organizations. I spent a lot of time cataloguing and doing spreadsheets. I then took the spread sheets and a few samples to coin-dealers, went to a couple of coin shows, and also spent a lot of time on ebay. I got consistent feedback from the dealers. All said that any appraisal should be done by an independent appraiser not a potential buyer. Many were also incredibly nice and looked at my lists, spread-sheets, the "certificates of authenticity" from various *dealers* and sale receipts. They did not look that closely. Just the names of the companies made them shake their heads. They were very sympathetic, but told me not to waste money on an appraisal. Bluntly: face value. My FIL was conned by glossy ads in TV Guide. We learned that state quarters --"proof", rolled, displayed, "mint", uncirculated, boxed, whatever ... are worth face value. You may get a little more than that if you have the pristine "mint" coins in display boxes and a gullible buyer on Ebay. Frankly it was more work than it was worth to sell on Ebay, so we eventually chucked the boxes and got face value at the bank. He did have some bullion. We watched the market for the price of silver and gold and sold at a reasonable price. A reasonable price for the gold and silver content, not for the coins. We sold when we did to partially fund his nursing home costs. He had a huge collection of coins from one specific company, conditions variously described as good, fair, excellent, etc. We are hanging on to those for the moment and checking the books -- just in case. We are not optimistic because these coins were thrown in "free" with the display cases he bought. I'm sorry for ranting, but this situation infuriated me, because my FIL thought the coin collection was his nest egg. He is too deep in Alzheimer's now to know or care that he was wrong. Perhaps that is fortunate. I hope your experience is better. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: my coin post

Well....my sampler is 19th century.....dated 1823 I believe.... Not fabulous, only signed with initials....has a 1/2 inch tear in the edge, colors bright....alphabets....no verse... But I bought it in a box of linens for 10 for the box.....sold out of the box for a while, finally said.....enough I am keeping the rest.....and I had well more than $10 in my pocket. So I sought out the family and told them there was a very nice sampler in the box.....and asked if they really wanted to sell it..... They had no interest!...It has a very good home with me! And I have another....not finished....but of the same perior or earlier....but not finished....just the alpahbets... Oh well....that was another $10....plus a hundred or more to frame!! LOL! Was it the pot with the creamer and sugar? Linda C

My grandmother was raised by a mother who was widowed when she was very young...her mother lacked the resources to earn money... My grandmother had to quit school in the 4th grade she could read and write but certainly not well. Her mother also never had a thing growing up....they were poor farm laborers or other laborers. After my grandmother was grown, her mother married a widower who had inherited a few nice things from his wife....and so great grandma inherited them when he died. But since this was in the days before Social Security, she had nothing but some "stuff"....and went to live with my grandmother and grandfather....but my grandfather couldn't stand his mother in law and didn't want her living there, so she went to live with one of her sons....my grandmother's step brothers.....fully 25 years younger than she was. They lived in a one bedroom apartment and Great Grandma slept on the sofa and when they had company who stayed late, grandma laid her head on the kitchen table and tried to sleep. Gradually the "stuff" disappeared, either through neglect or it was sold, all but The Mirror. When my parents moved into a big old 1903 house with a 3rd floor with 3 bedrooms and a bath, they asked my father's grandmother to come live with us. she had her own bedroom and bathroom and room for her little rocker and dresser.....and she arrived with The Mirror under her arm, saying "Where I go this mirror goes"...When she had lived at her daughter's it was in the attic, when at her son's it was under the bed. My parents hung it over the mantle! I have it now....it's over my mantle.....a beautiful wide framed, gold leaf oval mirror. It's now part of my "stuff". Who doesn't prize things like that because Great Grandma who had nothing married a man who's wife came from a family that valued nice things and she valued the mirror as a nice thing that she had never had before? She saw that it wasn't left sitting behind the furnace and during the 5 or 6 years she lived with us, she loved looking at it. Now I love looking at it and remembering how proud grandma was to see HER MIRROR hanging in a prominent place of honor. Apes don't seem to value family history nor things and don't connect things to people who are no longer around. People are reminded of their history by artifacts....humans also have a sense of the aesthetic seemingly lacking in animals. Animals don't have museums where they see how their ancestors lived....perhaps because they are living just like their ancestors did. My daughter uses her grandmother's sterling, I hope she will pass it to her grand daughter. If I had considered it just clutter and sold it for the thousand or so I could have gotten for it, my great grand daughter would not, I hope, be reminded frequently of her great great grandmother's taste in silver. I also have my great grandmother's pie tin, the other great Grandma. It's very chipped granite ware, shallow and only 8 inches. Grandma Kissle used to say "Tis a poor crust that doesn't grease it's own tin."....so true on many levels. It's one of only 2 things I have of her's,....because when she could no longer keep house, her furnishings were considered just "stuff" ( but for the Havaland which her daughter in law snatched!)..The other is a peach pit, filed into a basket....which she gave to me, telling me how her father made it for her. All "things" are not Sterling and gold, but are precious because they cause us to remember that we are products of our ancestors. Annie, if you had a pair of beaded moccasins which belonged to you great grandmother, they would be worth likely a lot more than a service for 8 of sterling.....would you keep them even though they didn't fit your foot?

No, I still have not sold them. I got sidetracked. But a friend now has a booth in an antique mall, and has offered to place my squirrel coat there as kind of a test. We saw some furs at a different antique mall, all priced $200 and up (like, raccoon at $200, mink at $600). But I have no idea if that seller actually succeeds in selling them. But if it fails to sell quickly in my friend's booth, I will have to take it back. I am pricing it at $ 80 because though warm and well made, the style is not that attractive. The minks I will have to get much more for. Those are much nicer coats. I do appreciate all the input. I think if this does not work, online will be the way to go. I just don't want to get returns if someone buys it and then decides it does not suit her.