Need old coin and knife help

Long story short is my grandmother recently passed and we're going through the house. My grandfather who passed in 2005 was a collector, among many things, and we have a large assortment of coins, both antique currency and precious metals, and some antique paper money as well (Japanese pesos, some middle eastern stuff). Can someone recommend a good place to get some idea on values in either the Carrol county or southern MD area? I know we have some coin gurus here.

Now onto the knife question. Found this in the basement next to my grandfather's USN issued knife. He was a WW II veteran and spent a majority of the war in the Pacific. So we have lots of stuff like Japanese flags, guns, etc but I'm lost as to what this knife is. Could have just been a cheap thing he picked up at a flea market but I'm not really sure. Anybody have any ideas? It has no markings I can find and the handle seems to be antler.

Going with something he picked up as a souvenir.

Still a neat piece of history.

Looks like a WWII era knife with a bull horn handle. Similar knives were made for and sold to US soldiers at the time, possibly from the Phillippines.
One option for the coins is to look them up on ebay, do a "sold" auctions search to see what similar coins have sold for.

WeaponsCollector said:

Looks like a WWII era knife with a bull horn handle. Similar knives were made for and sold to US soldiers at the time, possibly from the Phillippines.
One option for the coins is to look them up on ebay, do a "sold" auctions search to see what similar coins have sold for.

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I have googled a few of the coins but I was hoping I didn't have to Google all couple hundred. Figured a coin shop would be able to help sort the valuable stuff out. Thanks for the knife info. You were the person I was hoping would see this.

My father is a coin guy. I can ask him if he would be interested in looking them over for you.

kstone803 said:

I have googled a few of the coins but I was hoping I didn't have to Google all couple hundred. Figured a coin shop would be able to help sort the valuable stuff out. Thanks for the knife info. You were the person I was hoping would see this.

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Another good option, the Annapolis coin and currency show June 18.
As with any show like this it's a good idea to call a couple days ahead of time to make sure it has not been cancelled.
http://www.coinshows.com/annapolis_ccc.html

Can't help much with coins or that knife, but if you need help with any of the Japanese guns, flags, etc feel free to hit me up. Japanese WWII guns/militaria is one of my main collecting focuses.

Try the Frederick Coin Exchange for info on the coins. Their on East St in Frederick city

What I did with my MIL's coins (all U.S silver) was look up in a red book to figure which were the rare ones from each denomination. I figured if a coin was listed as several dollars more than the others that date was to be set aside and checked closer. An example would be mercury dimes, 1916- look for d mint mark on back, 1942- check with magnifying glass to see if the 2 was struck over the 1. The value of the others was just silver content. It takes time cuz you have to look at each coin. Let me see if I can find that paper I used to go by.

This is what I used as a guide for the coins It takes some time to look at each date but this way you have an idea if you have something worth $ or just plain silver.

I'm sorry for your loss...

As far as the coins go, first of all... don't clean them! You can destroy the numismatic value of semi key dates by doing this, and knock off, literally, hundreds of dollars worth of value for key dates. Condition is everything. There are certain coins that aren't all that rare in lower grades, but are what we call "conditionally rare", meaning that very few survived in higher grades. Lastly, be wary of taking them to a shop where you don't know the people. I know they should be licensed and bonded, but I've been around the coin business (as a customer)long enough to have seen a lot of theft... or substitution of coins... or sandbagging neophytes as to grade and then offering a low ball dollar amount for the coin. If you have high resolution photos, I could take a look... or, if you want me to take a look in person, I could do that too... just not on Mother's Day weekend! FWIW... I've been a collector for nearly 50 years, and helped out at my local shop on numerous occasions. I'm also an EAC member and specialize in copper coins... although I collected Morgan Silver dollars for a while and I've now settled into collecting type coins... PM me if you'd like. BTW... I'm not offering to buy... just to give you a heads up on what to keep.

Knife is almost certainly from the Philippines. Second the suggestion not to attempt to clean the coins.

I cannot offer any advice on the knife, but as a coin collection I can provide some information. The main factors affecting the price of a coin are listed below, and the first three (mostly the first two) combined will make up the numismatic (coin collector) value.
1) Rarity: This is generally a combination of details such as the Government that produced the coin, the denomination (face value) of the coin, the year the coin was made, the mint location the coin was made, and how many of these coins still exist. For example, you might have a US produced silver "Peace" dollar produced in 1922 from the Philadelphia mint. These were the most numerous of the peace dollars (51,737,000 produced), and will be much cheaper than the 1928 philadelphia peace dollars (least number produced at 360,649). "How many of these coins still exists" comes up since a large volume of a certain coin might have been minted, but if a lot of them have since been destroyed (melted down, etc.), then the rarity may have gone up.
2) Condition/Grade: This is a measure of the quality of the coin. Most modern (this and last 1-2 centuries) coins are graded on a 70 point scale, with 1 being lowest quality (barely recognizable as a coin) up though 60 (never issued for circulation, so no wear, but carrying dings and scratches from production or banging off other coins in a sack at the mint) to 70 (uncirculated and absolutely pristine with no flaws). Some coins, especially old/ancient or foreign coins, may be graded in descriptive conditions that roughly tie back to ranges on the 70 point scale, such as Poor (P, 1-2), Almost Good (AG, 3), Good (G, 4-6), Very Good (VG, 8-10), Fine (F, 12-15), Very Fine (VF, 20-35), Extremely Fine (EF, 40-48), Almost Uncirculated (AU, 50-58), Uncirculated (Unc, 60+). As Ikenefic mentioned, Do Not Clean Coins; this is considered damaging them and making them non-original, a stigma that will drive away some buyers and probably knock off at least a third or more of the value.
3) Appearance: Even if you have two coins of the same type and same grade/condition, if one coin has a nicer appearance than the other, it will command a higher price. After all, collectors will want the 'prettier' coin, and will pay more to get it. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One collector may want silver coins with an attractive rainbow hue of tarnishing/toning, while another collector may want his coins to be the clean dazzling white as if it was fresh from the mint's presses.
4) Melt/bullion value: Sometimes the value of the intrinsic precious metal is greater than the numismatic value. For example, if the numismatic value of a common grade 1922 peace dollar mentioned earlier is $20, but the per ounce value of silver (market price) goes up above $26/troy ounce, then the value of the coins for its silver content is greater than the value as a collectible coin.

Now, in terms of identifying and valuing the coins, your best bet is going to someone trustworthy and knowledgeable. Someone who is willing to assess your coins without trying to buy them adds to the trustworthy factor, as it removes self-interest. Again, as Ikenefic said, if you do not have full faith in the assessor, you should be present to make sure that any possible rarities identified do not disappear or get swapped up for common coins. I know my coin club (Bel Mar, in Aberdeen) offers a service wherein a couple members will categorize and assess someone's collection, both as a service to the community and just for the fun of working with coins. Perhaps a local coin club in your area might have someone willing to do the same? Otherwise, there are smaller local coins shows (like the previously mentioned Annapolis) that will have at least a 1-2 dozen coin dealers, or larger shows such as at the Baltimore convention center (next one in June) with a couple hundred coin dealers. Coin shows are almost always free entry, so it only costs you gas money to visit. If you want to sell your coins to a good dealer, you can ask around to hear who has a good reputation. Just keep in mind that dealers at coin shows probably do not have the time to do in-depth assessments for larger collections at shows (they are there to do business), and will probably have less inclination to do so for someone they feel is just shopping around by getting 2nd/3rd/4th/etc. opinions on prices. Assessing coins via photos on the internet can be difficult based on the quality of photos, as nothing beats an in-person evaluation for picking up finer details.

There are a number of pricing guides around, of which some are more on target and others are considered unrealistically overpriced. For US coins, the most accurate reference used by coin dealers is the "grey sheets" periodical, and for foreign coins it would be the most recent annual edition of the Krauss World Coins book (phone book sized reference). Coin prices do not fluctuate too much, so if you do not get the most recent copy you could possibly ask (coin club, coin shop, pawnshop that deals in coins) if you could get the now outdated edition for cheaper. The "red book" mentioned earlier is good for identifying coins, and is not too bad nowadays (it has improved) for showing prices for a buyer. The same publisher (Whitman) also issues a "blue book" with pricing for where a coin dealer aims to buy the coins. Since coin dealers are looking to buy low and sell higher to make their living, a ~30+% spread between their bid and ask price for the same coin is not uncommon. For coins that are traded more frequently (bullion, precious metal melt value) coin dealers will look for a smaller profit margin. If you want a reference for learning to grade US coins, I would recommend the "ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins" book.

If you have any specific coin questions, by all means post them in this thread or PM me. If you would prefer a phone conversation, just PM me for my number. This is my hobby, so I am happy to talk about it.

Thanks for all the info guys. My dad is taking the silver and gold to the coin shop in Frederick this weekend. A family friend recommended them as well as somebody here so we'll give em a shot. I'll let you know what they say. The ones that are worth more as silver are likely to end up with me but I don't really have an interest in them for collecting so the rare ones will probably be sold. I did take some pics of some of the foreign currency I'm keeping mainly as mememtos.

kstone803 said:

Long story short is my grandmother recently passed and we're going through the house. My grandfather who passed in 2005 was a collector, among many things, and we have a large assortment of coins, both antique currency and precious metals, and some antique paper money as well (Japanese pesos, some middle eastern stuff). Can someone recommend a good place to get some idea on values in either the Carrol county or southern MD area? I know we have some coin gurus here.

Now onto the knife question. Found this in the basement next to my grandfather's USN issued knife. He was a WW II veteran and spent a majority of the war in the Pacific. So we have lots of stuff like Japanese flags, guns, etc but I'm lost as to what this knife is. Could have just been a cheap thing he picked up at a flea market but I'm not really sure. Anybody have any ideas? It has no markings I can find and the handle seems to be antler.

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In Westminster on Main Street next to Whites Bike shop is a coin dealer!
It is Mr White who owns both. A real nice guy and will treat you right.
You need to call first because he has some strange hours when he is around the shop.

The knife is a kris. It's from the Indonesia / Philipines / Malaysia part of the pacific. Rusted, so it's obviously a carbon steel user knife and not a cheap stainless replica. It's pretty cool. I have no idea of the value of it. I wouldn't guess very much. The handle would be water buffalo horn.

Did I hear USN knife? Interested


I go to whites for coin stuff.

yellowsled said:

Did I hear USN knife? Interested


I go to whites for coin stuff.

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That knife is staying with my cousin. I'll try to get some pics. Leather sheath is rough but knife is in good shape.

Japanese money is called yen these days. I'm just making an uneducated guess, but the Japanese money was from the Philippines during WWII when they occupied the country. Pretty neat to see, thanks for sharing.

I also read about US dollars marked with a "HAWAII" stamp. If the Japanese invaded the islands, the US Government would deem all that money worthless.
http://www.apmex.com/category/65400/hawaii-currency