I'm floored at what he has already found in the boxes the heirs wanted to toss! Unbelievable.

Last week I did an estate appraisal in Massachusetts. In the accumulation of papers belonging to the deceased owner is a 442 page "Appraisal Numismatic Collection The Estate of Edward H.R. Green" done for the First National Bank, Boston, Massachusetts. It is dated 1937.

The appraisal is typed on ledger paper and measures 17 1/2 inches by 14 inches bound in brown press board covers.

The appraisal was done by Frederick C.C. Boyd of New York and it includes 51,018 coins, medals and tokens and 61,664 pieces of Paper Money that were in the vault of the bank.

The document is a carbon copy of an original that has been signed by Frederick Boyd and notarized.

My question - Does anyone know what something like this is worth and who would be best to dispose of it. The document is in my possession for disposal.

I also have THOUSANDS of old coin auction catalogs and books that were in the same estate. I have to dispose of all of them. They fill over 100 boxes and weigh a couple tons.

I was initially very surprised to hear that they wanted to throw out everything except the books. The pressure actually came from the Real Estate agent who wanted the house cleaned out. But at least we were able to intervene and save the catalogs before they got too badly damaged.

As far as I know, nothing was actually disposed of off site. They had moved 10 large boxes and a 50 gallon barrel to the garage but they were NOT rained on. Some bending and most labels attached to the cardboard holders were lost, but we picked up everything, so I hope to reassemble the collection as it was on the shelves.

The wealth of interesting material is amazing. I have identified several different types of materials thus far.

Catalogs - If I can believe the labels - a complete set of the auction catalogs from Stacks back to the 1930s. Many catalogs from other auctions dating back to the 1800s.

Books - Mostly Colonial reference books specializing in Connecticut and NJ.

Personal notebooks documenting the portion of the original collection sold by Stacks in 1993 and 2000. Mostly Connecticut coppers some very rare varieties. There is a results sheet for the 2000 sale indicating a payment by Stacks over $600,000 for the Connecticut coppers at that time. The heirs indicate the 1993 sale was larger and exceeded $1,000,000.

For about 20 of the higher grade coins - the original owner George Perkins made aluminum foil impressions of his coins and put them in 2x2 holders with the Maris attributions on them. The time and effort put into the Connecticut coppers by Mr. Perkins is amazing. There are hundreds of pages of notes and correspondence written about Connecticut coppers.

The collector was George C. Perkins who was a collector of colonial coins - primarily Connecticut coppers. When his collection was sold by Stacks in 1993 it was one of the most complete collections of early Conn. varieties known at that time.

Mr. Perkins was also an Attorney and he occupied offices that at one time were used by one of the firms that handled business for Col. Green. As far as I can determine, he was not a direct legal successor to that firm which is critical in this case. The Green material all came from the earlier law firm files. A great deal of the other correspondence may have as well - I simply do not know - no one does.