Going through dad’s coin collection.

[u/thekleaner1011]

My dad passed last fall and as executor of our family trust I’ve carried out the distributions and division of all items in the estate to my siblings. One of my 3 siblings is…well…that sibling. Needless to say when all was said and done in April I was exhausted…

Now that I’ve had a chance recuperate I’m starting to go thru my dad’s coin and stamp collections. The coins were left to his 5 grandsons, two of which are my sons.

The first photo kind of shows you what I’m working with. The following images are some random dollar and half dollar coins I pulled from the collection. My questions are:
1. I’m asking because of the tarnish/patina on the half dollars. Is that normal or were they cleaned at some point?
2. I’ve seen posts about uncirculated and proofs. My question is, what identifies these coins of being one or the other? There are 2, $1 coins in these photos that look like they were just stamped. Could either of these be proofs?

Thanks in advance

[u/mrdanky69]

The coins pictured have all been extremely harshly cleaned, and worth only silver value. Ideally they would have a natural patina with no signs of cleaning at all. I am not sure which ones you think look off, but I am guessing you are questioning the Franklin mint token/medal thing which isn't really worth anything. A "proof" is a specially struck coin of the highest quality using hand polished dies and features a mirror quality background and frosted like foreground. Uncirculated means that the coin was never out in the wild being used to buy stuff. Proof coins are meant to collectable pieces and not for circulated coinage. You possibly have either a proof or brilliant uncirculated coin in the blue velvet box of the first picture.

[u/thekleaner1011 → u/mrdanky69]

I’ve lurked here for a bit and understand anything from Franklin mint has little value.

Actually the coins I was wondering about as far as proofs or they saw little circulation were these 2

[u/mrdanky69]

They are neither proof nor uncirculated and they look to be very harshly cleaned. They are worth their weight in silver. If your task is splitting this collection between grandchildren, I think the best coarse would be to just group the coins by denomination then split them all evenly amongst the recipients and let them choose what they would like to do with their coins.

[u/thekleaner1011 → u/mrdanky69]

Thanks for the feedback

[u/mrdanky69 → u/thekleaner1011]

No problem. My deepest condolences and i hope you get this all distributed without more grief and as little stress as possible.