Final Disposition Of Our Collections

[Uncle Siphuncle]

At the risk of sounding fatalistic I'm bringing up a topic worth contemplating. What will happen to your collection when you die?

Since my specimens are traceable to my site log I think that I'm preserving pertinent scientific info (site specifics, formation, taxonomy if known) of my collection. If I'm wrong on taxonomy or taxonomy changes with time, future scholars can figure that all out so long as they have the site info.

That being said, if given the time on this earth, I suppose I'll point out the heirloom quality specimens to family members willing to hang onto them and will those to them as "specific bequests". I may then point out specimens, site info, and how to unload the specimens they could get the most money for. What's left could then be appraised and donated to a 501©3 organization for a tax writeoff. I suppose if I spell out instructions for all this it would be easy enough for my family to benefit the most financially from my collection. I'd like to avoid valuable specimens being scavenged at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar. I'd also like to prevent separation of specimens and site info.

I hope we are all around for a while, but one thing is for certain. The fossils we've collected will outlast us for sure. Any other perspectives out there concerning collection legacy?

[Harry Pristis]

At the risk of sounding fatalistic I'm bringing up a topic worth contemplating. What will happen to your collection when you die?

Since my specimens are traceable to my site log I think that I'm preserving pertinent scientific info (site specifics, formation, taxonomy if known) of my collection. If I'm wrong on taxonomy or taxonomy changes with time, future scholars can figure that all out so long as they have the site info.

That being said, if given the time on this earth, I suppose I'll point out the heirloom quality specimens to family members willing to hang onto them and will those to them as "specific bequests". I may then point out specimens, site info, and how to unload the specimens they could get the most money for. What's left could then be appraised and donated to a 501©3 organization for a tax writeoff. I suppose if I spell out instructions for all this it would be easy enough for my family to benefit the most financially from my collection. I'd like to avoid valuable specimens being scavenged at a garage sale for pennies on the dollar. I'd also like to prevent separation of specimens and site info.

I hope we are all around for a while, but one thing is for certain. The fossils we've collected will outlast us for sure. Any other perspectives out there concerning collection legacy?

Auriculatus has the right idea, I think. Find 'em, sell 'em! I always wanted to keep 'em! Now I have a disposal challenge.

I have no potential heir who would appreciate the fossils (and other collections) as I do. I will be selling off my collection of fossils before too long. They have proved to be a good investment of time, effort, and sometimes money. I will retain for the balance of my life the best aspect of these fossils -- the learning they have driven.

But, I'll have to figure out something to do with the cash proceeds . . . buy a new computer with a 24" LCD monitor, maybe.

The thing is, I keep acquiring more fossils when I should be divesting myself of these things! Maybe in the near future, some of the forum members will be taking some of these fossils off my hands.

--------Harry Pristis

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

I have wondered the same thing myself. If I pass before my wife, she will have to deal with it (HAHA). But I would love for the collection to be kept whole, an idea that most likely will not happen. There are two smallish museums in the area that both have small displays of fossils (smaller than my collection that is), so I was thinking about approaching them. If I can't find an institution to take them, then they will most likely be auctioned off for the Nature Conservancy. They are the recipients of my "estate" if I die after my wife. We have no heirs. She gets everything if I die first.

[Guest Cris]

I have no potential heir who would appreciate the fossils (and other collections) as I do.

You're always welcome to adopt me, Harry!!

I really haven't thought about this questions before, Dan..... Probably to family members if any of them show an interest.. If not, then to other responsible collectors.. Might sell some to them.. Might give some away... Just as long as I know the stuff is taken care of somewhere, it's fine with me...

[ashcraft]

On a sad note, there was a professor and curator of a museum at Southeast Missouri State University who amassed quite a collection of fossils from all over the world. After he retired and then passed away, his collection was packed away and largly forgotten, and moved a number of times. In the process, all of the providence to the entire collection was lost. It was about to be thrown into a dumpster, when it was largely salvaged by a new geology instructor. Without the providence however, they are merely examples of what was once a great sceintific collection. I have managed to add a few of Dr. Duckworth's specimens to my collection, providing all of the providence that I know, and hopefully won't end up in the dumpster again.

Brent Ashcraft

[diggerdan]

I guess I am one of the lucky ones my daughter has shone great interest in my collection of fossils and artifacts so I will pass them on to her.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

All of my pieces, and notes, will go to my alma mater. I have kept detailed records on all of my finds. Even pieces that have little scientific value can still be used as teaching aides for the students.

[PrehistoricFlorida]

Keep the best and sell the rest. Have detailed instructions in your will of who to sell the remaining collection through and what the prearranged consignment charges are. Don't waste your time of collecting, or the money you have invested in your stuff by donating it to a museum or university. These places already have warehouses of stuff that has never been studied. If you donate your collection to a museum or university, your collection will end up in the curators house or funding some kids alcoholism through eBay sales.

[Guest Nicholas]

I'm just hoping that when Caitlin and I have children in a few years that they'll have some interest in fossils and minerals, because everything we leave behind goes to them. If that doesn't work then my collection will probably sent to trusted friends and collectors who I feel will enjoy having them as much as I did. I agree with Auriculatus, I did work before in a fossil museum and saw that 99% of the fossils they had were in cases as the employees said "Collecting dust" the same with my university after they study them they just put them away never to be seen again. Unless you can find an institution which needs a collection I wouldn't bother.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

If you donate your collection to a museum or university, your collection will end up in the curators house or funding some kids alcoholism through eBay sales.

An absolutely ridiculous statement. What is your basis for your comment?

I catalogued pieces that came into the University. The ones that weren't used right away, were put into the collections for future reference and study by undergrads.

EDIT: deleted

[PrehistoricFlorida]

An absolutely ridiculous statement. What is your basis for your comment?

I catalogued pieces that came into the University. The ones that weren't used right away, were put into the collections for future reference and study by undergrads.

EDIT: deleted

I've been emailed several times from students of UF offering to sell me fossils. One had a sabercat canine, one had a complete set of mastodon jaws. I put two and two together. Do YOU have a better idea of where they got them? Because I know they didn't find them...

[Uncle Siphuncle]

I agree that in some cases special fossils are better cared for in private collections.

[tomclark]

I'm keeping it all until they take them from my cold, dead hands. Then I won't care because I'll be dead. Boom. The State of Florida gets nothing.

[Harry Pristis]

I've been emailed several times from students of UF offering to sell me fossils. One had a sabercat canine, one had a complete set of mastodon jaws. I put two and two together. Do YOU have a better idea of where they got them? Because I know they didn't find them...

It is not uncommon for museums to have a policy of accepting anything being offered by the public -- it's just good public relations. The vast majority of stuff never gets accessioned, but is parceled out to the interpretive department for displays or to public school science teachers or to the local land-fill.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I've been emailed several times from students of UF offering to sell me fossils. One had a sabercat canine, one had a complete set of mastodon jaws. I put two and two together. Do YOU have a better idea of where they got them? Because I know they didn't find them...

If you "know" they didn't find them, I hope you made your concerns known the university. Theft from a museum is a serious and most despicable crime that should be prosecuted to fullest extent allowable by law.

Harry, yes museums do give specimens for educational purposes. Most collections have pieces that are very common, or in very poor shape.; so, they serve a purpose other than taking up shelf space. However, the only thing that I have ever witnessed being relegated to the dumpster, was garbage.

On occasion we would put a box of very poor specimens out in front of the Geology Library with a Free Fossils sign attached. The boxes were invariably empty within a few hours.

[smokey]

I know of a artifact collections that was donated to the local university that ended up being sold and now it is split up in other collections. don’t kid yourself, what nate said IS what will happen to a fossil collection.

[worthy 55]

I'm keeping it all until they take them from my cold, dead hands. Then I won't care because I'll be dead. Boom. The State of Florida gets nothing.

HERE! HERE!I feel the same about giving the state any of my collections! I have a son to pass them on to. It will be up to him, what he does with it. Any way if they make collecting illegal that will just my collections worth more huh! Just what does happen with all the stuff that they get I mean how many mastodon,camel,shark,wolf and so on teeth do you need to study anyways?

[geofossil]

I've worked in geology for 30 years and counting. Nobody in 99% of museums gives a horse's if your ammonite is species 'a' or species 'b'. It's the same in about 95% of universities and 'if' the fossils aren't tossed or stolen....then why does that geology or biology class need another ammonite to look at? Where is the last one....the last 10? I wish everyone was like Solius and I admire his vigilance but will there be funding in a decade? 50 years? A curated collection? I doubt if a promise could be kept that donated specimens would never be sold. It costs money to house and maintain collections and no guarantee 'piles of stuff' will be housed in some new building renovation in future.

Sure, definitely consider museums or researchers but choose them diligently. The odds are nobody at your state museum could tell a brachiopod from a clam BUT just perhaps there is someone 'in Timbuctu' who studies Permian composita brachs and would appreciate the specimen. Paleontologists don't study 'fossils' in general but study very specific niches. If donating to an instutution then chose wisely because there is someone who cares and not because of sentimental reasons.

My wife is also a geologist and has a concept of what 'things are'. Everything goes to her and she also knows what specimens will be donated to a few museums and which specimens will be given to collectors who would appreciate them. I wouldn't sell my collection but understand why some do and have nothing against private sales. My experience is that specimens, in general, find a more appreciative home in a private collection than floundering in the basement of some public institution. Proof is on a website like this in which collectors are proud of their finds and make a real effort to share info and photos.

Most important is to separate out the wheat from the chaff. Unremarkable looking rare items will get lost among more visually appealing common speciens. I don't keep small rarer raptor vertebrae in boxes of dozens of hadrosaur vertebrae and I don't have rare Devonian shark teeth crowded out by 'wow' Miocene specimens.

Don't forget books. I value some publications as much as fossils. Think of who might appreciate a few books on shark teeth or older hard-to-get 19th century volumes on fossils, etc.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

Most of my stuff has been collected in an area exhibiting a very complex facie relationship in which the paleoecology,and chronology of the appearance of certain forms has not yet been resolved, despite one of the finest mapping programs in the country.

The Dept. has made known the desire to acquire some of my collection. Most of the stuff is worthless, but, too, there are some real "gems" in there. For that reason, my collection will go the University in it's entirety. They can use what they want and discard the rest as they feel fit.

[MOROPUS]

I have wondered the same thing myself. If I pass before my wife, she will have to deal with it (HAHA). But I would love for the collection to be kept whole, an idea that most likely will not happen. There are two smallish museums in the area that both have small displays of fossils (smaller than my collection that is), so I was thinking about approaching them. If I can't find an institution to take them, then they will most likely be auctioned off for the Nature Conservancy. They are the recipients of my "estate" if I die after my wife. We have no heirs. She gets everything if I die first.

I think I will take them to the Paleontology Museum I help.If you want to,(other people has done it,for instance with a huge shell collection), your collection can be held with a "Donated by the deceased Mr./Mss.BLABLABLA..."

[Guest Nicholas]

I did some asking around my university to find out what happened to the various fossil collections they had before their Paleontology lab shut down due to lack of interest and funding. Well the doors to the lab haven't been opened in about 5 years, and some of the specimens have been thrown away, others are just collecting dust in a warehouse some where... probably never to be opened again.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I did some asking around my university to find out what happened to the various fossil collections they had before their Paleontology lab shut down due to lack of interest and funding. Well the doors to the lab haven't been opened in about 5 years, and some of the specimens have been thrown away, others are just collecting dust in a warehouse some where... probably never to be opened again.

Ashamed they lost their Geology Dept. due to lack of funding.

[Guest Nicholas]

Ashamed they lost their Geology Dept. due to lack of funding.

Collecting laws around here have made amature collecting almost impossible without buying collections from other areas.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

Collecting laws around here have made amature collecting almost impossible without buying collections from other areas.

I feel for you. I guess I have it pretty good. Any outcrop on the side of the road is fair game here. About the only place one can't collect, is in parks.