Appraisal for items with strong secondary market...

[Zeus11]

Wondering if I need an appraisal for the following situation.  I have an 1878 Morgan Silver Dollar that I bought 20 years ago for $500.  It is now worth $15,500.  It is professionally graded by PCGS as an MS65, and there is a strong secondary market with a ton of activity.  Do I need to pay an appraiser $1000 to simply look up the price online?  Or is the vast secondary market and professional grading enough so that I can deduct once I donate?  The appraiser would not be allowed to crack open the casing of the graded item, and would just go off the details with a simple online lookup.  It seems as if the grading company, like NCG or PCGS, would be the appraiser of record, although they don't assign a value to the items due to the nature of the secondary market.

[TomK2023]

If the donation exceeds $5,000 in value, it'll need a written appraisal from a qualified appraiser.

Generally, if the claimed deduction for an item or group of similar items of donated property is more than $5,000, and was made after December 31, 1984, you must: 

• Obtain a qualified appraisal signed and dated by a qualified appraiser, and 

• Complete and attach Form 8283 to your tax return. 

IRS Pub. 561 - Determining the Value of Donated Property (page 10)

[Opus 17]

You need to read IRS publication 526.

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-publication-526

There are two key points.

First, to claim any donation with a value more than $5000, you must have a signed appraisal, and you must get both the appraiser and an authorized representative of the donee organization to sign a paper copy of form 8283 documenting the donation.  You mail the signed original to the IRS after e-filing the rest of your return.

Second,

Under the heading "capital gain property", you can generally claim the fair market value for donated property that would be subject to capital gains.  However, there is an exception for "tangible personal property put to an unrelated use."  In most cases, if you donate tangible personal property put to an unrelated use, you can only claim your original cost basis as the value of the donation. 

Tangible personal property certainly includes coins, and an unrelated use includes having the organization sell the item to raise funds.  In other words, if you donate the coin to a museum and they will keep it in their collection as a museum object, you can claim FMV (with a signed appraisal of course).  But if you donate the item to the Salvation Army for them to auction to raise funds, you can only claim your cost basis.

If you are thinking of donating to an organization for an unrelated use such as fundraising, you would be better off selling the item yourself, paying the capital gains tax, and then donating some or all of the sales proceeds to the organization as money rather than as an object.