Old Coin Section Of Paris

The facebook group is here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/monedafalsa/

For spanish collonial, I'm looking for anything between the catholic kings and Ferdinand VII.
I'm collecting "one of each type" - so I'm usually not going after particular dates / mints.
My favourites are : the Felipe II period (for which I'm getting one per mint / denomination), Ferdinand VII and the independence war, the Felipe IV transitional cobs for Potosi, the stars or Lima.
I did a side collection : one duro from each south american country after their independence after spain. I have the one in my avatar for example, I'm just missing the Chile volcano peso (maybe because it's scarce :P)
Your 2 escudos looks superb !!
All in all, south american coins are very nice, I love their design, variety and history.

I'll check out that auction house, I never dealt with them ... I wish I would have seen that 4 reales hoard, I really like cobs :)

I got several of those 4R cobs at berk. They are very dark, and all had dates 1665-1670. I think they possibly came from the Seville harbor wreck http://www.sedwickcoins.com/shipwre...tanpalla.htm
But no one at Berk that I talked to seemed to know...

I've bought several ancient coins from Harlan J. Burk & Co. and believe they don't cater at all to small collectors ($100 to $10,000 per coin). One was an EF Roman sestersius of Didius Julianus (193 AD) and another was an Ef denarius of the empeor Galba (68 AD). I could never then get anyone to respond to my phone calls.

Also I believe they engage in market manipulation. E.g. they'll take a coin and list it in auction at 3x the standard price for the type. Maybe it'll sell to a friend and thus they'll establish a new baseline for the coin at a much higher price.

If you're seeking an Athenian silver dekadrachm at $500,000. maybe they'll give you good service but for less expensive pieces I'm not happy with my business dealings with them and will try to stick with CNG, Dieter Gorney, and Artemide Asta auctions.

I used to go into Berk's shop on Clark gallienus. That 1846k 1F in the junk tray was way underpriced at $15, considering that Le Franc only lists records for 4 of them in recent sales. The 4R cobs varied in price from $70-$125 depending on whether they could date them. Because they weren't very good at it, I got several dated 4R's for $70 each.

Another good US foreign shop is Paul Bosco in Manhattan. http://www.pauljbosco.com/ I got the only Henri III franc I have from him. I'd recommend, as with Berk, a live visit to his shop when you're in NYC see what he has in hand. Last visit I got a Cent Jours 2F.

Replying again to MathieuMa,

I'm not so knowledgeable about the Spanish Colonial issues but I do try to specialize in the Republican Latin American types.

The Chilean volcano Pesos are neat coins for sure. By far the majority of them appear to be 1817 F.J.'s with the rarer variety "Y" above the Pillar much rarer. They are not more expensive than some other types from that era: e.g. Argentinean sunfaces. They are more expensive than Mexican Cap & Rays Pesos which were made until 1897 or the Bolivian 8 reales, head of Bolivar, or the Brazilian 960 reis.

Other common dates of these Volcano Pesos are 1821 and 1834.

Like yourself I'm trying to put together a type set of all the crowns in nice condition. I'm especially looking for the 1846 8 reales of Ecuador, the early 8 reales (1819-21) of Colombia, and a Dos Bandaras (8 escudos) of Chile (1818-1834).

I doubt it - but reguardless, that's quite an assertion. I assume you have proof?

Actually I don't think this assertion is too far fetched and possibly represents a difference in how coin firms do business in the US as opposed to Great Britain, or even other parts of the developed world: like France. I've always thought British firms more interested to maintaining good relations with even smaller collectors and US firms a little more oriented to making a fast buck. Of course there are always exceptions. British firms I've bought from include Spinks and C.J. Martin.

My comments regarding Harlan Burk stem from having bought at least 3 coins from them for approx $7,300. from around 1990 to 2011. In retrospect, I am not happy with their lack of communication from all of these transactions.

Please list your commercial transactions with them as a basis for your opinion.

Granted you may like them as they've helped you with research for your book and of course you can publically thank them for that: just as I can mention their lack of caring for my collector purchases from them.

Regarding market manipulation I have been after a particular type of coin for several years and have posted it on several want lists. Semi-decent examples have sold for $8,000 with a suberb example selling out of CNG for $16,500. In March of 2013 H.J. Burk listed a not particularly nice one for $29,500. Of course this could have been a $20,000 error. More recently Goldberg's sold a specimen around June 2013, possibly nicer than Burk's which realized $13,500. Of course I haven't seen the coin: just printed catalog photos.

A lot of flakey stuff goes on with US coins and US dealers. I actually think market manipulation of coin prices in the US is more common than you may think and is not illegal. Of course collectors trying to acquire a piece for their own collections, like myself don't like it, but higher prices help coin flippers make greater profits.