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 Replies: 29 / Views: 4,441 |
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Valued Member
United Kingdom
216 Posts |
What have been your biggest bargains eg valuable or rare coins bought for next to nothing?
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
510 Posts |
This 1903 open 3 UK penny (the lower coin) cost 45p as a BIN on ebay. Very scarce and this is probably one of the highest grade known   David Edited by davidrj
04/20/2014 06:50 am
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
For £13(ish) I bought a small lot of worn (maybe 10 or so), cull roman coins, because I saw a Zeno monogram in it. The rest were completely worn flat, and this coin was clearly also a cull to the seller (the other side appears blank to the uninitiated).
I had some suspicions when I bought it that it was something more (the Zeno monogram would actually be worth more than £13 anyway and that wouldve been a bargain) due to a smudge at the center of the monogram and low and behold, it was a coin of Zenonis. Zenonis' monogram is exactly identical to Zeno's, except it has an S in the center. Zenonis was the wife of Basiliscus, a usurper of the late empire during the collapse of Rome and Zenonis is one of the rarest rulers on a roman coin (185th out of 207, 6 coins out of 233,000 examined in a survey showed her, and the 189th ruler also had only 6 coins...to give you an idea, no coins at all of the 203rd to 207th rarest were found in the survey). Its worth hundreds of pounds and one sold recently for $3000.
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Moderator
 Australia
16857 Posts |
For me, this is much easier than the first question. It's my Polish Regency 1 fenig dated 1917. I picked it up from a local coin dealer for a couple of bucks, because the coin is not listed in Krause. Turns out the reason it's not listed is that the Stuttgart Mint burned down while this coin was being struck and only a handful were scraped out of the ashes. I'm not sure what the CV on it is now, but it was listed for several hundred euros back in 2006 when I asked the forum about it not long after I joined. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
856 Posts |
I guess I'm happiest with the Charles I shilling I bought on ebay back in November 2005. Very rare (only three examples known) with that particular privy (mint) mark. But what most pleased me was that in 2012 I was able to swap it for another coin; this time a rare type (a different reverse design) rather than just an unusual privy mark. And with provenance to Michael Sharp's, John Brooker's and Roger Shuttlewood's collections and illustrated in both Sharp's British Numismatic Journal paper and the 33rd Syllogue of Coins of the British Isles. Wasn't as cheap as David, Ben or Sap's purchases, but I consider it to have been a very good buy nonetheless!  Edited by Tom Goodheart
04/20/2014 09:53 am
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
4911 Posts |
Gut an nice 1947 dot nickel for 50¢ at a flea market, its roughly a $200 coin!
Feel free to call me Will.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1662 Posts |
Mine was a G "1838" large cent that actually was an 1839/6. Paid $25, worth $200+.
Edited by ArrowsAndRays
04/20/2014 7:36 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2661 Posts |
Mine was the ASE I got at the convenience store for $1. |
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Valued Member
United States
63 Posts |
I won a lot of 8 dansco albums for $31 that I thought were empty and found a 1875 cc Twenty Cent Piece in what I feel is xf condition. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
500 Posts |
This one's one of two things for me, for coins it's the tub of old change I bought for #20 from a coworker a while back that ended up having $30 melt in silver and a pretty battered 1823 Large Cent. For albums, I'd say the Danscos I purchased from a customer that knew I collected, paid $25 for two halve books and a Buffalo nickel book, and he threw in a vintage 60s 7070 free. |
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Valued Member
Australia
338 Posts |
Its a tie between two: 1850 5 rappen ( no mint mark) for ~$3 as part of a big lot of swiss silver coins. The other is a 1620 60 kreuzer from Bohemia with the scarce Prague mint master. The bohemian coin I'd grade as gVF and bought for $200 - no clue what the value is as I've only ever found 1 other for sale! (Very low grade example by comparison) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8137 Posts |
I got 2 2012 silver proof sets at $93 each. In less than 10 minutes later, I sold them for $150 each!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1234 Posts |
for me it's gotta be $1.50 for a mint condition 1945 P War Nickel Quote:Mine was the ASE I got at the convenience store for $1.   Sometimes it's nice to have an idiot behind the counter  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8518 Posts |
Quote:I won a lot of 8 dansco albums for $31 that I thought were empty and found a 1875 cc Twenty Cent Piece in what I feel is xf condition. Wow...  Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3540 Posts |
1877 Indian Head cent from a coin dealer's junk box of IHC's for 15 cents. Coin was AG3. Took it back - they said, nope, cannot really tell for sure - just keep it. Traded it for $115 face value of silver Washington quarters. Hunt brother's silver episode was just ramping up. Sold the quarters 3-4 months later. Purchased two Lincoln cents for my collection - 1914 D in XF and a 1911 S in MS64BN. |
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Replies: 29 / Views: 4,441 |
Posted 04/20/2014 06:57 am
