Somalia Elephant Silver And Gold Coins Anyone?

Holy broken coin counters yup! You have a long running thread about Somali elephants? I should have known

To: Up7676

I'm just glad there are others that are interested in Somalia Elephants. I was feeling rather isolated from the anglophobic crowd in numismatics - if it isn't from an English-speaking country, they aren't interested!

At some point, if others are interested, I can talk about my experience supporting the U.S. military humanitarian intervention of the non-existent govt of Somalia in 1992-1993. What I got as my 'prize' back then, was a Somalia paper note from a country which had collapsed. Hence my personal interest in Somalia and its currency.

I just got my last BU Somali (2005 - the most expensive) last week and just bought the 2013 4-coin Proof Set. I also bought the 2015 Somali Antiqued coin because it looked great and, for me, low mintage is one of my three major factors in purchasing (just 5500 minted). But I generally prefer pure silver - no colorized or gilded coins of any interest to me.

Pretty sure it was me who posted on the other forum (2015 Somali Elephant) dealing with the (500) 2015 Somali Elephant double-strike mint-error coins getting onto the market. A small # of coins had the 2015 silver Elephant reverse screwed-up (first struck with the gold die, then the silver to try to cover up their screw-up, then destroying only 1000 of the erroneous coins, but allowing an additional 500 to get out the door). I hope someone at the BSM gets the axe from that foul-up. BU versions of the Somali Elephant 'Mule' are costing $200 each; an MS69 is $1000. Frankly, I'm not interested in rewarding the BSM or coin dealers for minting mistakes. Sends the wrong message, in my opinion.

And anyone wanting to collect a short number of the coins needs to consider getting the version of the 2010 Somali which has reverse using the 2009 Elephant. I've never found how many were printed, but it was a bit more expensive than the standard 2010 (which had a different elephant reverse), so I assume the productions numbers were much lower.

Lastly, everyone needs to check out the 2013-2016 'Privy Seal' Somali Elephants: mintages of only 3K-5K. Slightly more expensive than the regular issue, but LOW MINTAGE.

For me, there are the first three rules I consider when purchasing a coin (besides affordability): Beauty, Condition, and Low Mintage.

Happy New Year to All,
Andrew

Well I started this thread because no one really was talking at length about this coin series. The other issue was the fact that people are hung up on these being "rounds". Clearly they are legal tender and not rounds.

Furthermore, even if they were rounds, there is no doubt, looking at the secondary market, that these coins command a good premium.

It is a great series with a wide range of sizes and variations to the theme and that makes this series fun to collect and hunt down.

I just wish they did more gold fractional sizes like 1/10, 1/4, 1/2...

Just received the 2013 Somali Elephant 4-coin fractional Proof Set. I had heard conflicting information that the set had a minting of either 500 or 2000. It appears 2000 is the correct number, which is the same as the '14 and '15 Proof sets. Beautiful box to display them and it includes the COA and a set #. Unfortunately, finding one is a bit more difficult and the price is higher: I paid $370 for mine.

So the higher price is what happens if you are trying to back-collect coins when you hadn't been doing so on a yearly basis. I just re-started numismatics Feb 2015 after stopping for almost 40 years (1976). Finances permitting, I hope to stay in the loop and buy the current coins I'm interested in each year when they are available and prices are competitive.

Last time I stated that the Somali 'Privy' BU coins had mintages between 3-5K. I was only partially correct: the 2012 'Dragon' had a mintage of 10K as well as the 2013 'Snake' minting. But the 2014 'Horse' was half that - 5K; and the 2015 'Ram' was an even more exclusive 3K.

Just a little update-

First, the somalian elephant 1/10 ounce gold coins are now showing up at many dealers, so far APMEX has the best price but they are the only US dealer carrying them that I see. I suspect more dealers will be carrying them.

Next up is the announcement of a 1 oz Somalian elephant with a privy mark, this time its for the Berlin World Money Fair, 1,000 mintage with COA.

I will be getting a gold piece without a doubt lol

I should mention the out-of-control, government-bribed poaching taking place in Africa. Well, Tanzania is at the center of the Ivory and Rhino Horn poaching and U.S. trophy hunting by bribing govt officials. I'd recommend you avoid any coinage from Tanzania, all you're doing is subsidizing the corrupt govt. and its silent sanctioning of 'The Big 5' slaughter. See article below: https://www.change.org/p/enact-legi.../u/13702824.

'Tanzania has been the ground zero of elephant poaching in East Africa for the past several years, having lost 85,000 elephants between 2009 and 2014, according to a recent elephant census in the country. A slaughter of industrial proportion such as this cannot have happened without the involvement of high profile, corrupt individuals and government officials at the two ports of Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar, and elsewhere in civil society.'

I and others have talked to GovMint.com to remove these Tanzania coins from sale AND THEY DID SO VERY QUICKLY - with 24 hrs! I've also notified MCM about the same issue (waiting to here from them). I'm a big customer of MCM and have threatened to cross them off my list if they don't act soon.

Andrew

If I worried about the politics of various countries, I probably wouldn't have any silver coins.

GovtMint.com and MCM are under the same business umbrella (Numismatics), but have little direct contact with each other. They are set up differently and have completely different staffs.

The Tanzanian coins are minted by Mayer, a private mint in Germany. The 'Big 5' series began in 2014 with the Lion, 2015 with the Elephant, and now 2016 with the Rhino. Very hypocritical of this country, given they 'honor' these animals through wholesale slaughter. 50% of Tanzanias elephant killed in just ten years. Actually, they are just looking to make money by selling the coins, in my opinion.

I've noticed that NGC seems to be doing all the grading, but in talking to them, their records don't include 'Tanzania' or 'Serengeti' as coins they've graded. As an NGA associate member, I've given them some information and have asked them to consider refusing any future Tanzanian coins for grading. They have the right to refuse submissions... Story still unfolding.