Vatican Euro Coins

Hi redlock,

so if I could get a BU set this year from my friend at issue price it would be unlikely it would go down in price? Does that also go for the BU sets?

Regards,
Ozzie

Any Vatican BU set (if it is a real one) at issue price is a "must buy."

Those set will most likely NEVER go below issue price.

In my opinion, stick with the BU sets.
Their prices are high, but not outrageously high (except for the 2002 and the 2005 SedeVacante set). AND, you will always be able to sell them and get a fair price (or fair return on your investment) because, there's a lot of trading going on with them (at least here in Germany).

One advice however:
Only buy BU and/or proof sets with money you can afford "to burn." Yes, chances are excellent you will be able to recoup the money you spent on the BU sets, but there is also a lot of built in speculation with the Vatican coins.
It's not as bad as 3 or 4 years ago, however, it's still there.

In my opinion, the extra quality of the Proof coins is not worth the extra dollar.

Me, I don't care about them. :) As I do not collect stamps, there is no reason for me to buy a PNC (BFN, Numisbrief) type combination of coins and stamps. They are quite expensive in my opinion (€45 for a €2 coin plus some stamps) and, in my opinion, primarily bought by stamp collectors.

Christian

The 2 Euro CC's became a separate "collecting area" soon after their introduction, which is quite popular here in Germany/Europe.

Hmm, the catalog price is €800; not sure what the "street" price is these days. The problem with those Vatican starter kits is that nobody could simply get them as you could/can get regular starter kits. You had to be a Vatican citizen or employee in order to get one.

Christian

The "average" Italian could not get them either - as I wrote, being a citizen or employee of the Vatican was the decisive factor. Besides, the purpose of a starter kit is to familiarize people with the coins; that is why they are distributed in a country before the euro becomes legal tender there. In Italy for example the Italian kit was first issued on 15 December 2001. The Vatican "kit" however were issued in March 2002 ...

Christian

The BBC article is not about starter kits, I think, but about the BU set (65,000 sets, issued on 1 March 2002) and the proof set (9,000 sets, issued on 10 September 2002). Now compare the latter date and the day when the article was published. Those "Vatican starter kits" however had a volume of 5,000 only.

Christian