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 Replies: 11 / Views: 743 |
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New Member
United States
26 Posts |
Hi - wanted to see if anyone in the community has coin shops they recommend in Paris. I've heard many of the bullion dealers are on Rue Vivienne, but not looking for bullion, more historical French coins, especially in the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods. Finally, my French is limited to "Bonjour/Bonsoir, parlez vous Anglais?" so any recommendations friendlier dealers would be appreciated. Thank you!
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
4504 Posts |
Based on personal experience .
Bonne chance!
Most unfriendly group of coin shops ever .
And my wife is fluent and my French quite passable .
Total spent a grand sum of 7 Euro , one coin !
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
11524 Posts |
There's one about halfway along Rue Vivienne between the Bourse and the Boulevard Montmartre (same side of street as the Bourse) where I found the dealer courteous and helpful - I can't remember the name but they had a lot of albums and catalogs in the window and it was only by going inside you realised what a good stock of coins they had. Sorry but I can't remember the name. I've been to three or four different shops on that street and had a good experience, although there was one where a dealer was rather unfriendly as Pacificoin says.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
20605 Posts |
Found with a small amount of detective work on Google Maps
Coin shop is:
Inumis.
on East side of Rue Vivienne,
35 metres South of corner of RV and Boulevard Montmartre.
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Also,
36 Rue Vivienne.
Edited by sel_69l
10/01/2022 05:57 am
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New Member
United States
26 Posts |
Wow, this iNumis looks great. Thank you so much to everyone for their comments and suggestions!
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
20605 Posts |
Thanks to NumisRob, I had a lead to follow up
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2681 Posts |
Over the last 20 years CGB has been my best source for French coins online. I've never been to their physical location at 36 Rue Vivienne. They know what they have and they are not inexpensive. https://www.PCGS.com/dealers/details/3021/44 "Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire
Edited by thq
10/02/2022 09:44 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1590 Posts |
Traveling around Europe and the world as a tourist in general its difficult. Most larger companies just do auctions and most smaller shops are purely on the Internet or EBAY. I picked up some good contemporary circulating counterfeits from INUMIS who occasionally have some real good ones but strictly Internet buys. Expect to do "NO BETTER" than surfing the net ... but its fun as the wife and kids shop for the usual tourist gifts and your checking out an antiquity/coin shop. COVID has not helped the SURVIVAL of these smaller shops as recently seen in Florence, Sicily & Venice - particularly Venice outside of St. Mark's Square. Recently I rarely buy antiquities in person when traveling and generally just buy local foods & wine at the duty free section of the airport. John Lorenzo, United States.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5630 Posts |
I'll start by saying I've never been inside any of these places.
I have participated in online auctions of iNumis and also Feydeau who is at 33 rue Vivienne. Based on some emails with Feydeau, they seemed pleasant.
CGB has always seemed a bit overgraded and overpriced to me from their offerings on eBay and MA-Shops, but they seem to have an enormous inventory.
I think our member erafjel might also have some opinions.
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
1277 Posts |
I have only done window shopping along Rue Vivienne (while the wife did some real shopping along Boulevard Haussmann - Printemps and the likes). I prefer online shopping from the quiet corner of my home, but looking at the large selection of coins of all sorts in the many shops along that street was satisfying  . There is certainly not only bullion, but coins from all periods on display. CGB is where I do most of my (online) shopping, that is where I most often find coins of the (somewhat higher) quality I am looking for. iNumis is not bad either, they have a good selection of Gallic/Celtic coins from the pre-Roman period. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1165 Posts |
Same as me - window shopping in Rue Vivienne, I did go into CGB, they were very pleasant and helpful - but I did not buy anything.
As alluded to above Rue Vivienne is not the place for bargains.
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New Member
United States
26 Posts |
Hi, just following up with a detailed experience as I ended up going to Rue Vivienne in Paris to check out some coins shops. It's a fun location to window shop, and as some mentioned, esp when your wife is busy shopping!
Most of the stores with coins are primarily for currency exchange (i.e. they advertise exchange rates and bullion rates). I did visit iNumis after visiting their website and doing some research ahead of time, as they seem to be beyond bullion.
It's a very small store with one window display area. The inside is small as well - similar to an old style bank with the dealer sitting behind a window and a tray to deposit the coins. I think since they are primarily an online dealer/auction house the physical real estate is limited.
I started out with the customary "Bonjour" and asked the dealer if we could use English which was fine with him. He was nice and I think in general for French people not really much for small talk. We got right down to business as I listed the coins I wanted to see. It seemed like the window display doubled as the storeroom as he had to go pull the inventory from that area.
For collectors interested in French coins and European coins, they definitely had a great selection of European coins that are harder to find in the US. I ended up buying five coins, including a 1792 Ecu from the Limoges mint listed as VF. Also a 1907 Swiss Confederation 5 Francs, a 1870 Papal States 5 Lire, a 5 Francs from Piedmont Republic (French Satellite State from the First French Republic), and a 1911 commemorative 2 Lire from Italy.
If you can't tell already, I'm a big fan of the Latin Monetary Union coins. None of these coins are particularly rare, just harder to find in the US in nice conditions and reasonable prices. Most of these coins I got are in the VF-XF range, and either not cleaned or lightly cleaned. I didn't do too much bargaining but asked what he could do for the lot and did get a 12% discount.Ill try and post some pictures once I'm back.
Overall, I'm happy with my purchases and I'm in the Paris area for a few more days, so might go back to Rue Vivienne again to check out thr other dealers and take some photos for share. Thanks again for everyone's comments and tips!
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Replies: 11 / Views: 743 |
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Posted 10/01/2022 01:23 am
