Good Evening All!
In August, I moved to Hong Kong to begin a year here as an exchange student. Well, so far it's already been the two single most exciting months of my entire life, but I'm finally beginning to settle down into the HK lifestyle. I wanted to throw up a post to any members here who have ever spent time in East Asia, to see if anyone knew of any coin "hotspots", both specific venues or entire locations.
So far, I've been lucky enough to have visited Penang, Malaysia, and Manila and Cebu, Philippines. Penang was amazing for coins, as almost every antiques dealer (there were many!) or money changer seemed to have a few trays of old silver to go through. The Philippines was MUCH more challenging, as it seems most of the old coins have either been circulated to oblivion or (in the case of silver) melted down to make any sort of jewelry. I was only able to locate a single 1907S Peso by asking what felt like every money changer and scrap gold/silver buyer in Cebu, and eventually paid pretty well exactly what they tend to go for on
ebay. Oh well, I didn't have to pay shipping and I get the satisfaction of knowing that I tracked that piece down myself!
As far as Hong Kong is concerned, most of the curio stalls with coins in them have been grossly affected by the poor quality fakes coming out of Mainland China
and the established shops tend to ask prices even higher than what I would pay on
ebay or back in Canada!
Does anyone have any notable coin experiences/locations from elsewhere in Asia? I'm looking forward to getting more travel done through July/August next year!
Two more quick notes: 1.) I'm open to any suggestions on where to travel in Asia, as well (aka replies don't have to be coin-motivated) and 2.) I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but if anyone has any want-listed coins from Hong Kong or elsewhere in Asia feel free to send me a message and I'll be sure to have a look around for you!
Cheers,
Andrew
Posted 10/31/2011 1:26 pm
