Posted 01/10/2008 2:12 pm
Welcome to the Coin Community forums! We are neighbors, sort of - I'm from Germany (state of North Rhine Westphalia) and collect primarily euro coins ...
As for the prices of our "old" collector coins, no, the introduction of the euro did not have any dramatic effect. The first few special 5 DM issues, from the 1950s, are still kind of expensive - the coins issued after, say, 1965 can still be bought for little more than face value. That is not going to change in my opinion.
And yes, all current euro countries have in the past issued collector coins. But quite differently: Austria and Germany, for example, issued commemorative ATS and DEM pieces at face value, several per year. France and Italy issued quite a few but at a surcharge. Ireland issued a collector coin in 1966 and three more between 1988 and 2000, and that was it for the pre-euro period.
Are pre-euro coins still popular? Hard to tell. On one hand, the introduction of the euro cash resulted in a whole bunch of new collectors. Some of them went away from the hobby after a while, others continue to collect - and some of them have "discovered" older coins. Some collectors now try to replace pre-euro pieces in their collections with ones in better grades. So while euro coins are more popular, the older ones are still sought after.
And yes, every euro country issues collector coins. Not that they have to
but since there is a market for these pieces ...
In Euroland we have an odd distinction between "commemorative coins" and "collector coins". Commemoratives are always €2 coins with the usual reverse (map of Europe) and an individual obverse; these coins are, like the circulation coins, legal tender in the entire currency union. Here http://www.ecb.europa.eu/bc/euro/co...ndex.en.html is a complete list (also in Polish; click on "pl" in the Language bar). Each member state can issue one commemorative €2 coin per year; a second one is possible only in the case of pieces that are jointly issued by all member states. So the Polish plethora
of special 2 zl coins would not be possible - those would all have to be collector coins.
These collector coins - mostly (but not necessarily) silver or gold pieces - have denominations other than the eight used for circulation coins. Again, some member states issue them at face value while others charge, say, 40 euro for a "€10" coin. The "collector coins" are legal tender only in the issuing country. And frankly, you will hardly ever come across any in circulation.
Christian
As for the prices of our "old" collector coins, no, the introduction of the euro did not have any dramatic effect. The first few special 5 DM issues, from the 1950s, are still kind of expensive - the coins issued after, say, 1965 can still be bought for little more than face value. That is not going to change in my opinion.
And yes, all current euro countries have in the past issued collector coins. But quite differently: Austria and Germany, for example, issued commemorative ATS and DEM pieces at face value, several per year. France and Italy issued quite a few but at a surcharge. Ireland issued a collector coin in 1966 and three more between 1988 and 2000, and that was it for the pre-euro period.
Are pre-euro coins still popular? Hard to tell. On one hand, the introduction of the euro cash resulted in a whole bunch of new collectors. Some of them went away from the hobby after a while, others continue to collect - and some of them have "discovered" older coins. Some collectors now try to replace pre-euro pieces in their collections with ones in better grades. So while euro coins are more popular, the older ones are still sought after.
And yes, every euro country issues collector coins. Not that they have to
but since there is a market for these pieces ...In Euroland we have an odd distinction between "commemorative coins" and "collector coins". Commemoratives are always €2 coins with the usual reverse (map of Europe) and an individual obverse; these coins are, like the circulation coins, legal tender in the entire currency union. Here http://www.ecb.europa.eu/bc/euro/co...ndex.en.html is a complete list (also in Polish; click on "pl" in the Language bar). Each member state can issue one commemorative €2 coin per year; a second one is possible only in the case of pieces that are jointly issued by all member states. So the Polish plethora
of special 2 zl coins would not be possible - those would all have to be collector coins.These collector coins - mostly (but not necessarily) silver or gold pieces - have denominations other than the eight used for circulation coins. Again, some member states issue them at face value while others charge, say, 40 euro for a "€10" coin. The "collector coins" are legal tender only in the issuing country. And frankly, you will hardly ever come across any in circulation.
Christian
Edited by chrisild
01/10/2008 2:43 pm
01/10/2008 2:43 pm
