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I would presume that there is both low demand, and low supply of these things... what does that do for their general value?
Actually, the demand for these coins hasn't really fallen for these coins as much as you might think. The rarer pieces are still going for as strong or stronger prices than they were 5-10 years ago. A traceable provenance to before 1985 nearly doubles the value as the coin is unquestionably guaranteed genuine.
Yes the high amount of counterfeits does deter collectors, but that happened decades ago when the really good counterfeits were around, and the interest level has stayed about the same. But this is just for the expensive ($30+) stuff.
The hype that the Chinese coin market is flooded with fakes, while true, shouldn't be a deterrent for the collector beginning to collect Chinese. Though I have seen some counterfeits of the cheap stuff, they are very easily spotted when one knows what to look for as the counterfeiters don't want to spend their time on making good counterfeits of $5 coins. Genuine cash is plentiful, even on
ebay, and completing a collection of the inexpensive varieties would take years because of the huge amount of varieties.
There are lots of collectors collecting Chinese cash, but that number is relatively minuscule. AS such, they usually have to resort to online methods to buy their coins, not coin shows or coin shops. This, and the fact that dealers have over-estimated the value of Chinese cash, is the reason that dealers' inventories are not selling as well as they used to. The going rate for common Ancient Chinese cash (Wu Zhus, Huo Quans, small Ban Liangs, etc.) is about $3-5 or less. Most dealers have them price at 3-5 times their going price, so most people don't buy from them. They stick to
ebay or Wholesale internet sellers such as Bob Reis or Frank Robinson.
In summary:
1. Cheap Stuff remains cheap, no matter how old or interesting it is. They have increased in value a little, but not much.
2. Expensive stuff, in provably genuine, is in very high demand and is worth far more than it was worth 5-10 years ago.
Posted 10/06/2015 8:53 pm
