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 Replies: 36 / Views: 6,547 |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Seriously, I can't think of any other explanation why I just spent $70 on coins - including a few very expensive coins - despite a relative lack of spending money.
Highligts include:
huge brass Chinese coin of the early 12th century (Chong Ning Zhong Bao, or Ch'ung-ning Chung-pao; at 34 mm, likely the "fudiciary 10 cash") - I paid an outrageous $6 for it, making it perhaps my most expensive single coin purchase of the last year
two Byzantine coins of Manuel I, also 12th century but slightly later (I would not have tried to buy two coins of the same emperor, but they looked nothing like each other or the common Byzantine types, and I didn't identify them until it was far too late)
Russian 2 kopek coins of Paul I (generally uncommon), Catherine II (struck over Peter III 4 kopek), and Elizabeth (extremely large flan - 37 mm)
an 1965 Israeli proof-like set, in original cardboard, complete with actual PVC damage
Non-highlights include a huge lot of assorted 1940s Scandinavian coins (Denmark, Sweden, Norway... mostly Norway) that some guy tried to sell me at 25 cents per coin.
I bought them - they were nice enough - but I couldn't convince him not to sell me the entire bunch; the worst thing was that I ran out of small bills just before meeting him, so, to avoid him running everywhere for change, I had to buy nearly forty.
His bargain bag wasn't all Scandinavian, admittedly... and all three of the coins he confidently dated to 1930 turned out to be from the 1910s! Also, he kept telling that his 1940s Polish coins were from Czechia (even after I corrected him), and I can't recall what country he attributed to the Venezuelan coin but it was nowhere near.
I also acquired three new countries for my collection (Madagascar, Andorra, Bhutan); I have no idea how many this brings me to (my Numista list has 100, but it's missing places like Mongolia and Panama that I know I have).
Lots of other coins too (including some pretty cool ones, some unidentified old bronzes that might turn out pretty cool if I can identify them, and a bunch of Russian 1910s small silvers that I stupidly believed the seller about being uncommon and bought for $3 each).
Not bought and kicking myself for it: Saint Pierre and Miquelon 1 franc for $3 (I was running out of money, and wasn't sure the coin was as valuable as the seller said - most of his other coins were overpriced; but apparently it's worth a lot more than that).
Though the seller also said that he doesn't usually offer his foreign coins, so it would probably still be there a week later.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
You should be kicking yourself over the Saint Pierre et Miqulen coin, haha. All and all a good hall.
Did any of the base metal coins turn out to be silver?
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
Sounds like an awful lot of coins for only $70 . But yes you are addicted to coins like about 75% of us . sometimes I can't go one week without buying a coin for my collection .
Do you ever collect U.S.coins, noticed all foreign ?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
I don't see the problem. It's quite clear you didn't have enough money, that is the problem, not buying the coins. Next time, take more money with you.
We're here to help !
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Pillar of the Community
 Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Quote:
You should be kicking yourself over the Saint Pierre et Miqulen coin, haha. All and all a good hall.
Did any of the base metal coins turn out to be silver? I agree! But I'll try again on Tuesday. And I don't think any did (aside from a few that I knew were silver, and bought as such), but I hadn't checked all yet (there's over a hundred). Quote:
Sounds like an awful lot of coins for only $70 . But yes you are addicted to coins like about 75% of us . sometimes I can't go one week without buying a coin for my collection .
Do you ever collect U.S.coins, noticed all foreign ? From my perspective, it's the US coins that are foreign  I just prefer to put my purchase prices in US dollars, so they don't look so huge (it's a lot easier, emotionally, to spend 70 dollars than 5000 of anything, even if it's the same sum of money). But yes, there was an 1912-D nickel ($1.5, but it had a huge rim bump), and a bicentennial quarter (can't recall the price, but very cheap). I don't usually collect modern small US coins (shield and memorial cents, post-1960 nickels, post-1965 dimes), and obviously that's pretty much all everyone has in the bargain bins (and the rest of the coins are usually either overpriced or just plain expensive... $5 for an 1968 half dollar might be fair, for all I know, but it's still a very expensive coin). When I see a US coin for a nice low price, I buy it, naturally (at least, if I still have enough money). (I wanted to say "just like for a coin from any other country", but I do buy, say, European coins a lot more often... not sure what's my problem with US cents/nickels/dimes specifically. Maybe because they feel like modern currency?) |
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
Sounds like you did a very good deal for only $70!
I doesn't sound like your coin guy really knew his wares. Too bad you missed out on the St. Pierre one. That sounds like a very nice curiosity to have in any collection. Good luck on getting this one tomorrow!
For Numista: just suggest a new coin if it's not in their lists. I've sent some updates and new coins over time and usually, if it's well-documented, it gets processed in a week or two or so.
I guess Scandinavian coins aren't that available in Russia. Here in Norway I can buy 'old' stuff (generally from 1900 and onward, sometimes with even older coins) for about $10 per kilogram (2.2 lbs), including taxes. So if anyone is interested in something specific, I'd be happy to help, as I still have quite a few kg of the stuff. :)
Andorra coins are actually pretty cool. I've been trying to get a few when visiting the country and was generally disappointed in both the availability and the price when I finally found them. For a country with low or no taxes and bargains on all that is for sale in this world, I found the sales prices to be tourist trap level.
Mongolia has stopped issuing coins for circulation in 1981 and has only issued a handful of commemorative coins since. Those are quite hard, if not impossible to get a hold of. I tried when I visited Ulaanbaatar, but to no avail. Right now the smallest denomination is 1 Tøgrøk, which is a bank note and has an effective value of $0.0005. Numista has quite a few Mongolian coins, for what I've seen.
Oh, and don't worry about being addicted to coins. I am as well, and have basically been all my life, I guess, and since I finally dared to admit so for a few months back and took it all to a higher level, I finally decided to join a few sites like this one to feel like I'm normal again. ;)
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
For Numista: it's less "the coin type isn't in the Numista database" (though I think I've had that happen a few times too, for older coins) and more "my collection is all over the place at home, so I hadn't entered very much of it on my Numista account yet". Plus a few cases of "I know the type, but the date had worn away, and the Numista system is insistent on having it".
My Mongolian coins (I have a lot, they're nice) are all 1981 or earlier, except for, IIRC, one commemorative from later in the 1980s. None of them, from what I've heard, were in any way rare.
(I'll have to check, but I think I actually have a nearly full type set of 1959-1981 non-commemoratives. Still looking for the pre-1959 coins though - very expensive!)
I've never been to Mongolia, incidentally (in fact, as far as I know, over the last 20 years, I had never been farther east than Yoshkar-Ola).
I've never been to Andorra either (in fact the farthest west place I've ever been is on Russian territory). The coin I bought cost me just over $1, which I considered to be quite a lot of money (to pay for one coin, at least).
[In case you wonder: I have been to Armenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Ukraine, and Lithuania, taking loads of circulating coins from all of these (except Serbia, where I only had 12 hours between the flights in and out, so I didn't have time to get that many, but still managed to grab a few). I have also been to Uzbekistan, in 1995 (age 3); I didn't take many coins, as far as I know, but my father did. And Russia, obviously.]
I see a lot of Swedish coins in bargain bins, and less, bit still some, Danish and Norwegian coins, so they're not especially hard to get (except for the earlier types, and even they are quite available if you're willing to spend $2-3 on a coin).
I actually already had most of the types that guy wanted to sell me, but they were cheap enough (and with sufficiently many different dates) that I decided to take them anyway (it helped that I like wartime iron and zinc coins - even when they're more common than the regular version).
And thank you all for the acceptance, incidentally!
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1533 Posts |
Only $70? Most of us are much more addicted. After the Central States auctions over the last week I need a couple of months for my finances to recover...
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Quote:
Only $70? Most of us are much more addicted. After the Central States auctions over the last week I need a couple of months for my finances to recover... This is why my parents allow that sort of stuff at all - the effects on the family budget are comparatively tiny. (Also, that was actually a good deal more than I spend normally; too many expensive purchases! I usually spend $20-30 or less on a typical coin market day.) EDIT: And the $70 figure didn't include the $22 I paid for a 20 euro note... I just couldn't pass, the guy selling it was clearly far too desperate for usable money. Which still means I had exchanged enough money to buy ten KFC lunches for a bill that I can't even spend. I'm not sure why I did it - that was really really silly. Edited by january1may
05/02/2016 09:24 am
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Moderator
 United States
188770 Posts |
There are far, far worse addictions to be had. Far worse. I call this a victory.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
Quote:
I see a lot of Swedish coins in bargain bins Those might be real bargains, as Sweden went on until the 1960s and 1970s with silver coins (the Gustaf VI Adolf coins are the last ones to contain silver). 10 Øre: until 1962 25 Øre: until 1961 50 Øre: until 1961 1 Krona: until 1968 2 Kronor: until 1966 5 kronor: until 1972 Just keep an eye on it next time. :) |
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
By the way, it seems that you made a bargain deal on the 20 Euro note as it's currently worth $23 on mid market rates. :)
Anyway, I might be going to Moscow any time soon (for work). In case you are situated in Moscow or if the coin fair is in Moscow, can you hand me the name of it? So far I only managed to get hold of mainly Sovjet rubles and some more things at VDNKh. But honestly, there are too many stands there that instantly double the price (or worse) as soon as they find out that I'm not Russian.
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Quote:
Those might be real bargains, as Sweden went on until the 1960s and 1970s with silver coins (the Gustaf VI Adolf coins are the last ones to contain silver).
10 Øre: until 1962
25 Øre: until 1961
50 Øre: until 1961
1 Krona: until 1968
2 Kronor: until 1966
5 kronor: until 1972
Just keep an eye on it next time. :) Nice to know! Are those the last years that have silver, or the first years that don't? I've found some Swedish silver coins in bargain bins before (though it's rather uncommon - I think I have maybe two or three), and a few later Swedish cupronickel coins (on this trip, 1 krona coins from 1969, 1981 and 1998). But the commonly encountered coins I'm talking about are 1, 2, and 5 ore coins (which are copper, when they aren't iron). Quote:
Anyway, I might be going to Moscow any time soon (for work). In case you are situated in Moscow or if the coin fair is in Moscow, can you hand me the name of it? So far I only managed to get hold of mainly Sovjet rubles and some more things at VDNKh. But honestly, there are too many stands there that instantly double the price (or worse) as soon as they find out that I'm not Russian. Izmailovo Vernisage. Near Partizanskaya metro station, open on weekends (theoretically also open on other days, but you won't find many sellers then). Don't forget to check out the back and upper rows! All the cool stuff is there. (There used to be a stand way out in the back left with a huge selection of Scandinavian coins, though I hadn't seen it recently.) Unfortunately, I suspect that their opinion of you would be similar. (Do you at least speak Russian? That might help a bit.) You might also want to visit Hobby City (Shcholkovskoye shosse, vaguely near bus stop "Sokol") and Moscow Hobby Market (Krasnobogatyrskaya ulitsa 2, tramway station "Bogorodsky khram"). These are basically malls (unlike the Vernisage, which is a market). Imagine a mall where every other store sells coins, and you'd probably be about right. I'm not actually sure if places like that exist in any other country. Actually... I might be able to meet you in Moscow (though I wouldn't necessarily guarantee it - might be too busy). But if you want to discuss that, PMs would probably be best (because it would be getting too far into personal info). |
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
Those years are the last ones that contain silver (so the mentioned years are inclusive).
Do I speak Russian? Apart from the regular 'iskra', 'glasnost', 'perestrojka', 'skolko stoit' and 'gorod', the answer is absolutely 'njet'.
I'll first have to get a visa, which proves to be a bit more difficult nowadays: some of my colleagues already got rejected due to small bureaucratic errors. As soon as things are in place, I'll let you know.
Edited by UltraRant
05/02/2016 2:46 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Just figured out one of the unidentified old bronzes (the large one); it was a very worn copper coin of the Bosporan Kingdom, circa 1st-2nd century AD (far too worn to identify further).
I probably wouldn't have bought that coin for full "large ancient" price ($3-4, most likely), but it was definitely worth it for what I did pay (under a dollar).
I'll probably post photos of the other three for identification on the Ancients forum after I actually find my camera (though I already know that one of them is an Alexandria mint AE4).
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5174 Posts |
Just returned from the continuation trip! The Saint Pierre and Miquelon 1 franc was still there, and I successfully bought it for $3. Also bought a "one character province" 10 cash from Jiangnan, 1907, also for $3 (thanks to gxseries for the province character identifier, and to Numista for the date identification). Did not buy, and again kicking myself, a large copper (10 para?) of Abdulmecid I, 1255/19 (1858 AD), also offered for $3  Might go for it on Thursday. Also bought $5 worth of assorted other coins (mostly cheap). |
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Replies: 36 / Views: 6,547 |
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