Newfoundland Coin Guide?

I like the series but it's asleep. And it's been in bed for a long time. I can't recommend any books but I can recommend the fifty cent Victorias. One of the best and most impressive portraits of the queen on any associated coinage and seen in EF it's amazing.

https://www.rcna.ca/numisnotes/ext....t=view&id=59

Here is some info on the book and the "club"... the same as I put on the other site.

Hello all and thanks very much.

Agreed on all points! Since I started collecting again I've been trying to understand what the determinants of value are. At the most basic it would seem to be grade/eye appeal and scarcity. On the second of those two, the Newfoundland coins are remarkable: produced in 20-50 times lower numbers than their Canadian counterparts. But somehow this doesn't translate into higher sales prices.

But there's clearly more to it than that. And admittedly the Newfoundland are somewhat simple in terms of design and overall quality (aside from the 1 cent) but this is also a bit of a virtue - particularly for the 5 cent coins which are super-rare. The tiny Canadian 5 cent that was around prior to the conversion to nickel never entirely worked if you ask me. They're just so small that the lettering is hard to read and wears away very easily. In contrast, the slightly bigger lettering of the Newfie version is usually legible without magnification. I like that.

As for the obverse, are they really less impressive than the Canadian coins?

Okie, there's an easy solution and I've discussed it for years. All that's needed is that some celebrity openly discuss how interesting it is to collect Newfoundland coinage and the demand would surge overnight.

For a printable list of NL coins to collect go to:

https://eastcoastcoins.ca/learn-coi...ndland-coins

And I don't think the Club okiecouner sent the link to still exists. I know of no NL coin club. I live in NL and have not been able to find a club of any kind.

Here is part of the RCNA article that I provided a link to:

The Newfoundland Numismatic Enthusiasts (NNE) is for collectors of coins, tokens, medals or paper money of Newfoundland (Canada's most Eastern Province). This club was formed on July 22, 2006 at the RCNA convention held in Niagara Falls, and it's still thriving today. Current President Bill Kamb agreed to a re-print of portions or the entire Newfoundland Varieties article which appeared in the club's newsletter The Logbook, Vol. 1, No. 4 (March 2010); and the author who is also a member of the NNE also agreed!
Barry M. Borsellino has dedicated more than six years authoring a NFLD Varieties book which has reached 315 pages and Barry expects will be close to 400 when finished. He recently rewrote the introduction which is included here. "The book is nearly complete and I'm weary. Soon it will be time for me to think about other things!" Barry shared. Here is his introduction to A new look at Newfoundland Varieties.

"I had never planned to write this book. It just sort of happened!


The last that I knew, the club/society was still active, but maybe it's defunct. Here are a couple email addresses for you to find out more. Bill Kamb is still active in the RCNA:

Enthusiasts of Newfoundland Numismatics
Bill Kamb E-mail: nfld73h@siscom.net
Website: http://www.nunet.ca/nne

I love collecting Newfoundland, but the series has both supply and demand challenges.

The widely disparate mintages produce some very scarce key dates and some dates that are common as dirt. I think that discourages date set collecting of Newfoundland coins in two ways. First, key dates such an 1880 Oval 0 cent and an 1873H five cent are tough to find and expensive in all grades. Let's say you are comfortable collecting NF five cents in VF at a few hundred a pop. To complete a VF date set at some point you have to shell out $4K for the 1873H. Typical stuff in NF collecting and discouraging. Second, quite a few NF coins are nearly impossible to find in anything better than EF. 1880 Oval 0 cent, 1888 cent, 1873H five cent, 1904 Twenty Cent and some others come to mind. Their lack of availability discourages potential NF collectors wanting even higher circulated grade sets.

In addition to these supply issues and the well know demand drags (a provincial coinage, did not join Canada until 1949, etc.), demand is low for other perhaps not-so-logical reasons. 1) Right now there is really only one very high grade NF collector at the top of the NF market. He is complete and I suspect only occasionally buys an upgrade when available. Little or no action at the top of the market, IMO slows the pace of the entire NF market. 2) Despite the historically low demand for NF coins, the price for key-date or condition-rare NF coins is not coming down anytime soon. Their owners have invested significant money when buying them and there are no anxious, over-a-barrel sellers of these coins willing to take a loss on a quick sale. Anybody waiting for discounted prices on such coins to jump into the NF market will be waiting a while, which discourages participation.

I have a fair amount of money wrapped up in NF cents, because I like the series and very much enjoy collecting them. I never expected to make a profit on them and probably will not. I just do not see the supply and demand dynamics of NF coinage changing very soon. If five well-heeled Gen-X'ers or Millenials wake up one morning and decide to collect NF coinage, I will happily eat my words.

All JMHO.