@tylosaurus, as mentioned by some of the others, there are a few of us here with collections that include early Polish coins, and can provide suggestions in response to your questions.
First, on reference books, @spence is the best source of information. I think he has both Frynas and Kopicki (the latter being the best general reference on Poland over the date range you mention, but in Polish). I have Gumowski, which is in German, and also is pretty good, but is not referenced much any more. The good point on Gumowski is that it is out of print, and inexpensive bootleg copies are readily available.
Perhaps best of all, the Numista (online numismatic) catalog section on Poland is extremely thorough, and contains all the crossreferences to Kopicki. The organization of the listings is a bit strange, but you can get around it by using the search function
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/po...ction-1.htmlAs for sources of Polish coins, there are a lot of options:
1.
ebay. There are good deals there if you do your research, but also a lot of lower quality coins at iffy prices. DO NOT buy large coins like thalers on
ebay, or any rare Polish type. Fakes abound.
2. Karl Stephens is a U.S. dealer with an excellent reputation for Polish (and other central and Eastern European) coins.
https://karlstephensinc.com/3. WCN (Warszawskie Centrum Numizmatyczne) has weekly online auctions of Polish coins every Thursday. They have an enormous archive of their previous sales, so you can search for past selling prices before bidding. The commission is only 10%, they accept paypal, and shipping price to the U.S. by registered mail is only 25 PLN (about $7.50), and you can accumulate your purchases from several auctions before asking them to send. Their auction site is reasonably user friendly.
https://wcn.pl/4. There are MANY other Polish auction houses, but they all have higher commissions (typically 15-18%), some do not accept paypal, and many of them have gone to courier only shipping to the U.S. due to shipping problems during to the pandemic. Two of the best known are Michal Niemczyk and Damian Marciniak (Marciniak still has a low shipping rate).
Hopefully others will comment on other good sources.
I started an "OFER" (one from every reign) collection for Poland about 20 years ago. I am still missing a few, and as you get into it, you will learn why! That goal morphed into an "OFEY" (One From Every Year) for dated Polish coins from 1507-1795. I have been posting them on the "How Far Back Can We GO" thread
http://goccf.com/t/364499 (we are now in the reign of Stefan Batory).
Posted 03/30/2021 3:47 pm
to the forum. Sorry I can't provide any info. It's out of my area of knowledge. But it sounds like a great idea for a collection. Best of luck in your hunting!
