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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,295 |
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New Member
United States
14 Posts |
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum.  ***I'm just curious as to what other world coin collectors do in my situation. A few months back I jumped headlong into the world of world coin collecting. My LCS had a big bag and I decided it would be a fun way to build another collection. Initially I was only interested in unique KM numbers rather than full date and mint mark runs to say nothing of the varieties. Now that I am onto my second bulk bag my think has started to evolve. I still have no real interest in date runs but I'm thinking a mint mark or other marks (privy marks?) collection would also be cool. A quick example would be the French 1966-2001 5 centimes coins. the complete date run has a KM designation of 933 with no variations and a single mint. However, the run is broken up into 4 subsets with 4 different privy marks. I still have no desire to go after different varieties such as the 3 folds vs 4 folds in this same series but I'm now thinking it would be kind of neat to have 1 example of each privy mark coins side by side. The downside is I'll have to go through a few thousand coins again looking for the different marks. The upside is that I will get to go through a few thousand coins again looking for the different marks. So what do you keep and why?
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Moderator
 Australia
16816 Posts |
Personally, I keep everything. Date, mintmark, and any variety major enough to get a mention in KM or other references.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Moderator
United States
95443 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
95443 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1912 Posts |
I use varieties to grow my collection of old Vietnam coins.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9384 Posts |
Quote:
Personally, I keep everything. Date, mintmark, and any variety major enough to get a mention in KM or other references.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10500 Posts |
My favorite world coins to collect are the New Zealand One Florin Kiwi's 50% silvers - George V 1933 to 1936 - George VI 1937 to 1946  |
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New Member
 United States
14 Posts |
Thanks for the replies everyone. And thanks to the mods for moving my post. I thought I looked for a more appropriate forum but obviously not close enough. I think I will expand my collection somewhat but still not for complete date runs except for a few coins I really like, like those kiwis.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2871 Posts |
I collect a few specific areas and then whatever takes my fancy on top of that. One of my specific areas are the hammered rupees of the British Raj and Mughal / Maratha empires. Actually determining what is a "variety" there is pretty grey, as you can get different date or cuplet placings that's still the same coin from one point of view, a variety from another, and a definite subtype from another. Then you can add striking on top of that as the dies were nearly always bigger than the flans for these,
So it really falls back to whatever takes my fancy at that particular time. Condition and getting the important bits on the flan tend to trump getting a separate placing of the various parts, but not always.
I also collect some medieval and Roman Provincial types where individual dies are the important thing.
Varieties seems to be more a modern milled coins thing, prior to that anything different might well be quite important.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7936 Posts |
I think some of the respomses thus far add up to "It depends on what you mean by a variety."
For me, the change in privy marks is a more substantial variety than a die variety where the king has one more curl in his hair.
That said, I started as a type collector, then when I began to play How Far Back I graduated to type & date runs for certain places.
Uninterested in varieties for the most part.
Edited by tdziemia
06/08/2025 2:36 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3343 Posts |
So many world coin runs..none of them complete.
For me it started with France. Revolutionary sols with the table of the law. 5 franc early Republican Hercules. Decimes. 2 franc 19th century monarchs. The stoppers on many of these series are the huge number of mintmarks and extreme scarcity, and my interest tapered off. Then Spanish colonial cobs. Still looking for late date Potosi now and then. Most recently Carthage pre Roman. And there are also short term interests in Dutch and Brabant silver, Celtic, Mysia and Lydia, and English pre Victorian. I've thought about German and Austrian but the field is too vast for me to find a place to start. I generally start with a single type coin I like, then expand.
"Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire
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New Member
United States
14 Posts |
Quote:
I think some of the responses thus far add up to "It depends on what you mean by a variety."
For me, the change in privy marks is a more substantial variety than a die variety where the king has one more curl in his hair. I agree. I guess I kind of look at it as did they intend to make this change. Privy marks and mint marks are obvious as are dates. They had a reason to make the change. As far as the "one more curl" type varieties I wonder if it was a conscious decision, a mistake, or just someone wanting a change for change sake. When I ID my coins I will make an effort to ID the variety just for accuracy sake but I'm not going to go out of my way to look for them. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I will keep them as a different coin. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17911 Posts |
Interesting question. I suppose with me it's whether the variety is listed in a major catalog. I learn of obscure new varieties almost every day on CCF, but if a particular type of Ruritanian 5 Cents exists with the 'T' of 'cents' pointing to a space and to a tooth, I'm honestly not bothered about keeping both!
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New Member
United States
14 Posts |
Just an update if anyone cares. My last purchase on ebay of a 10 pound lot was giving me so many date and mintmark varieties as well as new types that I have decided to branch out and collect them as well. It was a great lot for that. Things like 20 examples of a 10 yen yen Japanese coin that would have meant adding 2 new types to the collection instead 18 out of the 20 were different years. When all is said and done I'll probably add 300 types and more than twice that in date and MM varieties. I'm still not really looking for the 98 stars around the rim as opposed to 99 or the fat 7 vs thin 7 type varieties. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2871 Posts |
Quote:
For me, the change in privy marks is a more substantial variety than a die variety where the king has one more curl in his hair. I understand this completely as it seems superficial and almost certainly is for milled coins - though thinking back to my Edward 1st pennies it is something like a hair curl that determines the variety and that in turn determines the date - or at least date range - so I'm quite interested in that as it could tie in with a notable historical event - which is a very strong reason why I collect coins in the first place  |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,295 |
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Posted 06/07/2025 4:38 pm
Uncirculated American Silver Eagles 
