Thread: Undervalued Coins?

What are some good undervalued world coins in your opinion with high upside?

I personally believe the Canadian Silver Dollars (particularly the key dates 1954 (241k), 1955 (260k), and 1957 (198k) are very undervalued and have tremendous upside over the next couple decades. I got all 3 in MS-60 for under $90 total.

Any other world coins that you think are ripe for a surge over the next 5-10 years?

Most nickel 3 cents are undervalued, especially the 1876 with a mintage o f 162k, is no more than $20 more valuable in au or higher, and no more than $5 in vf-au, despite 11220000 less minted.

Check the mintages on the barber quarters.

many undervalued.

the 1914 S has the same mintage as the 1916 D Merc, for a fraction of the price

Are you just interested in circulating coins or maybe 1 oz silver bullion series coins also? ie panda, kookaburra, kangaroo etc.

I was actually just looking at getting a couple silver canadian dollars. I found a few for what I considered cheap and in great condition. And I've always thought a couple of the low mintage year silver war nickels in AU and up were undervalued. Picked up a 1943d (only 15,000,000), MS with full steps for $6.50. I can see these going up in quite a bit in 5-10 yrs. Hopefully.

Any country with a growing population, high economic growth and large numbers of people leaving poorly paid agricultural work for middle-class city jobs will do well: India, Indonesia, much of Latin America. China is already mature [prices look like they are in bubble territory to me].

I'm not sure how much of the early clad coinage has survived in the highest grades...I suspect "not much"...potentially making it an undervalued area of collecting.

I've been buying OBW rolls and mint sets from 1965 to 1972 and setting aside the very best examples I can find in hopes of one day having them certified.

The "Type-B reverse" Washington quarter is another undervalued area of collecting (imo). You can still find them in rolls and Mint sets, but they represent less than 5% of the total coinage.

For anyone that's not familiar with the Type-B reverse...from 1956 to 1964, the Philadelphia Mint used Proof dies (that no longer had the quality to produce proof coins) to produce business strike coins.

There are slight (but noticable) differences between the Type-A (business strike) reverse and the Type-B (proof strike) reverse...most noticably, the gap between the "E" and "S" in "STATES".

Note: Walter Breen, in his Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Coins, suggests that the Philadelphia Mint also sent used proof dies to the Denver mint from 1956 to 1972, but I haven't seen a Denver minted Type-B reverse in person. I suspect they are extremely rare if you're lucky enough to find one.

I'm a fan of the US Philippines coinage, and I've seen the prices rising pretty sharply there. The high grade, Territorial coins have already matured pretty heavily, but the Commonwealth issues are widely available at or near melt.

Thanks for the feedback!

I got pretty comfortable in my knowledge with Morgans and Buffalo Nickels, so for now I will continue focus in these areas.

Still, this time around, I will look for my local coin club and invest more in education and classes.

One reason I stopped, was my "collection" was more a hoard.

Need to keep reminding myself to focus on quality coins and only consider key and semi key dates.

Don't forget world coin mintsets! These were largely ignored by many collectors for years, and now I'm noticing price rises... Especially for those "up and coming" countries that were mentioned. I keep the closest watch on South Korean mintsets...and I buy 'em, too!

We were just talking about it on another recent thread, but I think Brazilian coins are way undervalued. Look at the coins from about 1900-1930. A lot of them have mintages less than a million, or not much more, and my Krause (which is a 2007 edition) lists them at a few dollars. They are neat coins and Brazil is growing a lot. If they haven't gone up already they will. I hesitate to recommend it though since I'm hoping to buy more myself and I don't need any more competition.

Originally Posted by mlov43

Don't forget world coin mintsets! These were largely ignored by many collectors for years, and now I'm noticing price rises... Especially for those "up and coming" countries that were mentioned. I keep the closest watch on South Korean mintsets...and I buy 'em, too!

Most world mint sets from the '50's to '90's are grossly undervalued. Indeed most world cu/ ni coins of high denomination since WW II are grossly undervalued and especially if they didn't appear in mint sets. People quit saving new coins all over the world when silver was removed and now many of these coins are scarce or rare. Being in a mint set increases the chances of some surviving but the mint sets have suffered horrendous attrition because the aggregate price of the coins in these sets tends to be two or three dollars. People didn't care about cheap coins that everyone considered common and the coins were cut out and dumped in junk boxes. In modern times high mintages actually work against the survivability of a coin because it is considered common and undesirable. This constitutes three strikes against base metal coins and they were never saved new or even as they wore out. Now most have been destroyed to make consumer products so all that survive are a handful of highly degraded coins that people forgot to exchange.

Mint set coins are typically better made coins because they were specially made for sets or they were specially selected for sets. Mintages tend to be very low, quality is very high, and attrition is staggering. They made only five or ten thousand of the Swiss mint sets for instance and most of these coins appear virtually Proof Like. The same thing applies to the Russian mint sets. There are numerous mint sets not listed in Krause but most of these had mintages of a few hundred and even heavily produced sets are normally under 10,000.

Don't just run out and spend money on these sets though or you'll end up with a lot of common sets. Do your due diligence. I personally would avoid the sets that have already gone up hundreds fold but if you want to collect these then that should be OK. Keep in mind that the market for moderns is still thin so these markets are not as mature as the old coins. Price changes can be substantial and some have gone down.

I think it's safe to predict that the rarities of this century are going to prove to be the coins made in the last half of the 20th century. I believe there will prove to be a startling number of high mintage coins that don't exist in unc at all. A few of these will be tough in any grade. Countries with a rapidly growing middle class are the ones where the most price action will be seen first.

They made huge numbers of things like Indian mint sets but these aren't much seen in the US. I'd guess the attrition on these might be among the highest of moderns. Indian proof sets are highly desirable and these also have substantial attrition since they contain silver. I'd wager a few of these are being destroyed now because the owner doesn't know they've increased dramatically this year and he's just getting rid of "junk silver". While proof sets are unlikely to have the demand that the mint sets get and have much lower attrition usually, I believe many world proof sets may be a good longer term purchase.

I think that Newfoundland coins are grossly undervalued, but people have been saying that for 10 years and no real POP, but trending nicely upward in the last year! However, with general Canadian coinage really picking up steam, newfoundland stuff, I think, is a steal right now. Just look at the mintages. High grade Victorian examples of ANY Canadian coinage has really started moving. The problem is that most Canadian collectors still don't feel like Newfoundland stuff belongs in their collecting niche or forte, although they became a part of the country in the late 40's. All coins were well struck and many 60+ coins survive .. they are just in drawers and cans.

Originally Posted by cladking

Most world mint sets from the '50's to '90's are grossly undervalued. Indeed most world cu/ ni coins of high denomination since WW II are grossly undervalued and especially if they didn't appear in mint sets.

My Father left me his coin collection when he passed. I don't know if it was a fad at the time, but he had a bunch of Nepalese mint sets from the late 60's, early 70's. I collect some world coins (not many), but these looked pretty nice and were likely obscure enough to be worth something. They're worth about what he paid for them 40 years ago. I like the coins, but I won't be quitting my day job any time soon.

I collect some Thai coins and feel those can be cheap. Its weird, a lot of these world coins are actually cheaper in the states than they are in their home countries.

Like someone else mentioned, look for a country with a collecting tradition, and an "up and comer", and most likely their material will come up. I am glad I bought my Russian and Chinese coins when I did.