All - I'm wanting to branch out my collection to Vietnamese coins, my interest being related to the fact tha my wife of 5 years is of Viet ancestry. With only about 40 different coins produced by the governments of Vietnam and South Vietnam since 1946, it seems like a fairly easy set to complete. I see the following listings on eBay. Can anybody opine as to whether these are legit, or whether they're listing fakes? The fact that all sellers are in Asia gives me pause. http://www.ebay.com/itm/120807205742?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 http://www.ebay.com/itm/190666527350?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 http://www.ebay.com/itm/120836241893?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 http://www.ebay.com/itm/270793052834?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 Thanks! Regards, Brian
Brian, they look ok to me. My wife is Thai, and they make similar sets for Thai coins. Ebay is not a bad place for such sets, lots of service members bought them back in the day and are selling them off. You are lucky to only have to worry about 40 coins since 1946. The thais produce new coin designs every year, there are literally hundreds produced in Thailand in the same period.
Thanks for the reply medoraman. I'm being cautious as the prices they're asking are a really low percentage of catalog retail for the coins, and the recent influx of Asian counterfeiters also gives me pause, especially given the sellers of these listing are all in Asia. The 40 I count are for circulating issues. If I were to add commems/NCLT, the size would increase rapidly and would also get more expensive. I'm happy collecting the issues intended for circulation.
Well, if you get tired of those 40, let me know. I collect the cash more than anything else for asian coins. There finally is a great book in English for Vietnamese cash coins.
I think I've heard of that book. It's by Barker and out of print, right? Once I complete the 40, I may try to go back and start collecting the cash coins of the various Viet emperors, and the French Indochina colonial coinage.
Its Barker. I didn't know it was out of print. If it is, I will buy other copies if I run across them cheap, as its a simply fantastic book, exactly what was needed.
Really hard to find, even on the Internet. Amazon has it listed used for $150: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9810523009/jamsession
Brutal. I do have a few other sources if someone is looking for this I could check. I bought mine for I believe $40.
Curiously enough I started my coin collecting habit when my dad brought home a bag of Vietnamese coins and paper money, along with MPC's when he came back from his last tour there.
Nice site. I would say one thing though, the Barker book is just a fantastic book, full of a lot more information than just a catalog of coins. I recommended it for years to any Cash collector since it has the best explanation and pictures of the method of making cash coins I have ever read, along with a great tutorial as to how Chinese characters evolved. This is a major point about a lot of coin books. It NOT just a listing of coin types, its true knowledge, the type of knowledge that greatly enhances your appreciation of your coins. People think I am flippant sometimes when I tell them to READ their coin books. Way too many are only used to attribute a coin, when a lot of the value is the other information contained within.
