India Proof Sets from the 70s

Anyone very familiar with Proof Sets from India? A year or so ago, I found a 1973 proof set in my dealer's box of clearance stuff for $10. It was my birth year so I snagged it. Looked on ebay and it was selling for about $100. Went back to the store and picked up sets for 1970, 1971, 1972 and the other 1973 because they were all apparently very low mintage sets too and had original boxes.

Just saw this 1971 set go for $690. Others were in the $200-300 range. Has the economy growth in India really affected prices this much?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...0.l2557&hash=item5ae095542e&item=390314939438

Thanks,
Scott

 

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Indian proof sets starting in 1950 have been dramatically undervalued for many years. Largely it was a matter of the fact that there just wasn't any demand for them. Mintages were high enough that you saw them around but low enough that none are common. But there were no buyers at almost any price because people just didn't collect modern Indian coins either in the US or in India.

In the last few years demand has finally begun for these aluminum, brass, ni/ brass and cu/ ni coins so low mintage coinage is being severly impacted. The oldest proof sets have had the biggest run up so far with the 1950 going from $15 several years back to $1500 now. Mintage on this set must be very low judging by how rarely it's seen.

Frankly I believe the real opportunity is in the coins made for circulation. These all still list for pennies to a few dollars but anyone who has ever tried to assemble sets knows that most are unavailable. This especially applies to the higher denominations. I doubt any of the Rupees from before 1988 are common. Ironically when I started out I didn't even bother with circulated examples but it looks as though many of these moderns are even going to be tough in any grad because of the remarkable attrition on Indian coins. They are periodically debased and people, melters, and the government all compete to destroy the older coinage.

The circulating coinage is usually collected much more widely than proof issues and as scarce as the proofs are I've always found the uncs to be tougher. Higher prices will bring some of these out of hiding but this will mostly be the aluminum coinage since people couldn't afford to save the higher denominations.

Like most moderns though it's very very difficult to tell the rare coins from the common. Sure something like a '62 R in unc is tough but what about the '82. Just because you can't find something with a lot of effort doesn't prove it's rare. You have to wait for the price to go through the roof and see if there are any for sale. Generally what you see is what you get. Generally moderns are either quite scarce or distressingly common with few things in between. If you find it then it's common, if you don't there's a good chance it's rare.

I wasn't aware these sets were bringing even higher prices than the sharply increased prices in Krause but it's not too surprising. It won't be long till you see this same thing all over Indian coins and most world moderns. Advances of 100 fold are really quite common for moderns which isn't too shabby when you consider there are almost no modern collectors. The coins are so rare in pristine condition that just a few collectors will cause the prices to explode.

 

Thanks for the write up! Never thought about the circulation pieces. Makes me wish I extended my sets earlier. I like some of the designs, even if the messages were rather political. At 3000-5000 sets each year (in the 70s), I knew they were pretty rare, but never looked back to the 50s. I saw two 1954 proof sets going on ebay earlier today (1500-2500 if I remember right).

 

Awesome!

It's really awesome you got such a good deal on these coins! I collect coins from British India and early republic of India coins. I have been hunting for the proof sets for quite a while but haven't been able to get it at a sane price. I hope you enjoy those coins!!!

 

I sold 5 India proof sets on ebay for over $1200. I received dozens of messages asking if I had more. Thet were all in the same years you mentioned. Early 70's. Please note, some of the proof sets came in 2 styles from the same year. One has an extra coin in it.

 

If anyone is interested the prices on these sets in the new Krause are way higher again. The 1971 that listed for $85 last year is $525 this year. I think the 1969 set is grossly undervalued relative the other sets. This one is low mintage and is likely to have far higher demand in the future than the others.

The real increases this year are the Soviet moderns. Some of these are up 24000% . One mint set went from $20 to $2800 and many individual coins that listed as common are now over $100. Australia also has a few sharp gains in the moderns.

People should remember that many moderns are still grossly undervalued in the catalog. Even those which have gone up recently will bring stronger prices than catalog in their home markets. Indian proof sets still seem to be a bargain to me though not so much as they were. With mintages even under 5,000 and a very high attrition it seems unlikely that 1.1 billion Indians can't create a lot more demand than is seen.

Keep in mind that the circulation issues are actually more difficult to find than the proof in many cases. Look for issues that didn't appear in mint sets. Even mint set coins may be undervalued lot but I don't know. This is the tough thing about moderns is that it's hard to determine rarity until collectors start looking for the coins.

 

cladking, I have a good idea of the average price of Soviet mintsets but I don't think I know any that has hit the 2000 dollar mark yet. What mintset is it? Besides, prices of Soviet mintsets has stagnated for a couple of years. If you said Chinese mintsets, I wouldn't disagree.

 

It could be a misprint but the 1991 set is listed at over $2800.

 

cladking, I think I know what it is. Does it mention anything about missing mintmarks on the 1991 10 and 20 kopek? Those are by far extremely rare and I don't know if they can only be found in mintsets. The most expensive Russian mintset (non precious metals) was the 1992 mint set with the wrong date 50 ruble (1993) which was sold over 2000+ dollars.

Putting all those varieties aside, the most expensive Russian mintset not including precious metals, NCLT etc goes to the 1970 mintset which has been sitting at around 800USD or so.

 

Nice pick-ups Scott!,
and thanks for the Info! I would have never even given those sets a second look. I try to attend as many shows as I can. You can bet I'll be looking for those now too! I know I have seen these in junk bins, I wish I had known this a couple weeks ago!

Thanks Again!
Mark

 

Sorry for missing the post.

It appears you are correct with the 10 and 20 k. Krause lists the '70 mint set at $2,050 now.

 

Bit too high for the 1970 mintset Cladking. Maybe 1000-1500 but not 2050USD. i've been tracking down prices so I have a good idea.

 

India Proof Sets

Does anybody know where to find the mintage for the India Proof sets?

I have sets I bought many years ago starting from 1969 up to 1993 which I am considering putting up for
auction but I have no idea of numbers made or value. Any advice would be appreciated.

Jay

 

Some Krause mintage figures are suspect but these seem to be in line with what's seen;

'69 9,097
'70 2,900
'71 4,161
'72 7,701
'73 ~10,900
'74 9,138 (+silver mintage)
'75 2,370 (+)
'76 3,209

Other dates aren't listed and are probably low mintage since they aren't seen.

Prices are up again this year with the '54 @ $2,875.00

The '69 is up sharply to $265 but still grossly underpriced in my opinion. Many of these sets are corroded because they are packaged in PVC plastic. Since the coins haven't been collected few of the coins have been stabilized in acetone. Probably 80% are already significantly damaged. There were two different packaging systems used in '69; Paramount was likely responsible for the less commonly used ones which are a little more stable.

 

India coin sets

Thank you for your detailed reply.

I have a 1954 set as well as the coin sets issued from 1969 onwards up to 1993.

Any thoughts on the best way of disposing them?

Jay

 

Most people will tell you eBay I think. I don't know.

PM me if the 1969 set is pristine.

 

i'm interested in it

you can pm me if you want to sell, I can take few of them

 

I am interested in them too. ebay prices are crazy for Indian proof coins.

 

India prices have exploded in the 2014 Krause. The 1954 set is now $4,000!!! The real winner is the 1967 mint set that went from $11 to $4000.

It's not to late to collect India but it has gotten very risky to speculate in India. The market still hasn't worked out the rare from the common so their are some very common coins sporting prices of several dollars now instead of several cents. If you collect you'll qickly learn what's easy and tough but if you speculate you'll end up with large quantities of very common coins. I still like the Uncs more than the proofs and especially the older ones with high mintages in Gem. Indian coins are often poorly made and many will have a rub. Cu/ ni can be well made but these are more prone to being slightly circulated. It appears the attrition on mint sets has been extremely high but mint sets will always represent at least a small supply. The winners will be those that have no supply. Most will probably be dated between 1950 and 1964 but there will be numerous scarce coins up until pretty modern times.

I like Gems because they are tough. I suspect a lot of the Gems that are seen came from mint sets but, incredibly, I've never seen an Indian mint set of any date. They were probably sold primarily in India. The proofs are more of a known quantity but the attrition rate is probably fairly high on these as well. I have seen proofs in junk boxes. All the packaging seems fairly stable except for the 1969 which is poor.

The one Rupee coins didn't go up much but they all appear to be pretty tough. Only the '70 was recognized as to its scarcity and it went up to $200 in nice choice condition. You're lucky to find it even in AU though.

I've always liked India a lot and it's nice to see that the demand is picking up. It's a shame I didn't collect these more systematically so I had the rarities. Availability has always been spotty so collecting them has been tough anyway.

 

Wow.. that's amazing. Still holding mine for the moment. Thanks for the update!
-Scott