I finally got one of my 'white whales' today

For at least two years I've been looking for about four or five modern Mexican coins that simply cannot be found. Every week I check eBay, and I always look at the world coin bins when I visit a coin shop. Well, today I finally found one of them. And ironically, I found two. It may not look like much, but this 1990 10 pesos has been very hard to track down.

 

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Wonder why? They made over 100 million of them.

 

It was the last year for this type so maybe they were destroyed.

 

What are the other 2 ;you are looking for ???? I collect Mexican coins too.

 

Nice story and I can relate.

Sometimes if it's worth "almost nothing" in the catalog, you wonder why sellers on ebay would want to list them. I can't remember what the fees are like for them but with the recent ebay listing, they wanted to charge 1.50 for each listing after you use 40 free listings. For a coin that's worth around 2 dollars or less, that's so not worth it! I'm sure regular ebay sellers have different listing costs but that's just plain absurd.

To be honest, I think you might have a shot of finding such coins in coin lots as some sellers like to get rid of "cheap" coins this way.

 

I know US collectors are not used to this, but its very common in ancients and world coins.

I know its a little different price scale, but one time I was looking for a coin from Colchis since I was having a foreign exchange student from Georgia coming. I went to CICF, checked about every ancient dealer around the world, nothing. Everyone I asked said the same thing, "its a scarce coin, but not rare. It should be no problem to find one".

However, doesn't it make the acquisition that much sweeter? I mean, if you could have ordered this coin up for $5 at any time, and 50 people had them for sale, you would not appreciate the coin the same way as you do now, right? Sometimes a struggle is a good thing. Its part of the reason I became disinterested in US coins. Everything I collected was available at any moment, given you could write the check. Kind of takes the fun out of the pursuit.

 

Btw, sorry man. I didn't know you were looking for this coin. I checked a box of Mexican I got from Frank Robinson and this coin is in there.

 

True, it is like this coin also from 1990. I searched for a good specimen for quite a long time. Some might consider it strange not to find a coin from the 90´s.

KM 218.3 Chile 10 Pesos 1990 (Liberty figure)

 

I know that feeling, Hiddendragon. Congratulations!

In fact, I keep part of my coin budget constantly in reserve, so that if the desired prey should wander into a clearing, I've got an arrow left to take it down.

 

The other three big ones I look for are 1986 20 pesos, 1992 500 pesos and 2002 5 centavos.

I sell on eBay and the listing fees aren't too bad for me, but I agree that someone who has what looks like a common coin might not bother to list it. If I wasn't really focused on this subject I'd never look twice at this coin.

 

You're right, it is sweeter when you finally find it. And it's nice that I didn't have to spend a bunch of money like I would for some of the missing dates in other areas that I collect. This one cost me 10 cents.

In my experience there are several modern Mexican coins that sell for way above their book value. Krause doesn't realize it, but people who collect the series can't find them so they bid them up really high when the come on the market. The 1973 1 centavo and 1975 10 pesos are examples.

 

I have a list of coins that I search for on eBay about once a week just in case they become available, because if they do I don't want to miss it. When you are only a few coins away from completing a set, you get willing to spend a little more to get it complete. I've only ever completed one set that I aimed at so far, but a few others are pretty close.

 

Nope, do not have any of the moderns you are looking for dragon. You will get them,.

 

Thanks for checking. Sometimes I wonder if they even really made them. Krause lists them, but I don't know if it is always correct.

 

So as I said in my post, I found two of these and so I decided to sell the one in worse shape and keep the better one. The one I sold is the one pictured above. Well, I started the bidding at $1 and it sold for $16.50! It goes to show that I wasn't the only one looking for these. Krause gives a value of 25 cents.

 

Nice work! I can't seem to sell anything for a profit, lol.

 

Usually my profits are much more modest. I like to buy coins from the dealer's value bins that I know I can sell and list them when there are free listings available. It gives me a little extra to buy coins that I need. It really helps to know what the key dates are in world coins and what kinds of things sell. Since I spent a lot of time building my Mexican collection, I know what the tough dates are and I pick them up when I see them. To most people they just look like a common coin.

 

While I was at the Cowtown Coin Show in Fort Worth yesterday, I checked 4 dealers in Mexico coins for you. None had any of the above. One offered to take down the list and see if he could find them. Hopefully you will luck out and I get a call from him. Have you tried Mike Dunigan at Rare coins of Mexico. He is in Fort Worth. Maybe on my next day off, I'll drive over there and check his inventory. His # is (817) 737-3400.

 

Thanks for doing that. I'm not sure if I checked that site, but usually coins like these don't show up on people's radars as being "rare." It's one of those things that you only realize is rare when you look for it and can't find it.

 

Hah hah. I'm *still* trying to find a Malaysia 10 cent 1971 piece. I have three friends in Malaysia (two in KL and one in Penang) looking for it, as well.

Congrats on your find.