I have been getting into colonial coins more lately, and I found this today, I can buy for a little under $40, shipping included. I really like the coin, 1912 portuguese India rupia, looking in my book it says 300,000 mintage and a value for the regular 1912 of $125 in xf. There is also a 1912/1 listed, at $285 in xf. Is this a great deal, or am I missing something?
This is one of those "what is the value" questions. American coins are well traded and values are mostly set. Same for Canadian, British, etc. Mexico, a little less, Portugal a little less, and Portugese Colonial.............??? It is a nice coin and appears to be a good buy if you want it.
All I know is, there's a lot of them on eBay. Search for "rupia" and you get 186 hits, not all like yours, of course.
Its a small island nation owned by Portuguese from the 16th century til 1962. That's what world book noted. Km#20 if my eyes are working good today. This first time I seen this country coinage too.
Only a grossly-misinformed Seller would list a similar coin with a "rupee" denomination; it is CLEARLY "rupia," and listing as "rupee" should be a red flag.
As a general rule, use Krause for identification and reference, ignore the listed values as they are wrong more often than right. Also, $40 would be too much for this coin. Cleaned examples like this can be had for around $25.
eBay rule I use is never take a seller word as if was 100% fact. Do your homework before you bid or buy ! Never snipe til homework is completely done. Good Bye
A lot of Portuguese India silver coins have been put out to the market by a Portuguese bank (Caixa Geral de Depositos), so its' price has been dropping for the past 3-4 years in Portugal. It's just one of the situations where catalogues haven't been updating the market prices. Moreover, the 1912 and 1912/1 rupias available on the market are mostly circulated ones, and many of them cleaned. Good and cheap coins can be 1935 Rupia or the 1936 1/2 Rupia that you can easily find in mint state.
