Errors on non-US Coins

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression of collectors outside of the US (and maybe Canada) aren't nearly as interested in error coins as Americans are.
Is this a reasonably accurate statement?

I've go a few non-US coins that are errors.
One is an 2002 Austrian 2 Euro coin with two small clips, but large enough to cause the Blakesley Effect.
And I have two KGVI small coins (3p I believe) from one of the African Commonwealth countries with either repunched or recut numbers in the date.

Is there anything more than passing interest in these items?

 

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kanga:
I do believe that your assumption is correct.

 

Relative rarity is a factor.

For example, other than a few die cracks/breaks errors on modern milled Japanese coinage is virtually unheard of. Without multiple errors to boil the pot, there's nothing to create demand, and in numismatics it's demand, demand, demand, that drives prices.

 

Hard to say "yes" or "no". If you divide the world into two categories (US/Canada here, all others there), then the answer is yes, you are right. If you differentiate a little further, things look a little different.

Here in Germany for example quite a few people are interested in error pieces. Not as many as in the US, I suppose, and they will usually not pay the prices that US collectors are willing to pay. Don't collect error pieces myself, but here are a few sites about them, focusing on German mark pieces and on euro coins:
http://www.errorcoins.eu/
http://www.sammler.com/mz/mark_abarten.htm
http://www.sammler.com/mz/euro_abarten.htm

For Mark coins, Peter Neugebauer published an errors catalog a few years ago:
http://www.gietl-verlag.de/variante...en/buchdetail/36/1/themen/neuerscheinung.html
And later this year, his euro errors catalog will come out:
http://www.gietl-verlag.de/index.php?seite=buchempf&buchnr=134

Currently Burkhard Graichen, who has the biggest collection of German error coins, is trying to find a museum that would permanently exhibit his pieces. These photos were taken on previous occasions, e.g. when he showed them at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt:
http://www.emuenzen.de/forum/allgem...museum-unterstuetzung-durch-dieses-forum.html

That page, and the photos, should be accessible without signing up over there. Some of the photos show many coins but not many details. Still interesting though ...

Christian

 

First off... Thank you so much for asking this question, kanga. I recently came across a few foreign error coins myself, most recently a Honduran coin that was either double struck or machine doubled, I'm not sure which. (If my photography skills or camera improve, I'll post pics in a new thread.)
Secondly... A BIG thank you to chrisild for the links and resources! I just hope that author comes out with an English version. Are German error coins the only ones that are collectible?

 

Don't think so. But in order to have a fairly high number of error collectors, you need to have a big numismatic community, and as hontonai wrote, a "sufficient" number of (preferably domestic) error coins. That applies to Germany but, as I mentioned, does not mean that collectors are willing to pay very high prices. Guess there is also a market for British error pieces in the UK for example, but I'm not exactly the right person to answer that.

Christian

 

i live in india which is outside the US and Canada and there are a lot of pple interested in error coins from not just india but around everywhere. I base this opinion on the selling prices on most of the error coins going on ebay india, delcampe etc etc, also the prominence given to this coins in a display in coin shops. Even the books related to india coins krause, pridmore blah blah mention varities which may be considered errors in ways.
If i can add,the world is just too big to make a generalized statement, however in countries having either ancient civilzation and/or developed world where numismatics have a long history i presume pple would definitely be interested in errors or unusual varieties of coins.

 

In general, I believe that maybe the case kanga.

That however depends on what country you are talking about. For instance, Japanese and Korean error coins are extremely uncommon and if you happen to have one in your collection, I'm pretty sure it will bring very strong price.

 

I'd have to agree with him. :thumb:

I think the difference is more in numbers, than anything else. I believe we have a higher percentage of coin collectors per capita, than most other countries so it appears we love errors and others don't. :kewl:

Look at the 20P error that recently occurred in the UK. That little boogher is hot and those coins are selling at a serious premium and I recently had a Conder collector tell me that errors on Conders will bring a much higher premium than a rare edge variety of a common coin. Go figure? :goof: Here's a good one to look at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160355968472&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

That lil boogher went for almost $300 and had it not been a brockage, it would have went for half that or less. I woke up this morning to snipe it and when I clicked on the BID button, nothing happened and by the time I got control back, the auction was over and my bid never made it in. I'm so pee'd about losing that one! :headbang: I love Spence tokens and that would have been the showcase coin in my Conder collection, had I won it. :goofer:

Ribbit

 

My girlfriend would be interested in collecting them, she likes everything. Me personally, i'd like the Euro, German, Russian, ect. i'd only like the error paper, or chip coins. To me those would be interesting.

 

One of the things I've noticed is there seems to be quite a few sellers on Ebay with error world coins and they don't have a clue what they are. Here's a perfect example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/A-VERY-INTERESTING-1960-THREEPENCE-MINT-ERROR_W0QQitemZ310161023576

Compare it to another one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1956-ELIZABETH-II-THREEPENCE_W0QQitemZ270446412838

It's easy to see the first one is round, not 12 sided, so it was stamped on the wrong planchet and it a pretty serious error but the price is dirt cheap.

I tired to find someone (CT member) that collects English coins but I don't know who does so I sent it to someone who still hasn't gotten the PM and then I watched it go for peanuts. :goofer: So the errors are out there and some of them are serious errors and they can be had fairly cheap, if you know what to look for.

Ribbit

 

This one didn't go cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...376&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&autorefresh=true

That was a good one but it also has Colonial US ties so that probably affected the final bid.

Ribbit

 

On ancient coins, most things aren't even considered "errors" (at least in the collectible sense). Die breaks or recut dies are the rule, not the exception and even off center strikes are so common as to be irrelevant. But some errors are attractive:



Tiberius
AE semis – 18mm
Lugdunum, 12-14 AD
TI CAESAR AVGVST F IMPERAT VII
laureate head r.
brockage of obverse, intended Altar of Lugdunum type
RIC 246 [Augustus]

 

added to my error collection this week

Last summer in Buenos Aires I visited 4 or 5 coin shops. They showed me all their error coins. Many were over-priced by my USA standards. I bought some off centers & a rotated reverse which were pretty cool.

This Argentina coin was added to my error collection this week. Please let me know what you think of it.

Very best regards,
collect89

 

Here is the reverse.

I think you can enlarge the photos if you click on them.

P.S. PLEASE CLICK ON THIS REVERSE PHOTO & TELL ME IF IT LOOKS LIKE IT SAYS "1986 10 CENTAVO".

 

Label says 50 centavos

I'm pretty sure that the TPG messed-up on this label. The coin is struck by dies for the 10 Centavos coin.

Very best regards,
collect89

 

Sorry for any confusion. Like most, I think much more than I type.

I meant to state that there were four or five good sized coin shops in Buenos Aires. This indicates that there is a decent coin collecting population located there. I spent time in each of the shops & they were well stocked & had patrons. The error coins offered to me were not low cost. Perhaps they were just trying to get bigger money from me because I was a tourist. There was about as much error coin collecting interest & material as I would expect to see at a USA coin shop. There were perhaps a dozen or two dozen error coins shown to me at each shop. (As I recall, one shop claimed that they had no errors to show me but I ended up buying a rotated reverse there).

The Argentina error coin I bought yesterday is an obverse die cap. The coin was stuck to the obverse die while it continued to stamp coins. My coin was struck by 10 Centavo dies so it is a 10 Centavo coin. The 10 Centavo die has the Argentina arms. The 50 Centavo die has a bust of Liberty.

My brain said "struck by dies for the 10-Centavo coin" while I was typing. Perhaps it was a 50 Centavo blank struck by 10 Centavo dies. I doubt that could happen (size of blank being too large for the machine) so it's probably just an incorrect label by NGC.

Very best regards,
collect89