World Coins -vs-US Coins

What sort of American coin would sell for that much?

When I actually think about it, it does make more sense for Americans to deman more coins. The cost of a coin may actually increase with the Purchasing Power of a country which is a strange relationship from an economists viewpoint.

hontontai, my immediate hunch was that ancient coins (e.g. coins dating back to the Roman Empire and further) were out of the price range of your average collector. As such, I have never thought of looking for such coins.

 

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You can find Roman, Celtic, and others at very reasonable prices if you look for them uncleaned lots are a good place to start. One other thing about American collectors is there are so many more of them compared to European collectors, therby pushing up prices on available coins

 

Is that really true?

Or could it be that European collectors can choose from ancient to modern coinage (thousands of years) when collecting coins of their home country, while US collectors can only choose from the 1790s onward (or, if adopting a broader perspective, from Christopher Columbus onward unless including wampum and other forms of primitive money)?

You could spend a lifetime just trying to complete a German States type set (even Saxony alone would be a major undertaking). Completing a US type set, by comparison, is no big deal if you have sufficient cash.

 

It seems to be quite an issue that I began here. From what I can tell, each opinion is just that, one's opinion.
I thought it was interesting that the US has far more grading companies, and the taste for graded coins than the foreign countries.

The main reason I asked this question was based on the advice of rather shrewd investor and his recap on "his opinion".
I thank you all for adding in your opinion, knowledge and historical tidbits.

The comment were both intersting and personal. I can tell that there are large differences in knowledge and experience by reading the reply's. Thank's

Chow........

 

I think one reason so few European coins are slabbed is simply that with older European coins no-one has to worry about minute distinctions of mint state, they are simply poor, good, very good, fine, very fine, or extremely fine--and most collectors feel competent to make the judgement themselves. Though admittedly, a coin might classify as "good" from the 19th century, but "very fine" or xf if a coin in the same condition came from the 16th century. I'm not a fan of slabs myself; I like to pick a coin up (albeit carefully) and view it "naked".

 

Toning indicative of authenticity?

Speaking of cleaning, a point I have been wondering: is toning proof/indicative of authenticity, or can it be faked? I saw a really lovely 8 Reales from Colombia from 1759 on ebay the other day that was almost black, but beautifully preserved. The seller even put in the caveat that he could not guarantee its authenticity, but the price zipped up from $100 to $1900 before I could seriously consider putting in a bid.

 

I watched that coin and another by the same seller, both major rarities, go for four figures. It is astounding what people will pay for coins which are so heavily faked as these two particular issues are, when the seller doesn't even bother to claim they are authentic.

 

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1600_1699/jahangir/hugecoin/hugecoin.html

For those who has never heard of the 1000 Mohur coin (such as me) I found this article that giver a description and history of it. Quite interesting.

 

Thanks for the link

 

Rather than use a hunch or nationalist bias, the thing to do is simply check the selling prices of the coins.

To answer your question "What sort of American coin would sell for that much?", check the sales records. I'm not sure what you mean by "that much", but the record for a US coin is $7.3 million. What is the record price for a coin from your neighborhood ?

Roman empire coins are easily available for less than cost of lunch.

 

yes, that's quite true!
eg, i m from china. and a coin of sung dynasty in 13th century often cost less than 50 us cents. haha.

if you like, i can supply them on ebay , haha,

have a nice time!