Long overdue I know but just got the SCWC 6th edition (1801-1901) and a weighty tome it is. However, I have been a bit astonished by the values specified as I have found almost everything commands significantly higher prices in the auctions irrespective of geographical location. Should I use the catalogue for identification purposes, etc rather than as a market indicator or am I seeing things?
i use my krause catalogues as a guide for identification rather than prices, but there are some omissions i have a newish oriental coin, probably 2004 in cupro nickel and i think it may be japanese but it isn't in krause. i'll scan it and put in on here surely someone knows what it is.
as i live in the uk and i value my coins in sterling, on that frony krause catalogues are not really useful to me as the values are all in dollars, i think that they would be more useful to you for valuation as you live in the states, so there are two sides to the coin (no pun intended).
I live in the Uk too but not difficult to estimate the conversion.....but seems way off anyway. For example some indian coins I'm bidding on were getting an estimate by the auction house about 5 times the dollar value in Krause.....and will probably achieve that and more...
I've had and used Krause's for 30 years and the prices are always out of whack. Use them for ID purposes only but, even at that and with so many entries, there are many errors and omissions other than pricing that ride there for years and years. They are wonderful books to have in your library, but it's certainly not always the last word. Certain countries get both hot or can "fall from grace" in a very short period of time. It takes references a long time to catch up.
It cuts both ways as well. I agree certain coins can easily get hot and make book values way too low, but I remember in the 90's that British material could easily be found at half catalog value, for choice material. Nowadays this is not the case, but just pointing out catalog values will go both ways in this argument. Krause is decent for attribution, and for seeing relative rarity amongst the issues. To me, that is about as much as can be hoped for, especially considering a global marketplace.
You should not use Krausse for estimates of values for coins valued at over $100. For some coins, prices are for entertainment only. Use auction archives of the major auctionhouses. But the KM guides are a great reference tool, especially if you're looking up coins out of your area of expertise.
I've found a lot of dealers seem to use the Krause catalog prices for world minors (usually selling for 80% of book, rounding the grades up). Those prices are typically out of whack with what you can get on eBay or other auction sites, especially with the BRIC countries.
All book,s such as this should only be used for identification, they are basically outdated As far as values even before they are released !!
It goes for any book or catalog. Books and catalogs have never been used for pricing by anybody who knows the coins - only for the information they contain. For prices anywhere near reality you have to use realized acution prices.
I completely agree with Doug on how to price coins, but I find a wealth of useful information using the SCWC. A feature I find useful to determining a value is looking a coin up to see if it is a particularly scarce mint year for that type, or if there are well known varieties of the type of coin in question. As an example, I purchased a small bag of foreign coins at an antique mini mall one time for about $1.50, inside was a New Zealand Shilling 1942. I thought it was a cool find recognizing it as silver right away, but than I looked it up in the SCWC and find it to be the lowest mintage year of that type and wait it got better, upon closer inspection I realized that I had a "Broken Back" Variety (Doubling the value). I love my SCWC guides and use them often to research foreign coins!
Krause does the absolute bare minimum on all fronts. But as the only such catalog in the field they are not being pushed to do any more than that minimum. As such it is only usable at the bare min of identification. Not much has changed from print to print so youd think theyd work a little to add more knowledge, namely on VAMS and such. But apparently they are making their money regardless of effort.
