Best place to buy coin sets for foreign countries? I have started to do a bit of international traveling and a lot of people I know who travel internationally will bring back something they can get in each country that is unique to that country (dolls, postcards, etc.). I decided that I wanted to get a coin set from each in the year I was there which would be unique to the country but also retain some value and be kind of cool to have currency from a number of different countries. Is each countries' mint the best place to get these online or is there a site where you can get multiple coin sets (like Royal Scandinavian)? Also, which would any of you recommend to get or not get? Proof sets, BU sets, individual silver or proof coins? Or does it really matter? Thanks
If I were traveling abroad I would definitely get coins and currency. I would just get them out of circulation via purchases. Actually that is how I got started coin collecting. I went to Niagara Falls in 1985 for a family vacation and we crossed the border into Canada. My dad had some leftover Canadian change when we crossed back into NY State so he divided it up between my sister, brother, and me.
Having a set of the year that you traveled to the country in is not possible "depending on the countries that you visit", because many countries do not issue yearly sets, or even yearly coins to begin with. in other countries proof and mint sets are rare, or expensive, for example my country "Bahrain - it is in the middle east by the way", the cheapest set you can find after some search is a silver set that costs 250$, if you go to India or china it will cost you even more. So, I agree with Rushmore on this, just get coins out of circulation. If you want to buy but not directly when you are in the country, I think e-bay is the best way to do it, just search for the sets for a couple of weeks to see the average price, and stay away from the "2" Chinese set sellers, they over price sets by 100% or more! if you want new sets "like 2012 or 2011 sets" you can get them from the mint that produced them "again if they are available on the site, and most importantly if the mint has a site that works!.
Some foreign countries do issue yearly proof sets but many do not. They DO NOT make sets like the US Mint though, when they do make a proof set it is very little. I am talking about in the hundreds not thousands, hence the high prices for those sets. Some countries like Japan control their collectible market by intentionally short printing their products or making it illegal to export certain collectibles.
Good point icerain, but demand plays a huge role in this, for example, Ghana PS2 1967 Proof Set, has a reported mintage of only 100 sets, and you can get it for around 100$, and there are no buyers even at that price. And Japan had astronomical mintage stats of early mint sets, exceeding 500,000!
Then again, some "foreign" countries do make lots of proof sets. Also, while in the US such sets are pretty much the only way to get all denominations, in other countries you can simply find them (not in proof though) in circulation. It really depends on where you go. However, I have not quite understood so far whether "mrsquirrelsays" wants to buy such coins or sets while being on a trip (which may be difficult and/or time consuming) or later. Buying them from a dealer in the US (such as rsmint.com or eurocollections.com) would be easier for US customers, and can be done a long time after the end of a trip. Christian
Re: Thanks for all the replies. So far the places I've gone have been in Europe and all have mint sets they release (around 10-15 euros for BU sets). I figured some countries wouldn't issue sets and I don't want to spend too much on them. A couple of the countries (Hungary and Czech Rep) are going to be transitioning to the Euro at some point so I thought it would be cool to have a pre-euro set (a BU set is pretty cheap). Directly from the mint was cheaper, even with shipping (I don't think those sites have updated prices in the last few months to match the devaluation of the euro). Typically I don't want to waste time going to the mint that I could be doing some sightseeing so I would prefer to order them online. It sounds like I should look ahead and see if they issue sets and get them if the price is right, and if not be ready to be on the lookout for some nicer looking coins and paper currency from circulation.
I mostly collect foreign paper money... but a few coins too. A local dealer i go to every week always has mint sets from at least 8 or 10 countries for sale at reasonable prices. I bought mint sets from Norway and czechoslovakia from her for $10 each, both sealed in really nice packaging. I am looking for mint sets from cyprus, israel, finland, and russia.... but havnt been able to find the ones i want yet.
Regardless of the future of the euro, none of the two countries can or wants to join the currency union any time soon. Latvia maybe, but that is about it. Depends on the site, I suppose. The euro is at $1.27 or so these days, and if you buy euro coins in a euro country, the price is not actually affected by the EUR-USD exchange rate. If you buy them outside the euro area, that may well be a different story. Sounds reasonable to me. As others have mentioned, it may in some cases be difficult to get all denominations, with the year of your visit, from circulation. I'm in Germany for example, and the German mints have not made any €1 coins for circulation since 2006. So you would have to pick a different denomination, or buy a set ... Christian
