What does everyone do with all the extra world coins they collect? I've been buying coins from my dealer's junk box for quite awhile now. I never resell them back to my dealer because I don't want to wind up getting the coins back that I've already been through. I am always finding coins that fill holes in my collection, so buying the junk box in bulk is still worthwhile to me. Needless to say, I've amassed quite a lot of duplicate coins, and I am wondering what I could do with them? I have a large amount of coins from Great Britain, France, and the Philippines (which seem to be the countries most traveled to). I've never found a really valuable or ancient coin in the Junk box, but many interesting ones. A few that Krause's prices at up to $40 or $50, but mostly in the 10 cents group, or even just the melt value. But its fun to get 10 pounds of foreign coins and slowly go through them looking for the proverbial gold mine...to days all the gold I've found has been fool's gold, but I keep looking. Anyway, any suggestions on what to do with the myriad of British and Japanese coins I've amassed????? Regards, Bill
Maybe you can sell them on ebay or your local craig's list. I am sure there are people out there who would buy the whole lot, maybe you wont get alot of money but in the end it might be something more in your pocket.
Hi ya Ancientnoob. I'm not a fan of ebay, as I find that most things offered there are way overpriced, and there are those that will bid any amount just to not lose the bid... To them its a contest to see who can get it, not how much it costs. I also stay away from craig's list because I want to wake up alive in the morning, and my wife of 52 years would frown on my bidding on a massage...lol. I was thinking of making something out of them, but then I don't want to damage any coins, and really get upset when I find ones that have been defaced, or have holes (shot or drilled) in them. Its really funny though, I've got so many collected coins, that it would probably take me years to go back and admire each of them. I find the excitement is in finding coins that I don't already have, and wondering what the people were like, what they were doing, and how they lived when the coins were minted. You never know who might have touched a coin you find. For the most part, I think my question was rhetorical, because I don't want to put my duplicates back into circulation where I might wind up buying a lot I've already seen. That's for a time when I no longer am able to collect coins, or for my son to do when he inherits my coins...not much value, but lots of weight. I'm beginning to run out of space to keep the things I collect...good thing I have an extra room devoted to my collections, and a computer to keep track of my inventory.
I would travel to the nearest coin show and sell them to a dealer who is out of town. It greatly minimizes your chances of ever seeing that coin again. Average dealer buy prices per pound range from $5-$7, I would not sell them for less than $5 if I were you. Those prices are based in the south and they could bring more out in california.
I simply do not know why you want to sell them. Are they hurting something sitting in a closet, ready to be rediscovered on a cold rainy day when you want to play with a large pile of coins? Right now I have about 3 large cloth US mint bags full of loose world coins, and another 6 folders, a few boxes, and misc laying around as well. The best part about hoarding coins is they do not take up much space. While I do not go out of my way to buy bulk modern world coins, they accumulate from other purchases. Since I do not know for sure there aren't valuable coins in there, or that I may not wish to collect some of these coins in the future, I just let them be. You are a collector. You are supposed to have mounds and mounds of coins laying around the house, right? Or, maybe its just me.
No, its not just you. I have mounds of them laying around too, but since I collect everything, sometimes I run out of space, even for coins. I'm afraid that one day, the sheer weight of the duplicates might crack the foundation of my house. Right now, I have 69 boxes of collected world coins, not counting the duplicates, 4 boxes of tokes (which I collect too), and too many albums of US coins to count, so I have enough coins in my collection to play with, don't need to play with duplicates....maybe I should look for a metal smelter that would buy them en bulk for their metal content....might help the hobby as well, by reducing the number of coins available, thus increasing their value...what do you think?
I really only want to have one of everything, so I get rid of my doubles. The ones that are worth anything I sell individually on eBay. The rest I sell in bulk on eBay. You said you didn't like that option, but that's the only way I've ever sold them. Dealers by and large don't want them and will only pay a pittance for them. On Monday I visited a dealer in town who I haven't been to before, asked him if he had any foreign coins, and he said no! I was flabbergasted.
I would go the other way with it. Donate them to a boy scout troop, or a school. Try to pique some young curiousity, help them learn about geography and history, and possibly create some future collectors. This would also drive up demand for world coins, no? Plus, you get a tax deduction.
