What are some coins that you're always searching for but just aren't in reach? Be reasonable; I'm not talking about coins like the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel. I mean coins that should be affordable, according to mainstream resources like Krause, but aren't. I know Krause has many problems but it's realistic to expect prices a little higher or lower in the market. I've searched a while for some coins and usually they were close in price to the guides out there once I did find them. Right now I've been looking for problem free, xf or higher crown sized silver Venezuela coins. I'm talking about the 20th century silver bolivars, or I think they may be 5 Bolivars. Even the larger denomination Cu-Ni Bolivars are hard to find in unc and BU.
A decent (I mean decent, i.e. good metal, good strike, good style and good preservation) denarius of Commodus is very hard to find ! Q
I've hoped that nice Trajan's Column denarii and Republican AQVAMAR denarii should be much easier to find than they are.
There are some US coins like the shield nickel that are next to impossible to find with a nice full strike - I have been looking for an example but so far am striking out.
I've been looking for years for a 1986 Mexican 20 pesos and a 1992 Mexican 500 pesos. Never seen one for sale. Krause lists each at a few dollars, but obviously they are much rarer. There are also a 1999 Greece 5 drachmai and 50 drachmai that Krause says exist but I've never seen any evidence of their existence.
No matter how many cent rolls I search, I never find a silver dime on the top, nevertheless a 1916 or 1916-D mercury dime on the top of many ebay "unsearched" rolls!
For some odd reason I can never find a 1998 silver eagle at any coin shops I go to. It is now at the top of my list for silver eagles.
Simply amazing isn't it? Doesn't that just go to prove that the only place to buy your coins is on eBay?
Heritage has about 1,000 Venezuela coins in their sold archive. You might check the ANA show dealer lists for Venezuela & other South American coin dealers. Here is a 1818 Venezuela Caracus Quarter Real: I have found some coins from the Republic of Central America to be elusive and higher priced than indicated in the Krause catalog. Here is an 1831 TF 2 Real coin:
Few months ago I found a '43 steelie in a dime roll. When I picked up the roll I grumbled about a cent being in the roll. Then I opened up the roll and noticed it was steel.
There seem to be a ton of Mexican coins like that. They're kind of neat but they must have had pretty bad quality control.
You piqued my interest. I'm going to have to look into these. How did you find out initially about them?
Nice coins. I would think 1800s coins are far more rare in nice conditions. But those elusive 20th century ones really get to me!
I've been looking for an AU or better 1885 three cent nickel for years, but haven't found one that I like yet. Maybe I'm just being too picky when looking for a premium example of a circulation coin with a mintage of only 1,000 pieces.
They're listed in Krause and I was trying to compile complete sets from both countries and have never been able to find those. The two Greek ones aren't listed in some Internet sources so I'm not convinced they exist, but Krause thinks they do.
The 1889 has a 21K mintage and is still a pain to find in business strike, I have one in VF. I like them because it was the last year of the coin - a bit of an oddity even then. Business strikes of the post 1881 coins are a lot less common than the proofs, even for the 1889 - apparently because they circulated and were lost etc. Now I need the gold dollar and the $3 gold from 1889 - but those have to be proofs.