Holy smokes, 17 of them on eBay at the moment? http://www.ebay.com/itm/France-1904...M-831-Scarce-50-Franc-Gold-Coin-/390967732288
Would you mind explaining how rare this coin was in the past as opposed to now? The only observation I can make is to absolutely bash the grade of that coin. How it received a 62 is beyond me. It would seem correct to be either given a 60 or a details grade imo
Th You are wide to do your homework before just jumping on the coin. While I'm no foreign coin aficionado, I can attest that there are a great many US coins which are similarly available in quantity, yet are purported to be rare. On the other end of the spectrum are a lot of coins thought to be common which are actually quite scarce, and some even legitimately rare. That is really my market focus. Learning where such misconceptions exist comes with experience, and will not be found in books or magazines.
There's certainly no shortage of them based on these results - http://www.acsearch.info/search.htm...1&ot=1&images=1¤cy=usd&order=0&company= http://www.coinarchives.com/w/results.php?search=1904+50+francs&s=0&results=100 They appear to be readily available for sale just about any time you want one.
Agree, however that was not always the case. The 100 Franc of the same design has always been a common coin, and at one time sold for melt even in nice condition about 20 years ago. Not so the 50 franc pieces, they were very scarce up until some point within the past few years. At one time they were seen about as frequently as an Umberto 50 Lire, yet now they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Reminds me a little of the gold 1930 Uruguay 5 Peso that was a tough coin until about a trillion of them all showed-up on the market at the same time about a dozen years ago.
I sometimes think it's just a matter popularity changing that causes what was previously thought of as a scarce coin to suddenly not be so scarce anymore. This coin, the 1904-A is the most common of the design, but even it only had a mintage of just 20,250. The design was only minted in 5 years, and only 1 other date had a mintage over 1,000 pieces. So these coins don't really fall into that category, these coins really are scarce. Which makes me wonder if there is another cause for their increase in availability. Now I can't speak in regard to this coin in particular, but I am aware that a few museums that previously held collections of ducats have closed and will exist no longer, and it seems nobody is really aware of what exactly has become of the coins in those collections. So who knows, maybe those coins have been or will be put on the market at some point. And maybe, something like that happened with these coins.
I would say it's fairly clear a hoard has been unloaded. Mark Teller always seems to know the source for some reason though I don't talk to him all that often. There were a bunch of Italian 50 Lire and 100 Lire coins dumped on the market about a year ago too, 1911, 1912, --some previously very scarce coins-- that are now available all over the place. Knocked the price down about 25% on them though. These French 50 Franc coins, would love to own one, but I can't see spending three times melt at this point with so many of them for sale.
Sometimes it may be the only opportunity to obtain them at a bargain at the right place and time. There are some coins that I have been looking for YEARS before a bunch lot got offered by one seller - probably at least ten. I probably overpaid for them but now that I look at it, no other sellers are selling them. I also got reminded that back a few years ago, there was a seller in the UK that sold the rare Soviet 1970 mint set. He had least 10 to 20 and they still sold for good money. Currently if you try to obtain one, you would be looking at least 1200 USD. Who knows - some one in the right mind set had good reasons to hoard back then because he / she knew that they would be worth a fair bit. Or just forgot about it big time. There was a person that emailed me a photo of a hoard of Chinese occupation coins that he inherited - somewhere absurd at around 500 to 1000 where each coin would be worth around 20 dollars in XF condition. In UNC condition? Who knows but with that hoard - good grief. More than enough to depress the market.
Familiar with what you are describing. While the market has never fully absorbed all the 1930 Uruguay 5 Peso coins that hit the market a dozen years ago, there are some small hoards that offer a momentary opportunity, then the coin becomes just as scarce as it was prior to the release of the hoard. The 1910 Norway 20 Kronor immediately comes to mind.
The French Angel coin is not a rare coin. You can find many sites selling these for bullion value. There was a time I thought about putting a set of these together, I still might now that gold is not as expensive as before.
If you are talking about the 20 franc, I'd agree. But with the 50 franc, that is definitely not the case.
