Selling Coins/Bills Below Face Value?

Do people generally sell coins and bills below face value? I recently bought a few coins from Ebay that are worth more than what I paid for, and they're still in circulation. For example, I got a Mexico 100 Peso KM#493 (worth ~$5.60) for a little over a dollar.

 

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Is that the value quoted in Krause or does that value come from some other source?

Chris

 

That is current exchange value for 100 Mexican pesos to USD.

 

I bought a lot of Japanese 100 yen coins out of a junk box for 5 for a dollar, thinking "Wow, these are like $1 coins" only to realize...only in Japan. My daughter went there recently and I was able to give her some ready spending money.

 

Maybe the seller didn't know what he/she had. It wouldn't be the first time someone screwed themselves in this way. I can't count the number of times I found that some idiot used silver dollars (Morgan or Peace), even SAE's, at face value to buy a pack of butts.

Chris

 

In 1992 the Mexican Peso was devalued. 1000 old Pesos became 1 New Peso. Since the KM#493 was minted from 1984-1992 the 100 Pesos became worth 0.10 Peso. At today's current value 1 Mexican Peso is worth 0.056 USD.

edited for correction

 

The peso was devalued 1000-1

 

I did buy 31 Ike dollars for $30 a couple of weeks ago....

 

In my opinion, its a combination of being an "overlooked" auction and the seller did not know what they had. Maybe not a lot of people saw that it existed, and those that did, would not do the calculations. Congrats on the score.

 

The thing is even if that is worth what you say it is, a person needs to be in Mexico to use it, and the seller probably was not in position to go there and spend it.

 

Seems to me that people who live near the Mexican border or in Mexico should be watching Mexican coins on EBay. They would make out like banditos!!!!

 

There's always the foreign exchange in every international airport. Some banks will exchange for you as well.

 

If the money is before the 1000-1 devaluation, it is worthless.

 

You are correct, I left out a 0. Thanks for correcting

 

Well I had to look it up when I pulled up an old 50 peso coin from 1982 (metal detecting). I thought I had something. Although I think it has a collector value ($1).
So that's why I remembered it was 1000-1.

 

My bank's policy..

Currency only, no coin.

$10.00 minimum exchange.

$5.00 fee for all exchanges under $1,000.00

Airport exchanges typically have similar rules.

 

Yes that is the problem I run into with a pile of worthless Canadian and Mexican coins. Most places if they will exchange money for you (for a percentage) will only do currency, no coins.

 

There is a lot of money from other countries which has been demonetized. Numista is pretty good about giving this information. If it is demonetized it has zero value as currency and only its numismatic value counts.

The USA is one of the few countries which has no demonetized any coins, with the sole exception of the trade dollar. As far as I know it is still legal to spend a 2 cent or a 20 cent coin.

 

The Trade Dollar was re-monetized in 1965 from what I recall.

 

Wiki says: the coins were officially demonetized in 1876, but continued to circulate. Production of business strikes ended in 1878, though the mintage of proof coins officially continued until 1883. The trade dollar was re-monetized when the Coinage Act of 1965 was signed into law.