Hi all, I recently acquired a partial collection of Irish half pennies and pennies in an Irish Coin Library album, but am missing most of the farthings. Does anyone have any leads on where I might be able to find these (relatively) cheaply? Ebay has ridiculous prices, even given the low mintages, so I figured I would check with you guys first. Thanks!
eBay was the best source for me when I completed that collection. Sometimes I just had to pay up. Otherwise it is very hit-and-miss, unless you find a friend in Ireland to scout for you in local coin shops.
PS- do not despair over eBay. Patience can pay off. The Irish predecimal coins were lots of fun. I remember them fondly.
If you have a LCS, sometimes these are in the junk box, or cheap because they are foreign and no one collects them. Otherwise, patience on ebay, or get on some World Coin dealers' lists.
These can be found in a coin shop's junk box sometimes. It would be good to look up World Coin dealers online and see what they have.
An LCS would be the way to go if you are looking for circulated examples. I agree that the prices on eBay are bit off-putting but good deals can still be had. I primarily collect early Irish and English copper and the majority of my material comes from UK sellers. I could recommend a few if you were interested. If you decide to go that direction just be prepared to spend a good amount on shipping. Admittedly I may be biased given that my purchases are usually north of a few hundred dollars to help absorb some of the shipping fees and the total of the invoice likely inflates the shipping cost.
LCS and other foreign coin junk boxes are the best way to go for Irish Farthings. eBay is another way but, eBay can be very hit and miss. The later date Farthings can be found quite easily in higher grades including the 1966 which has a mintage of 96,000. However, earlier dates can be quite tricky to find specifically the 1935 and 1936.
