French mint sets?

Hi

Anybody know if its possible to get a 1968 French mint set?

I am also looking for other European mint sets from 1968.

I've seen Italian sets but they seem to go for big bucks...

 

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Best bet would be to try and find a dealer based in France for the French sets and the same goes for any other year sets you might be looking for (Check the dealers in the country of origin)
Sorry that this is not more helpful, I would imagine that they wont be cheap.

 

You should have been born in a different year.

1968 FDC sets (Fleur de coin) list in the 2008 krause for $450 with the exterior box in perfect condition, $120 without box. Somewhere between for one with a damaged box...

 

A lot of the European moderns from that era are really hot now. They've been available for decades for almost nothing but the switch to the euro caused a huge increase in demand. The coins were considered so common that no one even bothered to save them. Dealers cut up mint sets to put the coins in junk boxes just so they could get a few cents each for them.

In many cases it's not that the demand is so high but that there is almost no supply. The French mint sets are out there since they had some silver in them but they are not common or being given away any more. Moderns haven't been saved and if you do find a roll it will be very poor quality. Mint sets usually are high quality but the attrition on these is staggering in some cases. The Turkish mid-'60's mint sets were almost always tossed ito the scrap bucket for instance and some of the stainless steel issues from these are very tough in unc.

Krause hasn't been doing a real good job of keeping up with the changes recently so it's a good idea to look online for pricing information if you need something.

1961 to 1975 French coins have been on fire recently. I don't know if the prices are justified or not but most of the circulation coins seen do have light wear. Most of these coins were melted back in 2000 so some might be none too common even in heavily worn condition.

With moderns it is best to stick with solid uncs unless you know it's unavailabe or very expensive in true unc.

 

Because of prices and high demand, I would avoid buying any European coins from European sources, and stick to buying them from American dealers that tend to sell them for less because of less interest on our shores. Frankly, I know one of my local B&M's has some French sets from this time period and if you wanted me to check PM me and I will be happy to see what he has.

 

Hi

Cheers guys for all the helpful replies.

Not sure how to PM you but will try and work it out!

Yes I am interested in a French 1968 FLEURS DE COINS FDC set and any other 1968 European sets he might have. Other sets I am looking to source are German and Spanish sets. I am pretty sure the German set existed, I don't know about Spain, but its knowing the right way to do an internet search!

I was ideally looking to buy from a US dealer as the exchange rate works in my favor and the price of these sets from European dealers is through the roof at the moment. For instance I just bought an Italian divisionale 1968 repubblica set with packaging in excellent condition. I had to pay $115 for it and that was less than half of what any of the others I found were selling for. If you have modern European sets I would say now is the time to sell as they are all fetching strong money.

You can get the odd good deal off Ebay but you have to wait for a poorly listed item.

As you say these sets are 40 years old now and for many the packaging has been subject to the ravages of time.

 

Another example is this -
Take a look at this for a 1968 Eire set on Ebay item = 190250951041.

$250! But I think its because the plastic cover is unopened and because of this the packaging has survived better than most.

I was going to buy it to replace my 1968 Eire set as it was in better condition but I lost interest when it hit $100!

 

Also on another note can anybody recommend a goot book on modern European mint sets?

 

Krause is nearly worthless for pricing and other information
on many moderns and most modern mint sets. A lot of the
modern mint sets are made by contractors or central banks
and these are rarely listed by Krause. None of the "private-
ly" packaged sets are listed even though many of these ap-
pear to obviously have been supplied by the mint for this
purpose.

Just because they don't list a mint set doesn't mean they do
not exist. Indeed, there may be different types as well.

Their pricing for moderns has never kept up with the real world
and this last year there was almost no attempt. Modern pric-
ing is exploding in Europe and many other places but there were
almost no changes in the latest catalog. This is great if you can
find the coins and sets in dealer stock since you might get it for
next to nothing but it makes it impossible to compete with Euro-
peans who know what the coins are really worth.

I would not suggest anyone buy any of these coins for investment.
While they are wonderful collectibles the fact is that these high
prices are new and it's still not impossible that there might be quanti-
ties in existence. I say this not because the coins were made in huge
numbers which is what detractors normally have in mind but because
they are relatively new they are still within the lifetime of many liv-
ing people. In the past it was necessary for many people to have
a few coins for large numbers to exist but in modern times it's poss-
ible for an individual to have large quantities. Go slow, have fun
collecting and the prices will take care of themselves over time. Now
days coins are scarce because virtually no one saved any at all.

It might be this fear of hoards making Krause drag their feet on pri-
cing.

 

Krause does a reasonably good job of pricing the French
mint sets but if you look up the individual coins in their
listings you'll see they total only a few dollars. The FDC
aren't listed separately but the regular BU's are much high-
er than what is reported.

Since other countrys' mint sets from 1968 were mentioned
I thought it might be appropriate to mention this. Even the
dates which haven't increased in the home markets can be
deceptively difficult to find. Don't assume that just because
a set is listed at a few dollars that this is the real price. And
even where it is the real price it can be rare.

Irish, Italian, Swiss, Swedish coins apparently already trade
at higher prices than Krause lists. Look at Turkey as an exa-
mple; the mid-'60's mint sets list for a few dollars but the coins
in the sets list for hundreds of dollars. Just be careful and re-
member that there are collectors out there looking for some of
these coins who can't find them. And it's not impossible that
quantities might surface.

Fixed price lists from dealers are probably a better bet than
catologs for many countries.

 

http://www.lefranc.net/francgb/lefranc0000.html

This one doesn't list mint sets but it will give an idea of what I'm
talking about. The older coins are mostly listed at prices similar to
Krause though a few are substantially higher. The moderns are all
listed at far higher prices than Krause. In this case it's only 3 to 50
times as much but with other countries the difference can be huge.

 

I can vouch for none of the pricing on this site and it may all be
far removed from reality. But it is interesting.

 

Hi

Thanks guys. Interesting to read your comments. I was asking about the books more for reference than for pricing as such. I just wanted something that could help me identify what exists and can be collected. I am guessing from what you are saying that with these modern sets there is no infallible guide.

Also to further what has been mentioned. I guess I may be a little odd but I am collecting these coin sets not so much as an investment for the future but more because of the fact that I just enjoy collecting . I tend to collect what interests me.

I've been collecting coins and bank notes for over 30 years. Mainly in the last 10 years or so I have been focusing on UK proof sets and medieval English coins.

But as I just hit forty (DOB 1968) I thought for the next few years I'm going to also focus on collecting world coin sets from my year of birth.

Sad I know but... well it floats my boat...

Don't get me wrong I understand the reason for needing to know the value of what you are buying. At the end of the day I buy what I can afford. If I can't afford it then it does not matter how desirable to me it might be...

 

1968 is a great year for moderns and about my fourth or fifth favorite. You'll find an odd mix of distressingly common and incredibly tough coins. You'll find availability is nearly independent of mintage.