I ve been surfing the internet for a reliable source to find values to my coin collection, and i failed.Every time I value a coin I would find another source with other values. I don't want to hassle coin talk member every time i want to value a coin. :smile Please post a reliable catalog (preferred to be online), or a site. Thank you. Cheers,
No print catalog/price guide can possibly be completely accurate - prices actually paid for coins vary daily, or even hourly, and print materials take a finite time to produce and distribute. Theoretically an accurate internet site is possible, but no way is it feasible. To be an "accurate" price guide, it would have to list every sale of every coin worldwide, specifying its TPG grade, if any, and providing a set of clear photos/scans showing it in different lighting situations to allow an honest comparison with the one being evaluated. Gimme a break! In addition, the true value of a specific coin to specific sellers and buyers [aside from condition and rarity] is dependent in part on Where in the world it is located Where the potential buyer is What language(s) the parties speak The cost of getting the coin to the buyer How urgently the seller needs to sell How desperately the buyer needs that coin in that condition, and Who knows how many other factors I haven't mentioned. Bottom line, as stated many, many times in many, many threads, catalogs, prices lists, reports of auction sales, etc., are all merely GUIDES, affording no certainty whatsoever as to a fair price for a new transaction. What you are looking for is as unlikely to exist as an undiscovered hoard of PF70 Brasher's Doubloons.
I've sort of been wondering this too. Been looking to buy a high grade 1909-S U.S-Philippines Centavo but I have no idea whether $250 or $2500 is a fair price...
While I agree with your post. The OP did not ask for a completely accurate guide. He asked for a reliable guide. Assume by reliable he means guide price +/- 20%. Where would you find and online guide that meets that criteria. On occasion, I find a nicely toned world coin that peaks my interest but I have no clue as to the value and don't even know if a guide exists.
I use the 2009 Standard Catalog of World Coins, it comes with a pdf file of the entire book on cd and you can download it from the cd to your pc to run the pdf file faster. I have found its prices to be very very reliable, on purchasing and selling World Coins and World Coins are my choice for collecting. The most complete guide I found for free before this is http://www.worldcoingallery.com/ but they used an older SCWC to price there coins and to save space they group alot of years of coins together under an avg. price which makes finding the key dates difficult by using this site alone. As every one else stated, all these guides are guides and a coins real value is only what you will pay for it and what some one else will pay you for it. I have a seller account on ebay and if thinking of selling a World coin I type it on there and choose the completed auctions only option to see how many sold recently and what prices they were realizing in comparable condition to my own. Hope this helped and have fun!!!
It may seem that way because many people are of that belief, but the level of reliability varies tremendously from country to country, and many times within a single country. For example, just within my areas of special interest, Krause prices are: consistently less than 50% of the market for most Japanese puppet states and 19th Century Korean coins near market for most post-WW II circulation issues far above market for Mint Sets wildly all over the place for pre-WW II Japanese moderns
Thank you all for your input for this subject. I ve wandered a lot too, to find coin values, and i would be suffice with a just reliable source, not an accurate one, more like +/- 20%. I found a site related to a coin dealer's store in New York, which have a good history in dealing with coins since 1983. Here is the link for Harlan J. Berk. http://www.vcoins.com/world/harlanjberk/store/info.asp?page=AboutUs I found good quotes for my old Egyptian coins. Cheers,
There is one resource that is invaluable - Coin Archives It is the equivalent for world coinage that Heritage is for US coinage. Unfortunately, they have recently instituted a fee structure so that you have to pay $600 a year to be able to access the site. Heritage itself does have some data for world coinage, so does Teletrade. But both are quite limited. But if you go through the Numismatic Resources section of the forum you can find some specific sites that will help you find values for the coins of the countries listed.
I feel your rebuttal was covered sufficiently with in the same post that you quoted me from, when I said " As every one else stated, all these guides are guides and a coins real value is only what you will pay for it and what some one else will pay you for it. "
I think his point is this - should a so called guide even be called a guide when it is so far from reality ? In my opinion - it should not be. Guides should at least be close to reality, not in another world entirely.
I think that is why it is titled Catalog and not price guide and there is plenty of useful guidance with in the SCWC even if you disregard the price list. Further more my answer was how I come to place a value on my coins, which the value any collector chooses to place on there coins is purely Opinion and the different sources I take into consideration for reaching my own value and finally I thought these examples and processes were a far better answer than to simply say "Everything out there is wrong, you have no hope"
I have never seen accurate prices for any country in any of the Krause catalogs. Once in a while, you might find a single coin or two for a given country that are reasonably close to recent auction prices. But that is about it. I would venture that fully 99% of all coin values listed in the Krause books are either too low or too high, normally by a very large margin.
So than the answer for now atleast still remains that there is no true global price guide for all the coins in the world and the reality is that a coin is only worth what you paid for it, but more importantly in value what some one else will pay you for it:hammer:
