Coin shipments from Germany to USA?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by DonnaML, Jan 5, 2021.

  1. Factor

    Factor Well-Known Member

    I have ordered 6 coins from Ritter back in February and they got stuck in mail in Germany for almost 3 months. Eventually they came back to the seller. They said parcels are not currently shipped by German post to the US. Ritter refused to send the coins as envelope, said he cannot properly declare them this way. So after waiting couple of months for this situation to change I just paid extra for DHL Express and got the coins in just two days. Unfortunately they managed to mix up the most interesting coin of these 6. When I pointed to the mix up, they sent me the right coin free of charge. This time it was regular German post envelope, no package only bullshit, came to me in a week and costed them just 5 euro!
     
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  3. Marsyas Mike

    Marsyas Mike Well-Known Member

    I'll probably jinx myself, but I bought half dozen or so coins from Europe via eBay late last year and in every case, delivery was astonishingly prompt to the Midwest USA (2-5 weeks or so). Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Ukraine and France.

    I just ordered a cheap-o Faustina II denarius from the Ukraine, so we'll see how 2021 goes! :nailbiting:

    Germany is a strange case on eBay. Some sellers charge $7-10 for shipping, and the coin arrives fine; nothing fancy, just the postal service, sometimes with tracking, sometimes not. Other sellers charge around $20-25, which is worth more than most of the coins I buy, so I don't bid. The UK is the same. Other European countries, Iberian and Eastern, tend to ship in the $7-10 range and, so far, things work out fine.

    European tracking can be sort of useless - it will show up when the package first hits the post office, then nothing until it hits the USPS.

    The recent US situation has caused some glitches for me. I just got a sestertius in the mail shipped from a Midwestern state that shares a border with mine - it was in transit almost a month, including a journey in the wrong direction to another state on the other border. From December 14 to January 2 various post offices in Indianapolis passed this envelope back and forth 8 times - so it was not stuck in a pile, it was moving around, aimlessly. Sometimes I don't understand automation - there seems to be some sort of feedback loop that things get caught in sometimes.

    But really, the US Postal Service generally does a really great job, as far as my experiences go. :happy:
     
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  4. JayAg47

    JayAg47 Well-Known Member

    Tell me about it!
    I ordered a coin from a Spanish seller on Vcoins back in August, and the coin was not marked as sent for nearly a month! When I later bought a coin on eBay, also from a Spanish seller, he told me he couldn’t send it to Australia as he only knew it after he went to the post office, so he refunded me the very next day!
    So, I went back to Vcoins, mailed the seller for a refund, and only got my money back after nearly a week with no response or an apology whatsoever for wasting my time for over a month!
     
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  5. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

    Just wanted to vent - a CNG win of mine wade it to the town nearby to me yesterday, and is now mysteriously taking a tour of Indiana (I’m in North Carolina...)
     
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  6. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    As I've said before, oy. I still don't understand why more than one shipment from Europe has been sent to Cincinnati on the way to New York City.

    At least I received word from Paypal today that Ritter has refunded my payment.
     
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  7. Gallienus

    Gallienus coinsandhistory.com

    That 1st auction put me on notice as I have a particular interest in late Roman. When Leu had a sale in late 2020 with a lot of those items again I really went after a couple of them. My Sleipnir aureus is similar to that one but without the damage/scratches. I'll try to post a link to my piece
    https://coinsandhistory.com/countri...47_Rome_Empire_Crisis-II.html#Sleipnir_aureus

    They also had a couple with very unique Germania themes; i.e. one with a bear. That one went for big money. The others went for more than they sold for in 2018 or 17 but not crazy money. Also the CHF was much stronger than the USD which didn't help.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2021
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  8. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    Imagine me, living in Canada:( Converting the Canadian Loonie into Euros/ Sfrcs/ UK Pounds is devastating to the wallet.
     
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  9. svessien

    svessien Senior Member

    If you had been sitting in an album for years and years and decades and decades, I’m sure you would have wanted a trip to Indiana too. I’ve heard it’s nice there. Still, I hope your runaway returns.

     
  10. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

    mom thinking the trip to Indiana was just a glitch in the tracking software, as they attempted to deliver the coin yesterday, and is now being held at the post office (my mail carrier has a bad habit of just leaving pick-up slips and not bothering to knock in the door...). Fingers crossed the coin From Germany may have come too - I had a second pick-up slip left that said the package was “foreign” and I am not expecting anything else... I will update on Monday when I am able to pick it up
     
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  11. fomovore

    fomovore Active Member

    My latest Kuenker purchase has been sitting in Frankfurt for a month now (showing as "to be forwarded to USA" Deutsche Post - DHL Paket). I'm getting a bit impatient, but I can wait as long as it doesn't get lost - I've already gotten attached to the coins :)

    Roma are taking a while to ship, but it's understandable considering the lockdowns (and the actual shipping to the US has been very quick so far).
     
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  12. Carausius

    Carausius Brother, can you spare a sestertius?

    DHL shipments from Germany tend to sit in Frankfurt for inordinately long times. I have tracked them often with great frustration. I'd be annoyed, but not worried.
     
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  13. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    I had a coin sent from San Marino/ December 1/2020. Its still in transit. Had Amazon delivered it/ 2 days.....
    But, I rather have it take 6 weeks/ then 2 days (FEDEX) end up paying $800 customs fees.:(
     
  14. dltsrq

    dltsrq Grumpy Old Man

    Odd USPS routing can be caused by a computer error or misreading of the bar code on the parcel. If tracking exhibits irregularities for more than a couple of days, call your local post office, the one that handles your daily delivery. Among other remedies, they can program an "exception" for that particular parcel which will remove it from the stream and put in into the hands of an actual human being who will redirect it.

    This worked for me a couple of years ago when an outgoing international parcel was stuck in an endless loop between New York and Florida. That was before the current situation, however.
     
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  15. FitzNigel

    FitzNigel Medievalist

    Okay, good news on my end: both the CNG win from Mid December, and the coin shipped from Germany mid October arrived over the weekend:
    1FDBCE27-C24F-4911-ABCA-D828A6346575.jpeg

    I think I’ll be avoiding coins from overseas for a while. That actually had been my plan since all this started up, but a few from Europe were too tempting. I will work harder to avoid temptation...
     
  16. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    I promised myself back in June or so that I wouldn't order any more coins from Continental Europe (the UK has been OK) until things with the mail are back to normal. I won't say how many times I've broken that promise, but it's more than once!
     
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  17. IMP Shogun

    IMP Shogun Well-Known Member

    I had a coin go MIA for 2 months but it turns out it was due to customs in Germany. I received all sorts of really neat documentation because the coin was from Egypt and the dealer had to prove it had been outside of Egypt prior to a certain date. Fortunately my coin was previously purchased at auction in 1973!
     
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  18. Limes

    Limes Well-Known Member

    Deutsche Post is a privatized company, the follow-up of the state-owned postal service. DHL is since 2000something part of Deutsche Post, and is used for global shipping/postage. I think they just use the name DHL Express in that case.
    It perhaps is interesting to note that a parcel (letter) from Germany to my country, Netherlands, was dealt with by Deutsche Post DHL Express (lol) and delivered to a distribution center of DHL (??), where it was handed over to the Dutch postal service (PostNL).
    I truly wonder about the organizational/logistical aspects of sending a letter. On the one hand, it's very efficient and in general works well. On the other hand, it comes as no surprise that the handling via various agencies and their respective (digital) administrations will lead to errors.
    I've overall had two coins shipped from the US to my country, a couple of years ago. It went perfect, except for the annoying but inevitable addition handling costs. I try to avoid buying from US companies. I did however two years ago, send one coin to the US, via the 'normal' postal services (USPS and PostNL). It went perfect, without any delay.
     
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  19. panzerman

    panzerman Well-Known Member

    I have one shipment from Artemide/Italy sent Dec 1 still in transit????? I ordered some camo pants from UK last week, they arrived in 5 days. Postage here was once 3cents to mail a letter/ and very fast service/ now we pay over a Dollar with poor service;)
     
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  20. whopper64

    whopper64 Well-Known Member

    My shipments from MA Shops take about 2 months. Seems that much of the regular posted items are now shipped (literally by ship) rather than air, plus the receiving U.S. post office distribution center in Chicago is notoriously slow since this past summer. Tracking #'s show items sitting there for up to a month until finally being sent on their way. This past presidential election and the holidays have combined to make it even worse. Good news though is that I've received all coins eventually. None lost.
     
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  21. Marsyas Mike

    Marsyas Mike Well-Known Member

    My coin from Lithuania came in: shipping to USA (Midwest): January 6, 2021 to Feb. 2, 2021.

    Things went smoothly, but once again the Indianapolis Post Office ran it through an inexplicable handling feedback loop - here is the tracking record - 41 "hits" from January 27 to February 2:

    1. Feb 2, 2021
      4:30am
      DEPART USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    2. Feb 2, 2021
      1:33am
      DEPART USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    3. Jan 30, 2021
      8:52pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    4. Jan 30, 2021
      8:48pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    5. Jan 30, 2021
      9:15am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    6. Jan 30, 2021
      9:14am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    7. Jan 30, 2021
      1:38am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    8. Jan 30, 2021
      1:31am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    9. Jan 29, 2021
      9:50pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    10. Jan 29, 2021
      9:48pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    11. Jan 29, 2021
      7:47pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    12. Jan 29, 2021
      7:45pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    13. Jan 29, 2021
      7:28pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    14. Jan 29, 2021
      7:27pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    15. Jan 29, 2021
      6:23pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    16. Jan 29, 2021
      5:58pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    17. Jan 29, 2021
      4:47pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    18. Jan 29, 2021
      4:46pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    19. Jan 29, 2021
      4:39pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    20. Jan 29, 2021
      4:31pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    21. Jan 29, 2021
      1:06pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    22. Jan 29, 2021
      1:03pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    23. Jan 29, 2021
      12:57pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    24. Jan 29, 2021
      12:48am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    25. Jan 28, 2021
      9:23pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    26. Jan 28, 2021
      9:22pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    27. Jan 28, 2021
      5:37pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    28. Jan 28, 2021
      5:35pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    29. Jan 28, 2021
      5:33pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    30. Jan 28, 2021
      12:20pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    31. Jan 28, 2021
      2:30am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    32. Jan 28, 2021
      2:29am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    33. Jan 28, 2021
      1:14am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    34. Jan 28, 2021
      1:13am
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    35. Jan 27, 2021
      9:34pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    36. Jan 27, 2021
      9:32pm
      PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    37. Jan 27, 2021
      7:08pm
      ARRIVE USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46241
    38. Jan 27, 2021
      6:41pm
      DEPART USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46242
    39. Jan 27, 2021
      6:16pm
      DEPART USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46242
    40. Jan 27, 2021
      6:00pm
      ARRIVE USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46242
    41. Jan 27, 2021
      5:49pm
      ARRIVE USPS FACILITY
      INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46242
    But it was worth the wait - here it is, a denarius of Faustina II ($7.49 shipping charge). A lion and a drum - let's have a party:
    Faustina II - Den. MATRI MAG Jan 2021 lith (0).jpg
    Faustina II Denarius
    n.d. (c. 170-175 A.D.)
    Rome Mint

    FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed draped bust right / MATRI MAGNAE, Cybele seated left holding branch in right hand, resting left arm on drum; at her side, lion.
    RIC 706; BMCRE 134; C192.
    (2.44 grams / 17 mm)
     
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