Yesterday I took the day off work and went to my favorite coin shop. Since it was pouring rain and I had all day, I had a chance to go through some stuff I don't usually get to. I bought these from their foreign silver bin, most of them for around the spot price, with a little premium. Here's the first group. The Mexican peso is an upgrade for my set, and I've never seen the Honduras coin before. The 20 centavos is a better date.
Third group. The Mexican 25 pesos is in the best shape I've ever seen one. The Antilles coin is about 1.25 oz. silver.
Last group. I thought the Austrian coins were pretty neat. I was surprised the Virgin Islands coin was silver.
Wow, what great finds! I've definitely seen some of these in local coin shops, but not usually for anything close to spot
Thanks. It's nice to go to a coin shop where they both know you and don't really deal much in foreign, so they don't care much if you get a deal on it.
I'm jealous. I have a really large LCS here that has anything you could ask for, but he doesn't deal in foreign silver (anything foreign, actually). Bums me out since I love foreign silver (especially near melt).
The shop I go to is a great shop, but most of their customers want U.S. coins or bullion so that's what they focus on. They buy foreign coins but most of them go in the "junk bin", where you can also find great deals and which I'll post some pictures from later. It's a great mix of them selling foreign coins but not being that interested in making a big profit on them since it's not their bread and butter.
Great stuff. Nice "crusty" Phil-American 20c. Sure, a tad dark, but cool coin. Always liked these Portuguese ships. Ditto these Italian ones, with the classy lady as a bonus. 1.25 oz, you say? Wow. Big 'un! Nice cameo contrast, too. And the old carriage is fun. (Horseless carriage?) This is one of those rather simple designs that really appeals to me. I like those concave little cartouches with the portrait and arms in 'em. Neat. These Austrian 100-schilling pieces are bizarre. I had never seen them before. What is that, a praying-mantis-man from Planet Zorglon? Wow. The checkerboard-mosaic-man (skiier?) actually looks like something from the Zombie Apocalypse. Both of these are bizarro - but fun, for that exact reason. Oh, how could one not like the knight on this next one? As the 1477 date indicates, this design is a nod to the 15th century, and seems reminiscent of the guldengroschen/guldiner coins of that period. I always wanted one of those but will never be able to afford one, so I settled for a somewhat later Teutonic Order coin with a similar motif. I suppose it commemorates the 500th anniversary of the city of Hall in the Tyrol? (Edit- aha - according to Wikipedia, Hall got the right of coinage in 1477.) Cool stuff, man. Would be cool even without the bullion content, but since you've got that as well, and this is probably a good time to be putting away some silver while it's cheap, good on you. I doubt you'll ever have any cause to regret these purchases.
