Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Jaelus, post: 2507802, member: 46237"]No, the global marketplace can cause entire countries to be virtually priced out due to currency differences. When I spent time in Hungary in the late 90s, US $15 was enough for 6 people to eat at a fancy restaurant with a violinist playing at the table. A 2 liter bottle of Coke could be had for US $0.09. And yet an imported pair of US jeans was comparatively worth a fortune there at US $45. Yet the wages there were such that people could afford local prices and live comfortably if they didn't buy much in the way of imported goods. Drive up to Vienna though and a personal pizza (and not a good one - we're literally talking about ketchup on flat bread) was near US $30. When coins were offered for sale, due to the weak Forint and the very strong Schilling, there was no way Hungarian collectors could reasonably compete with Austrians for these coins. Of course to some extent there were still very wealthy collectors that could afford these coins, but in general, I would not say it was much of a choice. Even if the average collector saved up enough to buy a quality piece, they were still being outpurchased by foreigners whose equivalent buying power would get them 20 times as much.[/QUOTE]