Guatemala Selection

That's all for now.

Thx for the great comments.

Please post your own even if they're the same ones. I'd really like to see more. Thx

 

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WoW! They just keep coming! Great looking collection and nice pics too!

 

I like Guatemala a lot, and you have many I've never seen before.

 

This is the only one I have that you haven't posted, and it's not that exciting compared to the others. 1923 5 pesos.

 

Very interesting, Guatemala is the only Central American country I collect as well, though I have sold most of the coins off. Kept a few of the nicer pieces however...,, I've always wanted a 1926 Guatemala 1 Quetzal crown but could never bring myself to fork-out what it costs for one. And then at least half of them out there are fake making authenticity an issue as well.

 

On the contrary, it is very exciting! This coin is somewhat difficult to obtain especially in that condition. :thumb:

 

Very nice. :thumb:

I wish I could afford such pieces. :devil:

Aside from the crowns in all my collections, most of my pieces come from low cost foreign bins and my uncle's Los Angeles Herald-Examiner newspaper vending machines that he had in the 70's.

 

I couldn't afford to buy them today either, have had them a long, long, time. The 1869 Guatemala 20 Peso cost me something like $425 back when gold was around $350 in the mid-1990s. The half Quetzal was about $25, the 1926 Guatemala 20 Peso was something like $725 at a time when gold was $400, and interestingly, the premium on that coin (as a percentage of bullion) has come way down since then. Would have been better off putting the money in gold bullion, --which says something about gold prices if you aske me. Either rare coins are cheap, or bullion prices are expensive. One or the other should make a move eventually to restore what had been a nice premium on some of these coins.

 

You bring up a good point. Foreign coins with precious metal content are suffering, big time! They're being melted down at an alarming rate. Only the UNC types or those in slabs are being preserved. The rest are being sold greedily to smelters. A lot of the collector owned galleries and shops are disappearing. Many shops in the LA area are now operated by partners or new owners who care not for collecting but for bullion profit.

I wonder what the future of these coins will be? :rollling:

On a sad note: Mr. Hauser of the coin shop in La Verne, Ca. past away a few weeks ago in his sleep. R.I.P. to a very kind collector and shop owner. Bye my friend.

 

Sorry to hear about your friend.

The coin dealers here in Kansas City are far an away the most reputable buyers of scrap gold and the like, and have benefited handsomely from their honest reputations. To be sure, there are dozens of gold buying store fronts that have poped up over the past few years, all buying gold, but most pay a fraction of what the coin dealers pay and not suprisingly, most people around here know that. Thing is, the metals business has now become about 90% of their income at most coin dealers. They make almost nothing on collector coins, many of which sit in inventory for many months, even years without any turn-over. It's little wonder much of that stuff ends-up in the melting pot. No collector wants to buy it because most of it isn't gem material. 40% Ike dollar with a spot? It's a dead duck. Could be a 100 years before a collector turns-up interested in it, and meanwhile the volitility of the precious metals markets demands that dealers don't sit on inventory for long if they paid out a decent price on it begin with. In a lot of cases, it ends-up in a smelter half way across the counrty less than 48 hours after it is slid across the counter and bought at 80% of spot. To risk sitting on it much longer makes no sense whatever from their perspective. As for foreign, if it's Canadian silver, or crowns, then there is always some interest from dealers. But 0.500 fine British silver and other lower finess like circulated 0.720 silver is more of a burden than it's worth and some dealers won't even make an offer on it.

 

Very true.

But how will the market react to the eventual low availability of early 20 century silver coinage when the Good, F, & VF varieties have been melted down or hoarded? Or am I just over reacting?

On yet another note: I've noticed that in the past five years that US silver coins have almost completely disappeared from circulation. I used to come across silver quarters and dimes almost twice a month. Now it's maybe twice a year.

 

Here is mine.