In the US, do you feel world coins are a good buy?

I know you should collect for fun and not expect to make a profit, for the most part. But with world coins I find that when I sell extras I have or ones I don't care for anymore I usually get far less than expected. I'm just want to get back close to what I paid, but it's usually out of the question. It seems I do better with US coins, especially classics like merc dimes, barber coinage, etc. When I'm spending money on world coins, I always have in the back of my mind the question whether I should be purchasing more US coins. What do you think?

 

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World coins don't bring as much back in a us market it's a simple fact. You take em to your lcs you'll be taking a lot less than you paid for them most likely. Even eBay isn't a sure bet unless you are using other eBay sites like .uk and .ca. But collect what you enjoy my collection is mostly us until recently.

 

Not a lot of people in the USA are serious coin collectors but those serious collectors will pay good money for good coins. If you are buying mercury dimes you are likely to sell them for silver spot right around $1.5-$2 each unless they are FB FSB and/or nice uncirculated specimens. As for world coins you aren't likely to get a high resale value on the secondary market unless it is a well known world coin such as a key date in a given series and/or in high MS.

 

Yeah, you both make good points. Nice and scarce world coins would be good bets, but it seems that's probably where all the action is. So I'd probably pay too much to acquire them. Sometimes I get lucky and get them though for reasonable prices. As for ebay, I never buy or ship to other countries. The postage fees and risk isn't worth the small prices I pay for world coins. I don't know for sure though. What I do know is that the world coins in the US domain can be quite limited at times. I always enjoy large coin shows because then I have pretty good access to the world coins I need and haven't found on ebay

 

You mentioned that when you sell foreign coins, you get less than expected.

What do you base your expectations on... catalog values? Past auction items? Retail dealer prices? This is important in that the former and latter will not give you accurate estimates for auction format sales.
Also the fact that you do not ship outside the US is detrimental to the prices you get for foreign coins.
I collect/deal almost exclusively non-US coins and easily half the bidders and buyers are outside the US. I can't even imagine the drop in sales prices I would experience if I limited my shipping to US only.

 

I am from the US. I believe that World coins are a great buy. For a few reasons:
1. Variety
Collecting one's own country limits the amount of variety you can choose from
2. Value +
What I mean is that there are obvious money coins in the US coin cata. However I think with world coins, I have a higher chance at finding a coin that will one day be a gem. EX. in 1982 the 1922 Australia 1 shilling was I believe about $11.00 in XF condition, Check out the value now as listed by NGC.

I do not collect for today, but I am collecting for the future, and the preservation of history. Certain places are what I focus on. One Great Historically significant country that I am sure is gonna be a gold mine, is Hejaz. The home of Mecca, Medina, Cradle of gold, and The Kuwait River system from B.C. times. This place has only 13 total different coins, with intensely low mintages, however if you are lucky you can snag a few for under $50.00 each

If you want a quick turn around, I would definitely still say world coins. Mainly because you are now open to a larger market. X amount of Numismatics collect USA currency, but X amount collect world coins, and anything outside of the USA is considered "World" by my definition.

The biggest issue USA coins face though, is very high mintages. The values at which the common coins such as "Mercury dimes" "silver halves" etc. wont be going up any time soon I don't think. I like the fact a lot of people collect USA coins, because it leaves me room to snag all kinds of good world coin deals before they become popular. Think about this: The populous of the USA is changing daily with immigration laws. The majority of USA citizens could be said to become latin American, or Mexican American in the near future, all of the Numismatic people that will include may want their own countries coins. The sad fact is that the nice and hard to find USA coins are intensely over priced, and very well hoarded. I do not turn away USA coins, but I do not seek them out. I have most all of my USA coins from pure circulation at stores.

I collect KM sets, or whatever cata letter u wanna use. EX. I have the full silver balboa set from panama in a picture frame on my wall, the entire 1962 Sao tome circulation set the same, etc. I like to make my collecting very personal, as I have been doing this for over 20 years, I have had my times where I started to get bored from just random collecting, so that gives me a little direction.

I hope I provided something useful. Happy coin hunting.

 

Definitely good points. I never heard of Hejaz. It seems that I often hear about great countries to collect, which makes world coins very interesting and fresh. There are probably a lot of sleepers out there. I can only imagine interest will grow as economies improve, populations increase, etc. I don't quite understand the limited focus Americans have on their own coinage; perhaps other countries are like this? I don't know if it's nationalism or what. But like you said, it leaves a lot out there for us world coin collectors to snatch up.

 

I base my expectations mostly on what I paid, and what I pay is usually reasonable and under Krause prices. Since I buy and sell world coins 0-80 dollars, it doesn't seem wise to ship internationally. I would think mailing would cost 15-20 dollars. Plus, it would seem things would get lost more often. I don't want to affect my positive ratings on ebay. I've had some obscure modern Russian mint set that no local dealer would touch, but they sold nicely on ebay in the US. I actually got a huge offer from someone outside the US but it seemed suspicious

 

world coins are great to collect. from cheap to sky high prices. it all depends on grade and mintages. after a while 16+ years of collecting world coins you get to know which coins are very common and which ones hardly ever come up on the market. scarcity and availability play a major roll in the price. If you pay retail on a coin... you will never get that money back unless it is quite nice and scarce. If you sell to coin dealers they will never pay retail prices ever. they have to sell your coins at a profit.

 

You can ship internationally no more expensive first class mail domestically, but this gives no insurance or tracking. Out of probably a thousand international shipments, I have only ever lost two coins. One to Israel and the other to Canada, and I ship everywhere except Africa and Mexico. Both were relatively low priced coins. Anything up at the top of your range you may want to consider registered mail, that will run you upwards of $12, but of course you set the shipping charges to include this for coins that tend to go for higher prices. International shipping is not at all as risky as you may think.

 

See, that might be the issue right there. Unless you purchase the coin already knowing what they sell for, you can't really expect to make money on it. There are many examples of high value coins in Krause that in reality sell for pennies on the dollar. For example, take a German 1 mark coin from the 1950's. Krause has many dates/mints in XF listed for upwards of $100. You might buy one for $25 and consider it a good deal, since it's well below value. But in reality they go for like $5 on ebay.
Krause is notoriously unreliable with it's listed values.

 

A lot of the rarer coins in my collection come from the US.
As you might have guessed, it's only because they are valued lower in the US and that is how I get a deal.

The trick is identifying what coins are way under priced in your local coin dealer and sell them at a profit which would make all parties happy.

 

Yes. For example, you guys do not appreciate the value of European coins as much as they do in Europe. You guys also do not clean your coins as much. The end result is that I am able to purchase some of my favorite silver coins from the US for around $10 -$15 a piece and they are generally in a far superior condition, at a far better price, to purchasing the same coins from Europe.

 

I think buying world coins in the U.S. is a great deal, but it all depends on where you buy them and sell them. Ninety percent of U.S. dealers see world coins as an annoyance or something for the kids to play with. That means you can buy them at a great deal, but it also means you don't want to sell to them, because they won't give you good value. Although many complain about eBay's fees and other issues, it's the only place you can get good value for your world coins, and like Numismat said, you need to ship overseas for the best prices. I buy and sell comparatively low value stuff, but if I can buy 100 coins at 10 cents apiece and resell them at $1-$5 apiece, I think that's pretty good value. Many people don't want to waste their time with low value stuff like this, but it adds up. I ship regular mail for all orders of four coins or less, and I have had some international and even domestic mail get lost, but not enough to make me want to stop selling. Most of my lost mail has been to Russia, but I have had a lot of buyers there who often pay what I consider to be inflated prices.

 

I have moved heavily into world coins. Where else can you get 250 year old coins in reasonable shape for <10 cents apiece. My last batch of world coins ($5 for about 150 coins) included a VG-F 1790 Austrian Kreutzer; some beautiful mid-1800's Russian Kopek coins in various denominations; several mint state British Victoria era pennies, half pennies, and farthings; and an 1806 farthing and 1806 penny, both in G-VG.

Most times I can find three or four that will bring a buck or two apiece at a local auction, so I basically collect for free. I'm not going to get rich, but usually break even.

 

Good example and point. I see what you mean

 

True. We'll said

 

Yeah, me too. I probably break even too. It's am awesome hobby when it pays for itself! I don't think as many US coin collectors can say the same!

 

I often look on the local Craigslist for coins but have never found anything worthwhile. A recent one kind of makes me laugh, a poster has a pic or about 40 current world coins and started off asking $40, which quickly came down to $30, then to $20 and he swears that $15 is as low as he can go since he had them "appraised" and they are worth lots more. How to tell him that 40 coins at 5/$1 is $4.00