This weekend I went to my favorite coin shop and purchased 448 world coins for 10 cents each. These were coins that I cherrypicked, not just a random assortment. When could you ever do that with collectible U.S. coins? Since world coins are seen as "something for the kids to play with," dealers don't take them seriously. It's great to be able to buy what you want and not spend all your money on it. Incidentally, three of the coins have a total book value of more than I paid for the entire lot. I'm not going to sell them since I don't have other copies, but it makes it feel especially good knowing that value-wise, 445 of them were essentially free.
Always a good time. US numismatics used to be like that from what I hear in the 40's and 50's. You can see why so many kids were caught up in it then, huh? I buy groups of world coins for the same reason. Its simply fun, and that is what this should all be about? The funny thing is that many world coins are cheaper in the US than in their source country. I just love buying up interesting lots and old collections of world coins when I have a chance.
You never know what you're going to find and that makes it exciting. You can find anything on eBay if you are searching for it, but it's more fun when you stumble on it and think "I can't believe this is here!" or "I've never seen this before."
I don't collect modern world coins, but I can certainly see the attraction in the variety of types. One of the things I like about my collection is exactly that: the sheer variety of designs.
Oh come on John, "this 1887 Morgan is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT that the other 1887 Morgan, this one has a tiny S on it instead of a tiny O"! Geez, you do not find that THRILLING!
Lol, no, not in the least. I tried it, and part of the issue was my poor eyesight - I can't see half the things the variety collectors talk about, and enjoying your collection through a loupe gets tedious very quickly, at least for me. I don't denigrate collectors of die varieties though - that's serious numismatics in my opinion, not that anyone cares about my opinion. What mystifies me is the wrangling over MS grade points conveyed by TPG's and the fact that anyone would care enough about a few less hairlines to shell out a lot of scratch for an extra point or a plus. I tried that too, and well...the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.
I agree, I'd rather get new coins than always try to upgrade to a better version of what I have or try to gather varieties with barely discernible differences. With hundreds of countries to choose from, world coin collectors never run out of coins to collect. For U.S. coins after awhile all you can do is sink more money into chasing the same small group of targets. When I got into this hobby it was meant to be something I could do without spending significant cash on it, and world coins let me do that.
The group of targets really isn't that small. If you collected a type set of circulating mint issues you could move on to proofs, and then the vast variety of commemoratives and even Civil War and Hard Times tokens. If you had the resources, you could also add patterns. A US collector could amass a large set of different designs if he wanted to. It's a matter of choice. I think there's a tremendous value to the TPG's when it comes to authentication, but in order to stay in business they've had to create condition rarities. There was some news recently about a circulating Ike that broke some barrier, MS68 I think. Really. You mean to tell me that in all the years the TPG's have been grading Ike's, this was the first time they came across a 68? No doubt there was a flood of submissions from collectors hoping for that grade. A fool and his money are soon parted, and you know what? A fool deserves to be broke.
I can relate. world coins variety is so huge. the beauty in world coins is you can buy them cheap or very expensive. I love world coins. they are my escape. lol
I like 'pretty' world coins, i tend to stay away from the British monarchy motif, just cant get excited about King George or Queen Elizabeth on all these coins from all over the place. I really like Mexican coinage as I just bought 3 more Cap and Rays Un Peso coins for my BU set. I also really like the 1947 and 1948 5 Pesos Cuauhtemocs Other favorite countries are Austria and Germany right now, and possibly Switzerland
since I really don't know much about modern world coins (or any coins for that matter), I usually have fun trying to figure out what the heck they are, and sometime where in the heck they're from.
I am currently really enjoying 19th century copper coins. I think I have bought 6 or 7 in recent memory that I had intended to put them up on ebay but then ended up keeping them for myself.
I'm getting really good at it. I'd say there are few modern coins for which I can't identify the country, or at least narrow it down to two or three. I'm also getting good at reading dates in other languages like Arab script. Regarding the old copper coins, I really like those too. Later I will post the picture of the Chinese 200 cash that I got as part of this trip. It's too big for a coin holder.
