Picked up this 1931 Latvia 5 Lati. Self-slab job.

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by Morgandude11, Jul 6, 2022.

  1. Morgandude11

    Morgandude11 As long as it's Silver, I'm listening

    I picked up this 1931 Latvia 5 Lati, crown-sized coin, for my World Crown coin collection. I am not that familiar with them. This one is coming from a large dealer in the Vancouver area, who self-certifies. It looks accurately graded to me—I would have said low grade MS, in my opinion. Additional information from more expert collectors of these coins greatly appreciated. It was inexpensive, and looked like a nice coin to me.

    FBFE80F3-F1E2-4C6A-A3B3-D029ED209E4C.jpeg E238E92A-ADBC-4EB0-B31B-1C72F04D1CEA.jpeg D151BF28-CC06-4921-84B3-5DEA704B879E.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2022
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  3. COOPER12

    COOPER12 Well-Known Member

    Nice design . I am not familiar. Is it silver?
     
  4. Morgandude11

    Morgandude11 As long as it's Silver, I'm listening

    Yes.
     
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  5. longshot

    longshot Enthusiast Supporter

    They are quite readily available in AU/BU, and quite inexpensive to boot. I like them, really can't tell you much about them though.

    Edit: after checking ebay, they sure sell for more than they used too....
     
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  6. ddddd

    ddddd Member

    It's a cool design and a fairly popular world crown. These used to be super cheap several years back (I recall AU 58 to low MS slabbed examples going in the $25-$40 range). They have increased as part of the runup in the coin market but are still relatively inexpensive compared to the more known world crowns (Mexican 8R, British Trade Dollars, Chinese crowns, etc).

    Here is the numista page

    https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces6595.html

    And here is some detail from Wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_lats_coin

    some of that info (more in the link above)

    "In February 1929, the Latvian Ministry of Finance decided to issue a ℒ 5 circulation coin depicting the head of a maiden, which would symbolize the Republic of Latvia and freedom.[2] The coin was designed by Rihards Zariņš. The image of the maiden on the coin is colloquially known as Milda (a Latvian female name). The model was Zelma Brauere (1900-1977), a proofreader of the State Securities Printing House. She served as a model for other works of the artist, including the ℒ 10 and ℒ 20 banknotes and the 50s coin."
     
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  7. Morgandude11

    Morgandude11 As long as it's Silver, I'm listening

    This one was $55, shipped from Canada. I know it is common, but this one was very nice in terms of surface preservation.
     
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  8. ddddd

    ddddd Member

  9. Morgandude11

    Morgandude11 As long as it's Silver, I'm listening

  10. ddddd

    ddddd Member

    I had to google translate too (my Latvian is non-existent :p).
     
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  11. longshot

    longshot Enthusiast Supporter

    I don't have any idea of the perimeters of your crown collecting, but wondered if you have checked out the Peruvian 5 pesetas of 1880-1882.
    Just the fact that they were coeval with the Morgan dollar and there is a resemblance, makes them interesting, I think.
     
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  12. FredJB

    FredJB Active Member

    Nice interesting coin. Back in the post WWII days you could still order these from a Moscow address!
     
  13. TheFinn

    TheFinn Well-Known Member

    These were struck in 1929, 1931 and 1932. The ‘32s are the key, but scarce, not rare.
     
  14. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    Nice one. Here's a couple of other examples. PCGS PR64 sold by Stack's Bowers at the 2021 ANA sale that fetched $10,800 and another that sold at Numisbalt in Lithuania for about $4,000 in MS65+ back in May of this year. Some pretty astronomical results for a coin that is nearly as common as dirt. But it does have a great design as world crowns go, and if owning the best is an absolute must, then maybe that's the correct $ amount to shell-out.

    lat1.jpg latvia.jpg
     
  15. robinjojo

    robinjojo Well-Known Member

    The OP coin is very nice, and the NGC coins are super nice. but pricey.

    It's hard to determine the grade of the OP coin but it seems to have minimal contact marks, a key factor for these coins which were stored in bags.

    The 5 lati crowns were minted in 1929, 1931 and 1932. The 1932 date is the scarcest.

    The model for the obverse was Zelma Brauere (1900 – 1977).

    Zelmai Brauerei (1900 – 1977) 7-4-22.jpg

    Here's more information on her:

    https://second.wiki/wiki/zelma_brauere

    Also, here's my 5 lati.

    Latvia, AR 5 Lati, 1931.
    KM 9
    24.96 grams

    D-Camera Latvia AR 5 Lati 1931 KM 9 24.96g Sal 7-4-22.jpg

    According to my local coin dealer, these coins were scarce before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Following that pivotal event, large numbers of these coins appeared on the market. Still, finding an appealing example is a challenge.
     
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  16. princeofwaldo

    princeofwaldo Grateful To Be eX-I/T!

    Yes, that is correct about the Latvian coins flooding the market once the Soviet Union collapsed. The smaller commemorative AR 2 Lati coins were very tough at one time, then an enormous flood hit the market. There was some fear back around 1995 that the same would hold true for Tsarist era Russian coins, that a deluge would flood the market and prices would drop, but the flood never arrived. For those collectors who got into the Russian market in 1995 then got out at the top in 2008, a gain of around 20 TIMES the initial outlay. The Baltic countries material in gem BU seems to have held-up pretty well so far all things considered, though something like a 1931 Latvia 2 Lati in XF/AU is only worth a fraction of what it was pre-breakup.
     
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