Most of the coins for sale are usually small "hoard" finds (there's a seller in Vcoins with several of those right now), so, sometimes they are easy to find but when a particular hoard is sold out a buyer have to wait for a new one and that could take years... Jose
Like i said in the post before, you can check Vcoins or search for "India" on Portuguese auction sites: Megaleiloes PT Canal Good luck! Jose
Biju, As you are located in India, your best bet is finding them in India (specially in Goa). There are couple of good dealers in Goa who usually setup their tables in various Coin Shows in India. Also, I must warn you that all crude Indo-Portuguese coins were heavily counterfeited in early days and it's a very complicated series to deal with. In 1995 I visited a coin show held in Goa and Pune and met few local dealers and collectors. And the general consensus was that almost 80% of early Indo-Portuguese available is market is not genuine and were produced in early '60s. Couple of years back there was a hoard of "soldo of Manuel" came in market which was sold in large groups via a US auction firm. So, one can see these in dealers stock for an affordable price. It's very tough to comment on the authenticity of a coin just based on an image, but for the tin coins you have posted I would suggest that you weight them properly and consult with some local expert. Did you bought them from some local dealer or on internet? Take care. Regards Ballabh Garg
There are definitely a lot of counterfeit coins for this series but the vast majority are "fantasy coins" completely different from the real ones ("Gomes" has a few pages with pics of those), all of spiraltreet coins are cataloged in the right place, so he should be okay but i would check: - Weight - Smell test: If genuine they should smell a bit "swampy" - Check if they are really tin, not lead... ...and if you still in doubt maybe you could send an email to Mr. Stephen Album (stevealbum(dot)com)... Jose
Thanx for the warning, Ballabh.. I bought those Malacca coins from 'V coins'.. So I'm pretty sure about it.. :smile But, I was unaware of the counterfeits...
Today has been a good day for me.. I got a complete collection of 1871 series.. The mintage of each of these coins is around 50,000 pieces only.. Isn't that wonderful? And it seems the big 60 Reis coins were used for some other purposes also.. The dealer told me that this is (picture attached) a different coin. I convinced him and he gave the coin with a hole to me free.. The 60 Reis coins are attached with the next posting..
Hi.. here's the latest additions to my Portuguese India collection. The first is a 30 Reis issued under Miguel (Goa mint) and the other is a 1/2 Tanga issued under Miguel (Goa mint). These coins are becoming more and more expensive these days.. I had to spend a bit more than what I expected to spend for these coins..
Looks like you are building a nice Indo-Portuguese collection. These are tough coins to get. You should be happy to add them in your collection. Biju, Let me tell you one thing. More then 10 years back, when I used to collect these coins actively, the prices were high even then. And the fact is that if you buy them one at a time and by selecting a nice specimen for your collection, you will be happy at the end. One more thing, when buying any coin for your collection, be an educated buyer and not an impulse buyer. And you will always be happy with your purchase. Regards Ballabh Garg
Biju,you are building up a nice collection of Portuguese Indian Tanga currency coins.The next task is trying to find the Escudo coins,especially the 3 & 6 Escudos.The 30 Centavos does turn up occasionally as does the 1961 10 Centavos. Aidan.
Hi.. is there anyone who can suggest a good reference book or catalogue for Portuguese India coins (16th Century to 20th Century)? I found that the Krause is painfully inadequate.
The two books on Indo-Portuguese coins I have are 1> "Indo-Portuguese Money" by J. Ferraro Vaz. It's an excellent reference book on coins and paper money for this series. A must book for any collector of this series. 2> "Moedas Portuguesas" by Alberto Gomes. This book covers all Portugal colonial series including India. The photographs in this book are excellent and much better then Krause photos. Also, this book has prices of each type of coins (though little outdated). Regards, Ballabh Garg
I second Mr. Garg recommendations, the Vaz book is a classic who list all Portuguese monetary issues for India and the Gomes is the general reference (and price guide) for all Portuguese coins including the ones issued for the Indian territories, the last edition published last year includes the newly found gold "Manoel" but not acknowledge the price changes due to the recent Malacca hoard and "BNU" silver hoard. For banknotes there is a book from Mr. Javier Salgado (Numisma auctions): "O papel moeda das antigas colónias Portuguesas" (Former Portuguese colonies papermoney), which includes all banknotes issued for India and their price (still in Escudos, it was published in the late 90's). Jose
I've noted a book named "Contributions to the Study of Indo Portuguese Numismatics" by J Gerson Da Cunha in a website for sale.. Its a 1995 reprint of 1880 work. Any suggestions?
