Question: Where do most US world coin collectors purchase coins for their collections? Quick background: I am currently living in Germany and have had a great experience collecting over here but my tour has been cut short and am returning stateside earlier than expected. I have really enjoyed the German Empire, Austro-Hunarian Empire, and Spanish coins, but I have not had the time to locate the "holes" in the collection. Over here these coins are available readily as I travel and I thought I would have more time to source the rest of these coins while I am here. Thanks, look forward to hearing what you have to say. MikeP
Depends I suppose. Every type of coin is a little different. Some are cheapest on Ebay, some are cheapest at coin shops or coin shows. Not many world coin collectors in the US, so many times in person you have little competition so can get great deals. Sometimes they are higher on Ebay because there are a few collectors competing with you.
Mike - are talking about current or pre-Euro coins, or older coins ? The older coins are fairly easy to find as there are many dealers in the US who sell them. The newer,modern coins, not so much because fewer people are interested in them. Dealers will however have what they call junk bins, and often those bins are chock full of foreign coins. And they sell them cheap, often 10 for a dollar. So if you are willing to take the time to search in those bins, you'll be surprised what you can find there.
Or groups on Ebay. Pay attention to these. I know there are tons to sort through, but I bought a folder one time with world coins in pages and 2x2's for around $70. I bought it simply because of some silver and they looked promising, (and I am a hoarder). All were priced, but i never paid much attention to the price. One was listed at $800, so I pulled it out a few months later, (chuckling), but by golly, Krause had it listed for around $750 or so. You are lucky you like world coins in the US. Not nearly as much competition, and hopefully you will have many of your own, "can you believe I bought this for so cheap?" stories. Those are some of the best parts of collecting world coins in the US. I buy most of my world coins in the US FAR cheaper than the price of them in their home countries.
Thanks for the guidance. Looks promising once I return stateside. My interests are Pre-WWI German and Austro-Hungarian, as wells as Pre-1900 Spanish. I focus on silver issues lately but with gold as high as it is these days, alot of nice MS quality gold is at spot as long is it is not a significantly low mintage issue. The only modern foreign coin series I have interest in is ther 1951-1974 German 5 Mark, thanks to Gbroke for that influence. thanks again, MikeP
