Man those coins are a little too"NICE" to have been from the junk bin. Are you sure? They look AU and higher to me. : wideyed:
"One man's junk is another man's treasure." At a lot of dealers, it seems like most foreign material is treated as junk, regardless of condition. I've got a sizable bag of Canadian silver proof issues in Air-Tites that I bought under melt. Even when silver went up a bit, I wasn't able to flip them for more than I paid. Silver's down by perhaps 50% now, and I'll bet they still don't carry a premium over melt.
I have to agree with you on that...I have obtained many beautiful world coins exactly the same way. Those coins are very nice.
I have the Bermuda and Guatemalas in my collection. Those are definitely uncirculated. Great find, OP. Ditto. I found 10, 25 and 50 cent unc Canadian silver once in a junk box at a show, but other than that, no such luck.
It seems many dealers care LESS about world coins unless they are uber-rare pieces and in possible certifiable grades. Even dealers who regularly buy/sell foreign stuff generally sell them far less than they are worth. One time I saw some Mexico 1947/1948 Cinco Pesos in UNC condition for $18 each at one of my local coin shops. On ebay they go much higher, between $35-40 each. This was back in 2013 when silver was much higher, so $18 would have been scrap price for the coins at the time. These have more silver than Morgan's too. Weight is 30g (.900), and have a diameter of 40mm. Huge coins. The only coin I've seen that was bigger than this was a late 1700's Italian States Kronenthaler, which I believe has a 42mm diameter. Some German ones are probably as big, but just to say, there aren't many world coins out there that size up to this one. These are also only a 2 year issue, and are some of the most attractive Mexican silver pieces I've seen. About 30 of them were loose in a box, I wish I would have grabbed all of them when I had the chance. Some 47's mixed in there too, which is a lower mint year. I'd like to know how these beautiful things could possibly have been "scrap" coins? Oh and, I forgot to mention that these coins quickly sold, like the next day after I walked in.
OH MY GOSH!!! I so wished I had been there to get what you didn't get. At $18 it is a steal... Of all the Mexican coinage, this coin is by far my favorite. It is a large Crown size coin that I have been collecting since 2003. I literally have 100's in my safe. I will continue to buy these up whenever and wherever I can. Nice story. Thanks and enjoy what remains of your day.
I like the Guatemalan one, top left. Beautiful design. The base metal version is pretty too and looks very much like a silver coin. Maybe because it's cu-ni-zinc.