Well, It's Official...

Stella

Despite starting out with US Coins as a YN and in my first job in numismatics, I did not purchase any American coins for my collection in 2020. Everything I added to my collection over the past year came from further afield. I think I am officially a World collector now!

Do you collect both?

Weiss

Both. If you'd asked me a decade ago, I'd have said I have no interest in darkside coins.
Truth is, most American coins bore me to tears. So my box of 20 has a good mix of both:

http://fourbore.com/montage23.jpg

jt88

nice group of coins.

Stella

Very cool assortment of coins, @Weiss . Thanks for sharing!

Funny enough, I also have a San Diego commem that I purchased a few years back. It is one of my favorite US commemorative designs.

bidask

Only world coins for me the last four years

Sold all my liteside thru legend fall 2016

scubafuel

I definitely have a foot in both camps. I'm continually blown away over what's available in world coins. They are beautiful, historical, relatively cheap and often far rarer than their US counterparts.
I wish I was paying attention earlier!

Windycity

Very Nice coins! Great eye appeal to all!

pruebas

@scubafuel said:
I definitely have a foot in both camps. I'm continually blown away over what's available in world coins. They are beautiful, historical, relatively cheap and often far rarer than their US counterparts.
I wish I was paying attention earlier!

I wish the coins I like were cheap....

neildrobertson

I keep telling myself I'll get into US coins more, but things like CAC, grade specific pricing, and the price tags themselves are keeping me away. The dark side is...freeing.

I still like learning about US coins and looking at other's coins. For now, I'll live vicariously through them.

Stella

Good points by @neildrobertson and @scubafuel . This is part of what drew me to World collecting. Less about grade and competing for a registry set, but more about enjoying the collection.

As @pruebas points out, good coins typically are not cheap, but I do feel that I get more for my dollar than if I were working on certain US Coin series as a set.

WildIdea

All I bought this year were a few cast medallions. Really brought down the buying on a covid wait and see precaution. Let me see....all foreign! Closest I came to US are the pieces I’m making and casting. That’s the third part of my collection. 1st is my numismatic coin collection, 2nd my cast medallion mostly WW1 cast satiracles, and 3rd my personal creations. 2and 3 getting all the love these days.
Still holding my US federal though. Still interested in keeping it, not enough to add to it. Must make me a mix bag collector but solidly trending full foreign. Even trending out of currency into art medallions wholly.

scubafuel

@stella, that was what I meant by "relatively cheap", sorry for the miscommunication @pruebas !
Just that for a similar rarity/condition level, many world issues seem to make a lot more financial sense to me than an equivalent US issue.

pruebas

@scubafuel said:
@stella, that was what I meant by "relatively cheap", sorry for the miscommunication @pruebas !
Just that for a similar rarity/condition level, many world issues seem to make a lot more financial sense to me than an equivalent US issue.

No miscommunication @scubafuel, I was just being snarky. It seems every coin I like, lots of others also like, so it gets bid to the moon!

Congrats @Stella, you’re officially one of us now. The field is so vast, it doesn’t cost your first-born to have a meaningful collection.

Boosibri

@pruebas said:

@scubafuel said:
I definitely have a foot in both camps. I'm continually blown away over what's available in world coins. They are beautiful, historical, relatively cheap and often far rarer than their US counterparts.
I wish I was paying attention earlier!

I wish the coins I like were cheap....

I spent $34k on a unique Mexican 4E last year. What would a unique US $10 cost, $3M? Now to get the demand for Mexican coins up so I can retire early.

pruebas

@Boosibri said:

@pruebas said:

@scubafuel said:
I definitely have a foot in both camps. I'm continually blown away over what's available in world coins. They are beautiful, historical, relatively cheap and often far rarer than their US counterparts.
I wish I was paying attention earlier!

I wish the coins I like were cheap....

I spent $34k on a unique Mexican 4E last year. What would a unique US $10 cost, $3M? Now to get the demand for Mexican coins up so I can retire early.

The eternal question: if someone offered you $100k for that coin today, would you sell or hold?

Boosibri

@pruebas said:

@Boosibri said:

@pruebas said:

@scubafuel said:
I definitely have a foot in both camps. I'm continually blown away over what's available in world coins. They are beautiful, historical, relatively cheap and often far rarer than their US counterparts.
I wish I was paying attention earlier!

I wish the coins I like were cheap....

I spent $34k on a unique Mexican 4E last year. What would a unique US $10 cost, $3M? Now to get the demand for Mexican coins up so I can retire early.

The eternal question: if someone offered you $100k for that coin today, would you sell or hold?

In the words of Cramer...sell, sell, sell

JohnnyCache

I bought a little bit of both lightside and darkside this year. I also bought some coins off of ebay, which I'd never done before. I would say that I had mixed results, but considering the relatively low price point of those purchases I'm not unhappy overall, as it scratched that itch created by not being able to go out to the local shows that I would often hit once or twice a month.

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Some of my favorite 2020 darkside
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Some of my favorite 2020 lightside
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JohnnyCache

Here are a few examples that came from eBay this year, all were less than $85, in fact, most were much less, and they helped keep my mind busy.

Weiss

Love the color of the Chilean 8, @JohnnyCache

Sapyx

I'm from Australia. American coins are part of my "World coin collection". So are Australian coins, for that matter.

In American coins, this year, I've bought a 1943-S quarter, and three Lincoln cents from the 1950s that I didn't already have, all plucked out of a bulk world coin lot.

In the same time period, there were 3 Australian coins, and 224 world, mediaeval and ancient coins. Included in that 224 are a few banknotes, tokens and other non-coin numismatica.

pruebas

@JohnnyCache I don't know if it is coincidence or intentional, but all the coins you have shown are in our hosts holders which would be generally unusual for world coins.

JohnnyCache

@pruebas said:
@JohnnyCache I don't know if it is coincidence or intentional, but all the coins you have shown are in our hosts holders which would be generally unusual for world coins.

Well, all the coins shown in my "favorite darkside" purchases of 2020, coincidentally, were former Boosibri coins, and it is my suspicion that he probably crossed most, if not all, of those coins over after he purchased them.

I'm not opposed to buying a darkside coin in a holder from across the street and I'd estimate that the world coins in my collection are split about 50/50.

Lightside is a bit of a different story. I once held the belief that either service was fine so long as the coin was properly graded, possessed all the features that we as collectors are seeking such as good strike, strong luster, free of distracting hits, etcetera, ultimately culminating in a coin that could be thought of as having good eye appeal.

However my views have changed over my relatively short time collecting. It seems to me that lightside collectors have continued to push increasingly toward valuing our hosts encapsulated coins to a far greater percentage over coins graded by other services. Additionally, many lightsiders now prefer them to be stickered too.

Given how strong this trend has become I no longer feel like swimming against the current. If a coin is one that has a typical market value of more than $500, then I will only look to purchase one graded by our host and also try to buy it already stickered with a bean.

There are many thoughts about why this is ridiculous or why it's good, but for me it's simply about what I have observed that the market seems to want now. I have no idea if it's what they will want in the future but I can't imagine it will hurt when I eventually sell my coins.

Which brings up the other factor influencing my decision. I had always hoped to leave my coins to my two girls, but despite numerous attempts I can not conjure anything more than the slightest interest out of either of them. In fact what little interest I do get, I often believe is just out of polite respect.

So as it became fairly evident that my kids are not going to want my coins, so too did my thoughts on the fact that they would be better off with just having the monetary value without the hassle of selling the coins themselves. Hence, my paying more attention to market trends in the hobby, as I would now need to think about a sale in ten to fifteen years, god willing, instead of my daughters selling them in forty or fifty years. With all that said though, my collection is very modest, I'm just a working stiff. So it's never going to amount to all that much anyhow.

/spelling edits

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Stella

Thanks for the photos, @JohnnyCache . This is a nice assortment.

@Sapyx I suppose it is a matter of perspective. Perhaps some of the American coins that I run across frequently are more exotic to others!

ZoidMeister

And then there's those of us who have been "exonumia" smitten . . . . . .

These days, it's all about the design . . . . and the cost.

Z

jgenn

When will we see a darkside avatar from @Stella?

Boosibri

@pruebas said:
@JohnnyCache I don't know if it is coincidence or intentional, but all the coins you have shown are in our hosts holders which would be generally unusual for world coins.

Two of the coins were in P holders when I bought them, I cracked and upgraded the other two from scruffy NGC holders.
I’ll buy a coin in any holder but have put most in PCGS holders for consistency as I just like the holders better.

Stella

@jgenn said:
When will we see a darkside avatar from @Stella?

Now! I haven't changed it in years, so that was not a bad suggestion.

jgenn

Nice!

PhilLynott

I think my ratio is about 3-1 darkside to US coin purchases but I don't buy a ton in general. Darkside is just such better value with so much out there to choose from.

asheland

Nice coins in this thread!

ZoidMeister

Hope y'all don't mind me contributing a few of my personal favorites to this thread. All acquired within the past year. Heavily medal related, but all exonumia.

Z

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1861 Belgian Art Festival Medal by Leopold Wiener

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TwoKopeiki

Great thread and coins, everyone.

ZoidMeister

This one ties for first place . . . . . . .

The depth and perspective of this strike - unbelievable.

Case in point.

The shine and reflection you see in the windows on the right on the reverse? Those are "proof-like" surfaces in the strike, not photographic "lighting tricks."

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Bianchi was a Master . . . . . .

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1868 Pope Pius IX Medal (Anno XXIII) by Francesco Bianchi / views of the Vatican Raphael Loggias

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coinandcurrency242

I usually collect United States coins, but I added this Spanish gold coin to my collection.

Stella

It is fun to see what everyone is sharing!

Great medal, @ZoidMeister

ZoidMeister

Not exactly a coin, not exactly a medal.

Not exactly US, not exactly darkside.

Not exactly modern, not exactly ancient.

100% silver from a notable die sinker.

Z

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Obverse

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Reverse

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thefinn

A true numismatist, not just a collector.

silverpop

both US and world coins I collect

ZoidMeister

ZoidMeister

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And shifting into "Landis overdrive" . . . . . .

Z

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