Dark side?

Lancek

I'm assuming Bob's comment on "Dark side" meant world section. They don't get enough respect anywhere. My collection is very eclectic. Mostly because I find a lot more bargains on worlds in my area. Nobody else really collects them or understands them.

"Bag of foreign coins" is what I see listed. What's in there? couple clunkers and a '47 MS Balboa. Paid $5, at the time melt was $10. Graded in the mid 60s and sold for $80.

'65 '66 '67 Canadian coins. Most people I'm bidding against must think Canada quit using silver at the same time we did. Easy to pick those up cheap.

"1983 German Medal" is what's on the auction sheet. Says 20 Marks on the coin. So I assume, like in the US, you can't have a denomination on there unless it's official coinage. After A LOT of research, I finally thought to look in EAST Germany. Martin Luther silver commem coin. Krause price was so astronomical I didn't believe it. From people on the other board I learned this. Same mintage as the years around it. But sometime after minting, but before they were all distributed, someone in the communist party thought this. Gee, maybe since we're suppressing religion we shouldn't issue a coin with a religious dude on it.

Cool bit of history I wish I had kept. Paid $10, sold it to my coin shop for $200. And according to Krause, there was still room for them to double their money after grading. I saw it at their booth the next coin show. Think it came bak a 66 or 67.

Now the real reason I started with worlds is there is so much diversity. So much history. Don' tell the people in the US section this, but I just got bored with Morgans. The last two years of our local coin show, I see row after row of MS 63, 64, 65, blast white Morgans. And yet where is the biggest crowd. Around the two tables of the guy that had nothing but worlds. And there was a line to look though his three ring binders.

I will say will buy just about anything German or Egyptian. Bargain or not. Mostly because those are the countries my wife likes. So as long as I keep bringing home some of those, the less she cares about all the others. lol

cacheman

Welcome.

TwoKopeiki

@Lancek said:
Mostly because those are the countries my wife likes.

Wise man!

Lancek

Another $4 spent on a Canadian silver dollar this morning. Current melt $16. I'm telling you, worlds are where the profit potential is. Then if you're like me, you pour that profit back into your Peace/Morgan habit.

Stork

Indeed, the word 'darkside' was coopted to use for non US coins. Occasionally later greyside for Canadian coins and farside for exonumia as well. Not sure the latter two stuck like darkside did. But yes, welcome to the darkside--non US coins!

In any case, the word was starting to get used around here before I joined, which was 2003 IIRC. So roughly 20 years.

Just don't be surprised if in a few years you realize your 'profits' are no longer going into US coins. My Dansco 7070 has languished for years without a purchase. I'm not 100% sure where it is either, which is stupid as the gold page at least is complete.

And if you really want some fun, do the OFEC (one from every country) collection. Of course you have to set some parameters there...

AuldFartte

Lancek! Yes, Darkside is applied to world coins in general, greyside is still used for Canadian coinage (and I've also heard it used to describe English/British coin collectors). I have a handful of Darkside/Greyside collections going right now including a British Victorian Type Set, English/British shillings 1551-1970, British Conder Tokens, Byzantine copper folles (ancients) and a handful of other ancients that appeal to me, mainly Greek.

However you decide to collect, remember to have fun with it!

WCC

@Lancek said:

Don' tell the people in the US section this, but I just got bored with Morgans. The last two years of our local coin show, I see row after row of MS 63, 64, 65, blast white Morgans.

There are almost certainly more high quality Morgan dollars than all world crowns combined in anything close to comparable quality, excluding bullion NCLT.

Lancek

Oh, one micro interest I forgot to mention. Got into collection US modern commem dollars kind of by accident. But have always like the olympic ones. So I am trying to put together a set of world commems from whatever country hosted the olympics that year. Got a pretty good start. Heck, just having the US ones knocks out a big chunk. I'll prob put a WTB list the the world BST forum at some point.

Sapyx

The term "Darkside" originated on American coin forums back in the early 2000s. The origin of the phrase being a statement someone posted, that your typical American coin collector "knew more about the dark side of the moon" than they knew about foreign coins.

There has been some debate as to how, exactly, the term should be used by non-Americans. There are those who say that it should refer to "not your own country's coinage" (so for me, as an Australian, US coins would be included in "Darkside"). While others contend the term should only be used in an Americo-centric context.

"Greyside" is Canada, so called because, while they might be strange and exotic and perhaps rarely seen, they are not entirely unfamiliar, in that they come in much the same sizes and denominations as US coinage.

The term "darksider" became a badge of honour among world coin forumites. This shows in the antonym of "Darkside" being "Liteside", as opposed to "Lightside".

1960NYGiants

We even have our own theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVGgmwALGIM

The dark side's coming now, nothing is real
She'll never know just how I feel
From out of the shadows, she walks like a dream
Make me feel crazy, make me feel so mean
Aint' nothing's gonna save ya from a love that's blind
Slip through the dark side and cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
Dark side's coming, now nothing is real
She'll never know just how I feel
From out of the shadows, she walks like a dream
Make me feel crazy, make me feel so mean
Ain't nothin' gonna save ya from a love that's blind
Slip through the dark side and cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
Ain't nothin' gonna save ya from a love that's blind
Slip through the dark side and cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah

Cougar1978

US collectors ignorant as to how scarce many investment grade classic world coins are vs US which are far more expensive.

Many slabbed world coins I have with single and double digit pops cost me so much less than their USA counterparts. Some as much as what it would cost 2 people go out to dinner.

Calling world coins the dark side shows their ignorance and the fact they are buried in much more available slabbed pop wise US material they have way overpaid for, especially considering the sticker game.

SaorAlba

Most of the Canadians I collect are change or coin machine reject slot finds. I don't consider Canada darkside, or even grey. I live close to the border and have attended shows over there several times. I really don't care so much for the modern stuff as I do the older ie GVI coins and charter bank currency issues from before 1943.

bidask

@Lancek said:
Oh, one micro interest I forgot to mention. Got into collection US modern commem dollars kind of by accident. But have always like the olympic ones. So I am trying to put together a set of world commems from whatever country hosted the olympics that year. Got a pretty good start. Heck, just having the US ones knocks out a big chunk. I'll prob put a WTB list the the world BST forum at some point.

I got a bunch of 1980 Russian silver Olympic crowns

All Gems

YQQ

surely depends on WHRE you 2 go out for dinner, right? and can pay $ 30 including 1/2 bottle of grape juice.

and for a serious treat, there are places I pay 300 for similar ... but with another dinner date and a full bottle of nice Oregon Merlot.