Latin Amercian coins: If you had to give advice to new lurkers on the forums
TheGoonies1985
Posts: 5,464 ✭✭✭✭✭
What advice would you give to possible new collectors lurking on the forums:
As for me I would say if you are use to buying US coins I would say forget what you know when finding coins. You cannot just call a dealer and land coins you may need. Dealers in Latin American coinage are just as rare as the coins.
Second I would say buy coins you find and need otherwise you may not see another for years or decades.
Third buy books again not always easy they are also rare in many cases. If you persist you will find most of them over time. Are they expensive yes are they worth the money for sure.
Fourth do not be all over the place stick with a series and master it. Unless you have enough funds they be open to other series.
Fifth in many cases you may not get the grades you want simply because they do not exist or are so rare they just never show up.
Comments
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Don’t let catalog values fool you. There are an astonishingly large number of absolute and condition rarities listed as if they were nothing special. Do your own homework and you will be rewarded.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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Latin American Collection
Yes, catalog values are mostly and maybe entirely just "made up".
Sometimes they have the good sense to just use “RRR”.
Latin American Collection
True, but I'm not limiting this claim to just that type of coin.
The sheer volume of data points in Krause makes it impractical to produce any accuracy. I never checked everything, but South Africa had the same prices in both my 2010 Africa edition and the 1998 full edition. I haven't noticed any difference in the NGC World Price Guide either.
Not much different for the pillar coinage I now primarily collect or Bolivian Republic decimals which is one of my secondary series.
South Africa was the only local guide I ever bought, but it was the same pattern. (This was Randburg and Hern.) This market has a clear TPG preference, but the guides didn't price by Sheldon grade. The prices were typically (though not always) really inflated for circulated grades and (until the price crash starting ion 2012) badly understated for "UNC". (The price spreads were and maybe still are really wide between MS and higher AU grades.) Both were published by coin dealers, so my inference is that they were attempting to support or increase the prices of coins most collectors bought.
There was also a large variance between Krause and Hern/Randburg which is partly though not fully attributed to my prior explanation. It's also because, as the primary market, the prices were and presumably still are higher in South Africa than elsewhere, mostly the US and maybe UK.
For the coinage from other countries where the demand is (somewhat) more balanced, I infer the local and US guides are closer, but I don't actually know it. For the coinage I buy, I don't even think about guide values when contemplating a purchase.
I infer Krause and local guides are "accurate" for a noticeable proportion of low priced common or easy to buy world coinage, but not for the reason most collectors think. The list price is "correct" because of a communication limitation and inefficient markets. Dealers or sellers price at catalog while collectors not knowing any better or the amount is nominal, pay it.
CDN is starting to show bid and CPG Retail for certain countries. If newbie would look at countries where they have this data.
Thirty five years to put together an NGC Registry bu set of columbus El Salvador pesos ( 1892 -1914 ) ( 6 pop tops) .
Not like buying BU MORGAN DOLLARS,
obsessively always hunting for years. Sad no one appreciates such an effort when it's time to sell.