What are some fun, value oriented foreign gold coins to collect?

SethChandler

Not that comon stuff that is advertised in Coin World. More interesting than that. Any ideas?

newsman

This one:



20,000 reis coins of the Brazilian republic are rare. Mintage that year was only 11,000 and the mintage for the entire 32 years of the type was only about 100,000. These aren't cheap relative to bullion value, but way undervalued compared to their rarity.

You can usually pick up a nice AU for around $500, which is less than the Krause price for XF. A true, uncleaned BU is very hard to find.

hookedoncoins

I actually like the common stuff. I like the french roosters, french angels, british sovereigns, and old austrian gold (can't remember what they are called).

All of these can be had for very little over bullion and have really nice designs IMO, but they are common.

If your looking for "not that common gold," I would definately advise this one:

cladking

I like the ones which actually circulated and the modern mass market stuff. Many of these
later issues were geared toward US collectors and had very small mintages. Coins like the
Western Samoan 100T gold of 1977. This is a half ounce coin of which they made only 660
pieces and it can be found at a few percent premium to melt. Of course with such a small
mintage it will be hard to find but there are 100's of others which you might find first. Many of
these will be just as good. There are very large numbers of different world gold coins and most
have some interesting attributes. It would seem difficult to go wrong with them.

There are also silver coins which fit these same general criteria which will often be equally
scarce and occasionally thrown in free with the gold in a proof or mint set.

GDJMSP

I'd say it would depend on how you define value oriented and fun. For the fun part you'd have to be the one to decide on a design or designs you like. For the value part - do you mean low priced or do you mean priced low considering rarity and availability ?

On second thought - just go buy all that British stuff

wybrit

Can't go too far wrong with sovereigns, but beware of counterfeits - they exist even for modern dates.

ColinCMR

Newfoundland $2 Vicky coins are cool.

ColinCMR

Here is an example, it's neat how there is 3 denominations on the obverse; 2 dollars, 200 cents, 100 pence.

wybrit

2 dollars, 200 cents, 100 pence.

The exchange rate is perilously close to that now!

lordmarcovan

I would go with Spanish colonial escudos and half-escudos from the mid-to late-1700's: they're gold, they're relatively inexpensive, and they're historical; associated with all that "pirate treasure" stuff.

Steve27

How about US but not your standard bullion:

trozau

Just pick an example of each design that appeals to you and you'll never run out of materials. That's the beauty of world gold.

cosmicdebris

Philip

I'd recommend Venetian Ducats. I would assume a complete set is mission impossible but there are many of them that can be found relatively cheap.... and I'm not talking about holed ones.

1jester

I was thinking about this a lot, and while there are many choices, I especially agree with Philip; there is, in my opinion, a huge goldmine to be had with medieval ducats (Venetian ones seem to be especially cheap, but there are others too). They are scarce, ancient, full of history, and all of them are unique due to the nature of their minting process (hammered).

Philip

Imagine collecting die varieties

Stork

Some of my modern favorites...

the mintage for the Ireland Republic (50 ECU) is listed as 5000 (ClarkSmith has one I think).





The Japanese one commemerates the 10th Anniversary of the Enthronement (I've see this one from Steinbergs and Clark Smith). There are many beautiful Japanese gold coins, earlier koban types, the Meiji era coins, and now the modern commemeratives. Satootoko has a couple of the latter in his sig line.





The Britannia is the 1997 version (from Chards). The Britannias make a very nice group to go after. Cosmicdebris has a great link to see them.



Hmm, it looks like I need to work on sizing consistency here. Oh well, I am still new to the imaging aspects.

coinrookie

I like the Peruvian gold. The Libra`s and the seated stuff are nice designs.


Steve

MrEureka

Seth -

Consider the following:

French 20 Francs of Napoleon by date and mint.



Mexican Republic gold by date, mint and assayer. (Pick one denomination and type and stick with it. Otherwise, you will lose your mind.)



Besides being cool coins, both series contain underappreciated rarities that don't bring much money. You'll have fun figuring it all out.

ocstockpicker

Try and find palladium coins they are as rare as you get

JohnZ

Not for the faint of pocketbook.