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What an exhausting and glorious day!
coinpictures
Posts: 5,345 ✭✭✭
A coworker introduced me to a friend of hers that collects coins, both U.S. and foreign. One thing led to another and he invited me to come visit and look through his collection and see if there was anything I was interested in buying. He was deciding to specialize in Chinese and Japanese material, so he was willing to sell off other areas to fund his collecting.
I hit the road at 6:30 a.m., got there at about 9:00 a.m. and spent the next 7 or so hours going through boxes and boxes of coins (talk about being in hawg heaven
).
The downside: He knows his stuff, so no rips/steals/plundering to be had. Fairly firm on his prices. Most of the pieces I bought are for my own collection, because the prices were too high to buy with the intent of resale.
The upside: Some very aesthetically pleasing material. I concentrated on toners for the most part. I had anticipating spending up to $500 or so, but left about $1,200 poorer... he who dies the deepest in debt wins, right?
He had a whole bunch of PCGS material that he had just gotten back, about which he was spitting mad. After going through it, and in conjunction with what I've seen locally on recent lightside submissions, if you're looking for high grades, you do NOT want to be sending classic material (both darkside and lightside) to PCGS right now. They seem to be on a major conservative bent as of late. Those coins I looked at today were easy 64, shot 65 coins, in 62 and 63 holders.
I ended up running out of both time and money, so I had to throw a couple of pieces back that I was *really* tempted to buy:
1. A 17th century Austrian thaler that had dark toning with some very nice hints of color in the recesses. Problem: he wanted full AU money, but it really only graded a VF35 or so. I realize the color is worth a premium, but not that much of a premium in my opinion. If I go back in 5-6 months and he still has it, I may shoot him an offer.
2. I *really* hemmed and hawwed over this one. Italian 1 Lira, 1909. Extremely tough date! Solid EF45/AU50 details with deep antiqued toning (dark bronzish brown). However, it had quite a few rim dings on both sides that just bothered me. I couldn't justify spending $250-300 on a "problem" coin, no matter how aesthetically pleasing. It's a shame too, because it's otherwise gorgeous.
So now I have a whole bunch of coins to photograph over the weekend, and my checkbook is much lighter....
P.S. You have no idea how painful it is to fill the gas tank at $3.65 a gallon.
I hit the road at 6:30 a.m., got there at about 9:00 a.m. and spent the next 7 or so hours going through boxes and boxes of coins (talk about being in hawg heaven
).The downside: He knows his stuff, so no rips/steals/plundering to be had. Fairly firm on his prices. Most of the pieces I bought are for my own collection, because the prices were too high to buy with the intent of resale.
The upside: Some very aesthetically pleasing material. I concentrated on toners for the most part. I had anticipating spending up to $500 or so, but left about $1,200 poorer... he who dies the deepest in debt wins, right?
He had a whole bunch of PCGS material that he had just gotten back, about which he was spitting mad. After going through it, and in conjunction with what I've seen locally on recent lightside submissions, if you're looking for high grades, you do NOT want to be sending classic material (both darkside and lightside) to PCGS right now. They seem to be on a major conservative bent as of late. Those coins I looked at today were easy 64, shot 65 coins, in 62 and 63 holders.
I ended up running out of both time and money, so I had to throw a couple of pieces back that I was *really* tempted to buy:
1. A 17th century Austrian thaler that had dark toning with some very nice hints of color in the recesses. Problem: he wanted full AU money, but it really only graded a VF35 or so. I realize the color is worth a premium, but not that much of a premium in my opinion. If I go back in 5-6 months and he still has it, I may shoot him an offer.
2. I *really* hemmed and hawwed over this one. Italian 1 Lira, 1909. Extremely tough date! Solid EF45/AU50 details with deep antiqued toning (dark bronzish brown). However, it had quite a few rim dings on both sides that just bothered me. I couldn't justify spending $250-300 on a "problem" coin, no matter how aesthetically pleasing. It's a shame too, because it's otherwise gorgeous.
So now I have a whole bunch of coins to photograph over the weekend, and my checkbook is much lighter....
P.S. You have no idea how painful it is to fill the gas tank at $3.65 a gallon.
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Comments
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
<< <i>let us know what you were able to buy as time permits... should be an interesting read... >>
Totally agree with coinkat and patiently waiting for pictures. Sounds like you had a great day! Any Mexican War of Independence pieces, by any chance?
8 Reales Madness Collection
As for the fuel prices here in the UK it is about $7.60 per gallon.