First $1000 common date modern.

cladking

In just BU that is.

There are quite a few moderns (post WW II base metal coins) that are listed by
Krause at $1000 or more but they were always scarcer date coins that were not
widely saved.

The new Krause (2008) lists 1957 2 Drachma cu/ ni coin for $1,000 in BU!! This
is a very common coin in worn condition but is very difficult above XF because it
simply wasn't saved. Despite a mintage of 5 million the coin is scarce. At the time
of issue it was worth a mere 7c. The coin shouldn't have seen much circulation af-
ter the late-'60's and was, I believe, obsolete after 1973.

This coin is common in poundage so there probably weren't many melted as there
have been with so many moderns.

This merely shows how little attention has been paid to base metal coins in the last
several decades.

I'll post the big changes in the world coin forum later tonight or tomorrow but there
are relatively few this year.

MrEureka

Cool! I'll bet we can find some in junk boxes.

AUandAG

What the heck does one look like? Got a pic or two??
I'd be tempted to go through my foreign looking for a
treasure such as this!

bob

cladking

<< <i>Cool! I'll bet we can find some in junk boxes. >>



It's not impossible which is one of the coolest things about moderns. Don't get
your hopes too high on this one though. I've scoured a lot of junk boxes for 30
years and haven't yet.

Found a couple AU's though and in a few years they'll list a lot higher than they
do now, I'd wager.

cladking

<< <i>What the heck does one look like? Got a pic or two??
I'd be tempted to go through my foreign looking for a
treasure such as this!

bob >>



I can't find one on the net. Krause has a picture.

cladking

I found another example of a very common modern that lists for $1000. This is
an East German 10 pfennig dated 1950-E (Muldenhutten). The mintage of this
small aluminum coin was 16,000,000 which was higher than the population at
the time. It was worth about a nickel so would have bought a candy bar or a small
loaf of bread.

Aluminum fares very poorly in circulation because it is so soft. It wears a little less
slowly than you might imagine since it usually collides only with other light aluminum
coins. It tends to get beaten up since more massive things hit it or squeeze them.
Thin ones go very quickly because they are bent as feats of strenght. By the time
of the fall of the Berlin wall these were officially worth about 4c US but if memory
serves the real rate of exchange for hard currency was only about 1 1/3c. When
reunification occurred shortly later all the East German currency was redeemed at
par with the West German Mark so most coins and notes were tendered. Few of the
little 10p coins would have survived to this time and those which did would be heavily
worn and most would be damaged. These coins weren't set aside when they were
new and they weren't set aside as they wore down and got destroyed.

Most of these today are no more than small pockets of aluminum oxide in dumps or
part of the make-up of the metal in a German beveridge can.

Not only does this coin list for $1000 in BU but it lists for $150 in XF.

In this particular case much of the value is caused by the explosive demand for Ger-
man coins in Germany and Europe. There are probably hundreds of these coins but
there is much more demand.

This process is happening world-wide and will almost certainly not abate. People are
becoming interested in the modern junk and they are finding that many of the coins that
were always deemed too common to be of interest are scarce or rare. This was caused
because the Breton Woods agreement resulted in precious metals being removed in one
country after another. When there was no longer silver, collectors simply quit saving new
coins. In many cases when these new coins got old they were destroyed and many very
tough coins have been created.

cladking

If anyone's interested in the modern price changes in the new Krause here's a link.