Modern Greek coins

Blackhawk

I read in Josh's (Civitas) thread about the ANA that there was no demand for modern Greek coins at the show. This past week I bought some type sets that were put together in the 60's and among them were some Greek pieces from the 50's and 60's. When I went to look them up on Numismaster, I was somewhat confused...the prices listed were much greater than the ones listed for the same coins in my 2004 Krause. Are the new prices correct, or is a certain percentage of Krause a more realistic number? Among the coins was this 1959 2 drachmai, which seems to be one of the coins that has gone up the most. I tried to get some decent photos, but the coins are bright and it seems that I could either get the detail, lustre, or color right but not all three at the same time - I settled for something somewhere in between.

lordmarcovan

I know those are pretty tough in high grade.

Blackhawk

Another thing that I found when going through the coins...the aluminum issues (5, 10, and 20 lepta) have medal orientation, the Cu/Ni issues (50 lepta, 1,2,5,and 10 drachma) have coin orientation. I've never noticed that before although I've probably glanced at hundreds of each when looking through those German bank bulk lots a couple of years ago.

cladking

Nice 2D. They come nicer but this appears to be a No-question-unc.

Krause is always trying to adjust prices to reflect the market but
they often lag. This time they may have finally got them to the
right level but only after prices had declined. I can only compare
thje prices betweenb these coins since I'm not familiar with the
market at this time. It looks like in unc this coin is priced a little
high. In ChU it appears to be priced significantly higher. It seems
that all of these come in very nice shape quite often. I don't under-
stand the large jump in BU.

I've always found the '57 2D tougher though the '59 is one of the
toughest.

Blackhawk

Do these coins still command enough to make it worthwhile to send them in for grading, or is it better to give it a go in the raw state on Ebay or elsewhere?

newsman

I don't think you'd leave much on the table if you sold it raw. I recently picked up a graded MS64 1962 1D for $8. Krause value in BU is $50.

Blackhawk

Thanks Newsman!

SYRACUSIAN

Newsman is right on. So is cladking. The 50s Greek coins are the starter coins of the new collectors, after they are done with the readily available post 60s to date. This series saw indeed a big decline the last few years and 64s often sell for a fraction of their value when 65s and 66s are reaching very high levels. The 59 2D and the 57 50L are the two toughest and most expensive ones.


Nice haul Bill.

newsman

So which would you do, slab it or sell it raw?

SYRACUSIAN

So which would you do, slab it or sell it raw?


Buy them raw from Bill ,slab them and sell them on ebay. Still, it's a risk, depending on Bill's asking price ,NGC's late tight grades and the recent top-grademania that has taken by storm the new and older collectors of these.