Question re: Mexico Bronze 5 Centavos (KM#422)?

DBSTrader2

I've returned to the Darkside where I belong, after a few months' absence updating my Liteside collection with coins from the 2009 fiasco.................

Anyway, as some of you know, I have a "bad" habit of branching-out my collecting activities whenever I come across an interesting blue Whitman coin folder I don't as yet have in my collection.............

Sometime in the not too distant past, I came across a Mexican 1-centavo folder #9696 (starting 1905) and a couple 5-centavo folders (#9697: 1905-1955 & #9698: starting 1954), and started trying to fill them from "junk" boxes, etc at flea markets, eBay, & the local monthly coin show.

I've been somewhat successful finding most of the 1-centavos (with the exception of a run from 1915 thru 1926 and a few of the smaller-sized ones between 1966 & 1973), as well as most categories of the 5-centavos, with one main exception: the large, bronze 5-centavos KM #422 between 1914 & 1935.

Are they truly harder to find in any grade as a series (their mintages ARE in the lower millions) compared to the others, or have I just been looking in the wrong places? Can anyone fill me in on their history and why the relatively lower mintages? And are there many Forum members out there who also collect this variety?

Thanks in advance for any info/responses.

- - Dave

P.S. - - Did Whitman ever make a 20-centavo folder for the KM#439 thru KM#441's (1940's - 1970's)? I'd sure like to get mine out of 2x2's and into one, if they ever did!

DBSTrader2

ttt

mrpotatoheadd

Here's my opinion, FWIW...

Those copper 5 centavos saw heavy use. When the 5c series commenced, the Mexican peso was roughly equal in value to the US dollar- the Mexican peso coin contained more silver than a US dollar- so the purchasing power was comparable to a US nickel. Noting that the Mexican 5c's were in circulation at about the same time as buffalo nickels in the US (and everybody knows how much wear they were subjected to), it's not really a surprise why they are often found well worn. Not a lot of them (especially the earlier years) survived in uncirculated condition, making this an expensive and difficult set to assemble in high grade. All but the last couple of years catalog in the hundreds of dollars in UNC when you can find them, and for some dates, BU examples are virtually never seen (and may not exist).

The down side as far as interest goes, is that the copper series seem to attract fewer collectors than the silver series do. I don't know how many collectors persue the 5c, but the 1931 is a real stopper if completion is important to you and that's got to exert some downward pressure on the number of people who attempt it. I have a complete set myself, grading from XF to BU (mostly AU).

cladking

I haven't really seen that these dates are especially difficult to obtain
and they used to be fairly common in poundage back in the 1960's. It's
unlikely that any batches of them were melted, however these did cir-
culate pretty heavily and significant numbers of worn coins might have
been withdrawn for recoining. The pricing of the earlier dates being much
higher in low grade is consistent with this.

Even nice coins in mid-grades can be somewhat tough as it seems there
are lots of culls in these grades.

I'd venture you're looking in the wrong places but there may longer be
a right place. Coins in poundage seem to have a definite percentage
which are simply consumed and no longer available. In this case it should
mean the surviving numbers are ver well distributed.

Of course, these might be far more common in Mexico.