Which countries/regions are HOT

CollectorBob

Please participate, and share your thoughts/opinions. Where are you seeing prices hold or even appreciate? Where do you think prices are headed? Which countries have "corrected" and offer a compelling opportunity for collectors?

With the Euro destined to fade and the Mark, Lira, etc. headed for recirculation sometime over the next couple of years (as Greece, followed by Spain, Portugal, Belgium, default), what would you collect in old-euro coinage? How about Australia and NZ: with their inflated dollars, is demand/prices up for coins of those countries?

Thanks!

CollectorBob

Besides voting, please add some comments/views by posting. Thanks.

spoon

Based on my ebay performance lately--I can't really say "none of the above"--but whatever's hot it must not be what I collect

CollectorBob

Spoon, don't worry, I've got a couple of your listings on watch, and will bid!

spoon

Thanks! Don't forget to enter my giveaway

Anyhow, I don't know about hot, but it seems a lot of Arabic/Islamic stuff and a lot of the more esoteric medieval stuff is getting a more respectable following. Prices aren't necessarily surging in bidding wars like Russian, Greek and Portuguese stuff did a few years back, but there definitely seem to be more people interested and more people seem comfortable with it now, whereas before it was kinda relegated a handful of oddballs (hey! I resemble that)

JCMhouston

I've found that just about all the high grade western european stuff is going for 50-100% more than a year ago. This is PCGS/NGC graded in 65 or better for 19th C. and 63 or better for 18th C.

OnlyBuffalos

The older coins of many countries which are referred to as Emerging Markets by the Wall Street crowd have done well the past few years. Very much still in demand are coins of Vietnam, French Indo-China and Annam, Laos, Cambodia, Hong Kong, pre-1900 world coins graded red by PCGS, China proof coins especially pandas, and gold from just about anywhere. Many of the early coins of the China provinces are doing very well in overseas auctions. Coins issued by occupying nations of China during World War II are presently HOT.

ColinG

India gets my vote. It has the right demographics - mainly young and very large [1.2 billion or so]. It's GDP is growing rapidly so every year several million people enter the middle class. It's a very undercollected area. Just look at China. Ten or twenty years ago Chinese coins were cheap. No longer. The 200 million or so Chinese who have entered the middle class in the past 20 years can now divert money into consumables like collectibles. Chinese coins are no longer undervalued.

The worth area in terms of demographics is probably Japan. Its economy is slowing, its population rapidly aging. Plenty of nice Japanese collections should be entering the market over the next 20-30 years, There won't be many buyers.

Silvereagle82

Speaking strictly from a world gold (exclusive of the USA) perspective ... I voted for all of europe but it could be expanded to all of the world.
I have followed world gold exclusively for the past 5 years and prices continue to go up ... particuliarly higher quality pieces.

Common bullion issues and those that were mass minted have pretty much followed gold prices but other sectors are multiples of gold price inflation.

India, Russia, Poland come to mind as super hot but as I said all countries for the most part have selections of gold coins that are hot !!

Whereas when I started collecting world gold the market was very reasonably priced vs. USA .....the world gold market is quickly approaching the super inflated USA market in my opinion.

With that said in most cases the gold I'm trying to collect is much more uncommon (ie. rarer), historical and artistically designed than most USA gold.

JimK

Poland I understand is very hot.
Jim

dizzlecc

I can attest that the participation in latin american 8 reales has increased. The number of competiting bidders has increased. The prices have as well but you can still find relative bargains if you try.

European crowns also seem to be a hot market. If you want a nice quality example you are going to have to pay well to obtain it.

Bjorn

<< <i>The older coins of many countries which are referred to as Emerging Markets by the Wall Street crowd have done well the past few years. Very much still in demand are coins of Vietnam, French Indo-China and Annam, Laos, Cambodia, Hong Kong, pre-1900 world coins graded red by PCGS, China proof coins especially pandas, and gold from just about anywhere. Many of the early coins of the China provinces are doing very well in overseas auctions. Coins issued by occupying nations of China during World War II are presently HOT. >>



I used to find some of those occupation issues for China in junk boxes!

Bjorn

From my own experience in selling/buying:

Belgium - Hotter than a few years ago, particularly nice problem-free pre-WWI material.

Canada - Decently strong.

Egypt - Not real hot.

France - Kind of hot, particularly for copper. A lot of the semeuse and ceres silver doesn't do so great though, unless really high grade.

Germany - Really high grade stuff is doing well. Do not try selling lower grade minors from the German Empire or more recently - you can usually pick them up for a fraction of Krause values. In particular, those East German minors with really high values go begging.

Greece - Was pretty hot about half a year ago... don't know now, after these financial issues

India - Surprisingly not hot for its population size; I am actively buying in this area for my own personal collection as this area will probably catch on in the future.

Italy - Pre-WWII coins in nice VF and up are pretty hot

Poland - Still pretty hot

Portugal - High grade material (EF and up) is hot; low-grade problem coins are not

Russia - Czarist period coins in VF and up are still hot. Low grade stuff goes begging unless its really scarce

Switzerland - Hot. Most items I sell in this area go for near Krause, higher in some cases.

Venezuela - Hotter; I sold some 1880s-1920s 5 bolivar coins recently and all went for above Krause.

Rickc300

I voted Germany (WWII back to the Empire) as I have seen pretty common coins quadruple or more in price over the last 2 years on eBay. All of Europe was my second choice as I have seen many other countries (Austria, Denmark, England, France, Greece, Hungary, Norway and most Swiss stuff go through the roof for "NICE" coins). The list above is in alphabetical order on Europe, not by greatest increase of values and I also left out some countries that have seen some pretty good increases but are still not really "hot" in my book for common coinage but that I still pull out of junk boxes or melt bins when I spot them in decent grades at a reasonable price. Then again this may be the result of the Euro vs Dollar enviroment of the last few years.

Just my two Cents, Pfennigs or maybe Euros worth...

Rick

ormandh

The coins I have sold recently did well. The Biafra coins I had up on the BST forums just 2 weeks ago went for 3+ times the amount I had them listed for, two of them going for $125 apiece. My Greek 5 Drachmai went for Krause price.

Edited to add: I sold these coins to the international community. I have often found that the Czech Republic, Russia, and that general area are buying up the hard to find key dates of certain countries pretty rapidly. I have only been taken twice, once from Poland and another from Italy. -Dan

0john0

I'm glad you left Ireland off of the poll. These coins are over valued, and should be sold for pennies on the dollar....to me. PM for shipping address!

Lancastercoin

Asia/China shouldn't be lumped together, as China is MUCH hotter than any other Asian country right now (maybe dead even with Russia). I feel that even though Chinese coins have appreciated a lot in the last 5 years, there is still a lot of room in them. From my perspective it seems the current market is actually not driven in large by the much-heralded chinese middle class, but a small cadre of very wealthy collectors both on the mainland and abroad. When the real middle class kicks in there might be a real price surge.

Brazillian coins are also pretty dead right now, so might have a chance to show some nice appreciation in years to come. Bolivia is also much less popular than other regions of Latin America. Not sure why.

MadMarty

Usually those along the equator are hot...

Zohar

I find the high end Taler (German, Austrian) to be consistently in demand driving up prices for high end materials.

secondrepublic

Coins from Poland are still strong, but less hot than a few years ago.

newsman

<< <i>Brazillian coins are also pretty dead right now, so might have a chance to show some nice appreciation in years to come. Bolivia is also much less popular than other regions of Latin America. Not sure why. >>



There were some deep-pocketed collectors running up prices on quality Brazilian coins, even some relatively common ones, over the past couple of years. Have they stopped?

BillyKingsley

Perhaps this should be broken off into it's own thread, but what's this in the OP about the Euro being replaced by the very currency IT replaced? This is the first I've heard of that, more info please!

satootoko

I had to vote for China because it was the closest thing to the real hot spot I'm finding.

I haven't bought a single Japanese Puppet State coin on EBay, or elsewhere, for well over a year. Bids of 3-4 times Krause don't get placed by my sniping service, because they have been exceeded before posting time!

A slabbed Manchukuo coin - MS62 - sold for almost seven times the Krause Unc valuation, and VGs are regularly going for Unc prices.

With the bidder IDs concealed, there's no way to tell if it's a couple of people with severe cases of auction fever, or a general trend, but it can't be sustainable - I hope.

TwoKopeiki

Scarcer Cap 'n' Rays are starting to bring-in strong prices. Perhaps I'm just noticing this now since more are entering the market.

wybrit

Colonial South African pieces are pretty hot when in high grade and problem free. They sell on NEN's site as fast as they are put up there.

coinkat

Excellent observations- I thnk there are several under appreciated countries- Mexico - Peru for starters- I still like France and GB- but these have to be exceptional coins

Walter

Top quality Australian pre-decimal coins, gold (in particular the varieties or top quality scarcer dates around the $1000-$2000 range), and especially pre-decimal proofs have had a very good run since 2000 and is still going strong.

Third party grading is still new here (only PCGS has gained any reasonable popularity but NGC still sell well), but it does open up a whole new set of possibilities. At the moment, certified rarer dates are still quite undervalued but are picking up fast (as in the past, when coins weren't common in Unc, the EF-aUNC grade coins were overgraded to Unc, and these aren't being translated to MS slabs revealing their true rarity to the everyday collector). Many common coins in slabs are still overvalued though, simply due to lack of supply of certified examples but this is correcting itself also.

500Bay

I voted USA, the collector base is there and the market seems to be recovering.
If ancient Roman was listed, I may have chosen that instead. Those prices are going up.

NumbersUsacom

I'm still going for the Liberia coins both official and patterns from the 1860's -1971 The origins of this country is one of American history and intrigue.

jt88

I have to say China coin is very hot. You can buy US coins below book price but you hardly can get china coins at book price. Some of the China coin sold way over book price or auction house estimate price. I believe China coin price is still has a long way to go up especially when Chinese money increase in value over time.