World Silver Coin Collection Question

TheRaven

I am primarily a US coin collector that enjoys the world of ancient coins a bit.....

My father in law at a show yesterday picked up some Russian coins, 5 Topek (copper), 10 Topek (silver) & 50 Topek (silver).

It got me thinking how many different countries have issued circulating silver coins in the past?

I am assuming that the mid 60's saw the rest of the world stop the issuance of silver circulation coins.....

How challenging of a collection would this be?

syl

Going back to early Roman and Greek times, EVERY country on the globe at any time into the 20th century minted silver coins. You would be unable to collect them all in anyone's lifetime, given the changes of countries, boundries and annexations that have taken place in 2500 years.

Bailathacl

... but it would be fun to try....!

JCMhouston

Just something simple, like German States form 1600-1873 might take a lifetime. I can't even imagine trying to do silver of the world.

cladking

It's a hugely fun set to work on and I can provide some pointers since I worked on it
for years. I just wanted nice serviceable coins in pleasing VG and better from 1976 to
date. I did concentrate somewhat on 1850 to 1950.

Don't even start this if completion is important since there are just so many almost un-
available coins and finding nice examples of common coins can be tough. I like the Dom-
inican Republic 1897 coinage and wanted it in XF/ AU but these are almost impossible
except at large premiums through dealers. Stuff you'd never even think of as being hard
can be head scratchers like a Bhutan 1974 15N. They made only a thousand but you
wouldn't expect a modern date to not appear but this one took me years.

I strongly advise that you take it slow and get quality that is better than just run of the
mill. Inother words if something is common in unc then get gem. If it's only common be-
low VF then get XF. You won't pay much more but you'll have a lot more.

Don't expect to get it done. I was never even able to figure out how large the set is but
it is simply massive.

wybrit

The British stopped minting circulating coinage in silver in 1947. 1920-1947 it was .500 silver, and prior to that it was .925.

JamesMurray

<< <i>Going back to early Roman and Greek times, EVERY country on the globe at any time into the 20th century minted silver coins. You would be unable to collect them all in anyone's lifetime, given the changes of countries, boundries and annexations that have taken place in 2500 years. >>



Short,concise and accurate there Syl. Even attempting the UK Silver with all the colonies is a huge task.I try to get one from each monarch going back to celtic times and that is a daunting task.Dabbling in world silver is perhaps the best way to go about it , don't settle on any one thing or use purity as your measure of acceptability. Not everything labeled silver is what one might assume. I use 90% pure as a cut off zone but would stretch to 80% if the price was right and i liked the coin.

spoon

Thinking about sets gets it all wrong. Here on the Darkside we talk a lot about sets and sometimes we stick to them. But mostly we just buy whatever catches our fancy and figure out later how we can rationalize its place in a set. Usually that doesn't work so we then devise a new set that we're going to work on in order to avoid selling the extraneous stuff.

So just have fun buying world silver and see what kind of Rorschach patterns emerge that you can call a set.




A more useful comment: many countries outside the US began lowering the fineness of their silver coins or else switched to base metals long before the US. Much of Europe began backing away from silver after WWI and by WWII had eliminated it altogether - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. You could probably make an interesting set collecting just the last circulating silver coins of all countries. That would be more manageable and probably make for good show & tell in an economics class

skingspan

I collect world silver crowns. Not even close to having one from each country but is a fun coilllection to put together.

TheRaven

Hmm... giving me alot of information to chew on.....

I always like the idea of buying what catches my interest at any show or shop.....

My wife speaks Ukrainian and Russian so that helps translating coins to be sure.....

Just so many posibilities that it makes it alot of fun.....

determined

<< <i>Thinking about sets gets it all wrong. Here on the Darkside we talk a lot about sets and sometimes we stick to them. But mostly we just buy whatever catches our fancy and figure out later how we can rationalize its place in a set. >>



LOL Well said!