Mexican Coinage

penny4yourthoughts

I'm primarily a US collector who has gotten the Mexican bug...I've basically been doing a type set of sorts...with doubles allowed for great looking VF/XF pieces and nicely toned examples. But I'm getting at a point where I would like to learn more about the coins and the history. Is there a good site or book that is a simple read?

TwoKopeiki

Welcome to this awesome area of numismatics!!!!

I'd recommend starting with Pradeau's "Numismatic History of Mexico". You can pick it up used for around $50. Great book to learn some of the history behind the coins of Mexico and see some examples of the Colonial and War of Independence issues.

Don't forget to check out Krause's "Standard Catalog of World Coins" for the time period you're interested in to see the different types of coins available.

There are also some nice examples in both NGC Registry (Mexico) and PCGS Registry (Mexico) NGC is also housing my "8 Reales Madness" custom set with some examples of Mexican 8 Reales coins.

And of course you can post all your inquiries on these forums and we'll be more than happy to help by answering questions. There are a few Mexico collectors among us.

Cheers,

~Roman

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>I'd recommend starting with Pradeau's "Numismatic History of Mexico". You can pick it up used for around $50. Great book to learn some of the history behind the coins of Mexico and see some examples of the Colonial and War of Independence issues. >>

New softcover issues of this book can be had for $25.

pruebas

Welcome to the wonderful world of Mexican numismatics! You will soon find that this field is not only extremely interesting, but quite challenging and very fun. You could easily spend the rest of your life (and all your money) collecting just one series--and likely still not complete it.

I always say that if you went to any very large coin show in the US (FUN, Summer ANA) with enough money, you could complete almost any set of US coins, all mint state, in one day at that one show. (OK, except patterns, but Simpson has done a remarkable job in just a few years.)

You absolutely cannot do that with Mexican coins. First, the coins often don't exist in mint state, and second, the coins are just not available period.

The old Buttrey-Hubbard catalog (last edition was the sixth from 1992) is still the gold standard for Mexican catalogs. Yes, prices are not "current" but it has a lot of information in a small size. The fifth edition (1989) is good second choice. I occasionally see these on ebay or in various used book places for $10-25. Well worth the investment in my opinion.

The 2011 Krause for Mexico is next to worthless--errors, missing or wrong photos, missing coins (and that is only what I have found). Since they don't take kindly to outside assistance, they don't get any.

Depending on the series of interest, there are many specialty books, some good, some not so good, but most out of print yet generally available. Feel free to ask.

OldEastside

Good info guys, I too was bitten buy the Mexican bug years ago
and believe that Mexico Coinage is a big sleeper in this country
for now.

Steve

coinkat

There are some great opportunities with copper, gold, silver revolutions, chop marks, varieties, errors and condition rarities even though some condition rarities really have not hit many radar screens.

I should also add the history, artistic merit and even the value in terms of what can be bought at reasonable prices makes the coins of Mexico worthy of the most serious consideration of any numismatist.

I think that sums it up in two sentences.

bidask

The chinese made prices for the cap and rays 8 reale series explode in the last 2-3 years.