So, is international auction bidding a good thing or a bad thing? NEWP photos.

Stork

I'd say good.

I luckily (?) discovered an auction house in Japan and was able to bid a few times via sixbid. Their last auction required bidding on their own site, but where ELSE but Japan would I find an Albanian coin I've been looking for?

A real hole just got filled in my Zog set. The 1927 2 FrA is just not seen like the 1926. There are 2 graded at NGC (both 62s) and none at PCGS. I'm sure there are more out there in those European/raw collections, but I don't see them.

This one was listed in the Japanese auction--the other one sold at Heritage in 2008 (described as having 'mottled toning'. I like this one better after reviewing the photos on the Heritage site).

A hugely interesting thing about the auction was that I placed a bid well in excess of the sale price of the 2008 auction. The Albanian coins I'd watch sell at the same auction house had always brought strong prices and I Really Wanted it, so I bid high. So high I actually got an email from the auction house asking if I'd made a mistake in my bid (!).

If ever anyone wondered if the 'house' bid up pre-bids, well I can say NO. Not only was my max bid not even approached, neither was the prior sell price. Perhaps because it wasn't gold, perhaps it was because the grade is not technically that great (when there are 66s available in the 1926 version), or maybe it was just overlooked because of the date. Whatever. There was someone at the house that knew darn well I had a big bid in place and it was not even remotely pushed as it sold well below the 2008 price too.

And, just for fun I dropped a couple bids on a couple Peace dollars. The photos were atrocious, so why not? I also bid on a small lot of one of my all time favorite coins, the 'double hoo' 50 sen. I liked them as they pretty much show the full gamut of toning that one finds in these. They are all nicely uncirculated, full of luster, and a nice deal for the grouping (especially as they were basically an add on).

Happy times!

jt88

Good for you. I like the jap coins. I found some Jap coin has some nice toning.

tommy44

Nice catch! Is the date recut or doubled?

SYRACUSIAN

Nice haul Cathy!

I came across a "tough" Albanian the other day, but I figured that you already had it and I did not forward the link.

Zohar

@SYRACUSIAN said:
Nice haul Cathy!

I came across a "tough" Albanian the other day,

In today's PC culture that sentence, detached from the thread, would trigger people as politically incorrect

Stork

@SYRACUSIAN said:
Nice haul Cathy!

I came across a "tough" Albanian the other day, but I figured that you already had it and I did not forward the link.

But, I like tough Albanians! Actually, I'm not sure I've ever met a real Albanian. Feel free to let me know any good ones. I'm in search of 1931 (1/2 and full lek) and a few of the gold ones...it's a good thing this has been a slow job finding the coins. I generally can pull together the funds when needed.

As the Zog coins are getting more difficult I've bought a couple of the Italian Occupation ones. Just picked this one up from a guy I met in Baltimore (now that doesn't sound right either). He sent me an email to see if I was interested and I ALMOST passed as it's a bit darker in toning that I generally go. But, I bought it and glad i did. A little bouncing of light off a mirror and I got most of it in this shot:

@tommy44 said:
Nice catch! Is the date recut or doubled?

I don't think it's either...the coin has a lot of hits consistent with the grade, and the highlights make it look a bit funny, but it doesn't look doubled/recut in hand.

SYRACUSIAN

In today's PC culture that sentence, detached from the thread, would trigger people as politically incorrect

But, I like tough Albanians! Actually, I'm not sure I've ever met a real Albanian. Feel free to let me know any good ones.

(where's the good old embarrassment emoji..?)

SYRACUSIAN

And BTW, thanks to Cathy, I've recently added a superb looking full red gem of a rin, a few difficult 10 sens (types for the Dansco album), a 1875 5 sen , a 1885 half sen in PCGS MS65 RD and other BU minors that made my album really look like a work in progress with 65% of it completed, but where the missing 35%, is actually worth 90% of the album's total contents when full. Good thing that most people just don't know that.

One step at a time.

lordmarcovan

'double hoo' 50 sen

I like your "hoo-hoos" very much.

(Srsly, tho'- those birdie things are "hoos"? Sounds very Doctor Seuss-ian.)