Is anyone here seriously looking at foreign coins, as we wrestle with a possible US coin market down
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
I was flipping through the latest issue of Coin World last night. I would consider myself to be a tried and true US coin collector. However, I was intrigued by the fact that I was reading a Smythe/Spink advertisement in detail, outlining an upcoming auction of Costa Rica coins. Other than hearing about the trials and tribulations of a former member of these boards in that country, I never gave Costa Rica a second thought, let alone its coins.
Is anyone here seriously considering collecting foreign coins, as we work through the bumps in the US coin market? Or do you think that the looming US coin recession and the related contagion, will spread itself to other world coin markets? The Costa Rica coins looked pretty good, and might make a good sideline collection while the US coin market sorts itself out.
Is anyone here seriously considering collecting foreign coins, as we work through the bumps in the US coin market? Or do you think that the looming US coin recession and the related contagion, will spread itself to other world coin markets? The Costa Rica coins looked pretty good, and might make a good sideline collection while the US coin market sorts itself out.
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
0
Comments
<< <i>No. >>
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<< <i>Have you looked at the performance of your hedge funds that invest in foreign equities lately? My international mutual fund (Longacre, those are the investment vehicle for the hoi polloi) returns have been just as dismal as my US funds. >>
Much worse, in my case.
I suspect a lot of foreign economies are going to be hit much harder than the U.S. The entire country of Iceland had to be bailed out, stock trading has been halted off and on in Russia, Pakistan and Brazil.
With all that, I've always dabbled in darkside, greyside, and will continue to do so. Occasionally I pay too much because I don't know the market as well as I do with U. S. coins, usually on low cost items (< $50) that catch my eye when flipping through binders or junk boxes.
<< <i>Maybe I will look into Zimbabwe "google" currency notes, those with 100 zeros in the denomination
I suspect a lot of foreign economies are going to be hit much harder than the U.S. The entire country of Iceland had to be bailed out, stock trading has been halted off and on in Russia, Pakistan and Brazil.
With all that, I've always dabbled in darkside, greyside, and will continue to do so. Occasionally I pay too much because I don't know the market as well as I do with U. S. coins, usually on low cost items (< $50) that catch my eye when flipping through binders or junk boxes. >>
Your comment strikes close to reality.
Apparently not many folks in Zimbabwe collect coins for they were truly worthless. Their currency is indeed in trouble. One of the revaluations of Zimbabwe currency had an interesting effect on metal coins...
Existing metal coins were 'reintroduced' at their face value. These coins were suddenly worth 10 trillion more than they were worth before the currency revaluation. Same old coin, new declared value.
Yes, if you had a jar of coins in your house...unlikely though that might be...they were suddenly worth something!!!
Can you imagine that?
<< <i>In addition, the previous low denomination coins of 10 cents and above, which had been out of circulation for years due to their lack of buying power, were reintroduced at their full face value. Thus, with the previous revaluation of the Zimbabwe Dollar in 2006, the face value of the coins were effectively increased by 10 trillion-fold! Zimbabweans were diving into fountains in an attempt to recover the previously worthless coins. >>
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
They're called "world" coins.
<< <i>Darkside is not where my current collecting interests are, so my answer is "no." A downturn in the US coin market means I'll still be able to collect them as my disposable income decreases. >>
Good point, I'm the opposite, my disposable income is decreasing so a price drop in coin values would keep me in the game.
(i also like seated. what a great design and spans multiple denominations.)
world coins while neat, i just do not have an interest to hunt them down and buy them.
the only ones i ever considered were Philipino proofs from 190X due to I dating a girl
from there. I thought she would enjoy them also. Plus they were minted here which
brings me back to the US as a theme.
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Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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World coins have seen HUGE increases in prices the last few years, and I (among many others) predict that a softening of US coins prices will do little to stunt this growth in the world coin price sector.
Better Russian coins have appreciated at rates far and above most US coins the last five years, as well as Polish, German States and some British issues. The two top TPGs are actively courting this market, as US coin submissions continue to dwindle.
I think the Millennia auction has proven where this market is going, and all indications look like it will continue long after the US coin market turns bearish.
Many of these are up well over 200 fold in the last several years just for "common"
uncs. Markets are developing for high grade coins and this can add another five
or ten fold on top of the two hundred fold.
More incredibly is that catalog prices are not reflective of the real market. While
most of the older coins can be purchased for 50 to 300% of catalog if you can find
them many of the moderns sell for as much as a hundred times catalog.
Costa Rica is a good case in point. Thwe old silver coins can be quite scarce but
the modern base metal coins can be positively unavailable. Just because a modern
lists for a dollar or two doesn't mean you can find it. Paul Green wrote a series of
articles for World Coin News and Numis News about the impossibility of finding
modern Costa Rican coinage in Costa Rica. The people would proudly display their
ten or twenty year old coins but they'd be more heavily worn than those from the
distant past in many cases.
The same seems to apply in most countries. While some moderns are distressingly
common, most of them were ignored right from the day they were issued and after
many years of usage they were all melted.
The demand is still low for moderns so there is still room for these markets to grow.
Interest?
Naaa...
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Stifle!
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
I do fill a folder with Canada cents that I find in change and I like the Phillipines coins from when US made them but it's nothing like my interest in US coinage
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>Why look at something that one has no interest in? If I were interested in foreign coins, I would already be collecting them. >>
Many world coin collectors in this country are collectors who
have collected US for many years and then find that world
coins become interesting to them.
The US doesn't exist in a vacuum and most of our ancestors
are from overseas.
Just don't be too surprised if you do find some interest in
them someday.