Questions on disposing of Mexican coins

farthing · December 9, 2009 1:01PM

I am helping a friend-of-a-friend sell off an inherited collection. I've already helped him sell much of his US mint stuff + 25lbs of Irish predecimal pennies (thanks Andy!).

I hope to sell off his Canadian mint products this weekend, along with the rest of the US mint product and the usual rolls of wheat cents and Jefferson nickels. That will just leave a number of junk, or near junk, world minors and a lot of Mexican coins.

Therein lies my question for everyone. How best to sell off - in a very timely manner - lots of Mexican coins. This includes some mint sets, loose coinage and quite a bit of Mexican silver. A large part of the silver is in UNC 5 Pesos from 1947-1953 (~125, including 85 1953 Hidalgo) as well as later 5 Peso coins and 1 peso coins.

I guess my choices are:
1) Sell the silver for melt
2) Sell the entire collection to a specialist dealer
3) Try to sell off the coins to collectors.

The problem with #1 is selling the silver off still leaves the pile of minors to deal with - after having removed the "stars" from the collection.
The problem with #3 is the time, effort and cost involved. I don't want to be helping sell the coins for the next 6-12 months! I'm also sure that the owner just wants fair value for the coins.

I'm open to any comments, ideas or suggestions!

savoyspecial · December 9, 2009 1:24PM

offer the entire Mex collection on the BST

BillyKingsley · December 9, 2009 4:38PM

give them to me as a Christmas present?

SYRACUSIAN · December 9, 2009 8:47PM

From your own OP, I see that you're leaning on #2. As far as the specialist dealer goes, I don't want to disappoint you, but during these times, they'll all probably try to lowball you to a disgracing level, even if you had Russian 19th century gems, not Mexican clad and silver. I'd try to sell whatever I could to collectors, before even thinking of going to a dealer.

I'm also sure that the owner just wants fair value for the coins.

I'm afraid that your collector-hoarder friend is about to find out that there's no such thing as fair price when you sell in a hurry and in the middle of a recession.

charlienorth · December 9, 2009 10:23PM

I see lots auctioned on ebay that sound like the Mexican coins you want to sell.

They bring fair to good prices depending on the photography.

Selling in smaller lots likely brings more money but takes more time and effort.

If you list them, I'd be interested so let us know!

ASUtodd · December 9, 2009 10:42PM

PM sent

ajaan · December 10, 2009 1:46AM

I second what Dimitri said. In these economic times, I would only sell to a dealer as a last resort.

CIVITAS · December 10, 2009 5:37AM

Is the Mexican silver mostly circulated United States of Mexico stuff? Or is there some nice Republic Cap and Ray type stuff.

If the latter, we'd love to "lowball you to a disgracing level."

pruebas · December 10, 2009 7:30AM

You could sell the silver crowns (at melt) by the roll or groups of 10.

The 1957-1967 one pesos contain only 1.6g ASW (20 coins is just over one ounce Ag). But silver investors don't want them because they are too bulky for little silver value.

Most of the post-1950, circulated, non-silver minors have essentially no value.

Why not sell the crowns, and donate the rest to Numismatics International, who give out small bags of world coins to children at the larger coin shows? (Howard Daniel is the guy to contact. PM me if you want info.)

farthing · December 10, 2009 2:22PM

There is probably 90+ oz asw in the collection (hoard). Lots of minors that I have not looked through yet. The only 'old' Mexican silver I saw was 2 1901 Pesos and 1 1902 Peso.

There is still 3 binders of world coins to work through after the Mexican. Most appear to be minors, though there is one Cuban and I believe one older Peru. There was a Hawaiian quarter in the binders that I hope to sell off this weekend.

There are also 7 fantasy California gold fractionals.

My issue with selling the Mexican to collectors is the time and effort. How many people would be interested in buying 85 1953 5 Peso coins? Would I need to find 85 collectors that would only be interested in 1 of the date? The 19-20 Aztec calendar 5P coins might be easier to sell and the 1 Southern Railroad 5P should be easy to sell. However there is still a bucket of minors to look through. *Sigh*

I do like pruebas suggestion to donate the minors - one of the better suggestions I've heard!

pruebas · December 10, 2009 11:46PM

Farthing, I think you are assuming these have numismatic value, which they really don't. Yes, a few collectors have sets of them, but they are primarily bullion coins. Sell them in groups reasonably to silver investors and they should move quickly at close to their true "value". That will only leave you the better pieces to sell to collectors.

Sounds to me the key is to move them and not agonize over a few dollars.

Questions on disposing of Mexican coins

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