A Recent Saturday - Fall 2007
Searching the Bargain Bin at the Local Coin Shop
I love Saturday's in the Fall. College Football and Coins! Coins and College Football! I usually try to visit one of the local B & M (brick and mortar) coin shops each Saturday morning to see what treasures may be waiting for me. This Saturday I had plenty of time since I had all my chores done by 9:00 a.m. and my favorite college team wouldn't be on the tube until late in the day. I picked a shop I had been in many times before but I hadn't been there recently. It's a nice little hole-in-the wall coin shop that gets quite a bit of walk-in traffic. They are constantly bringing in nice coins and collections to resell. The owner is mostly into U.S. coins and paper money but he has a bargain bin and junk box where he puts the stuff he doesn't care that much about. Of course, this means that these boxes are chock full of World Coins!
My goal when I go coin hunting like this is to find a nice piece or two for my collection and to find some good values that I can make some profit on. I don't always accomplish the second part of my goal but I usually can find something that would fit in my collection. I am not a specialist when on these trips but instead I must be a generalist. I want to pick up any coin that is a little better date, or that just leaps out at me as a cool coin that I just gotta have. This "cool factor" works well as long as the price factor doesn't over-rule it. Sometimes price dictates what I acquire when the deal is so good that I just have to buy it even though the coin is something I wouldn't normally care about. These deals then land in my resell box. If all goes well, by the end of the day, I've added something nice to my collection and if I'm lucky enough, I've got some nice resale material to make a few bucks on. This is truly one of the few hobbies where you can get tremendous collecting satisfaction and more often than not, evenyually get your money back and then some (as long as you learn the market and don't make too many overpaying mistakes).
This particular dealer has the World Coins in 3 seperate bins. The first bin is labeled "Foreign Coins" and they are all priced at 10c each. I scooped a few handfulls and spot checked and concluded that most of these were very common and mostly very modern World Coins. Perfect material for a kid just starting out but not for me. To allocate my time efficiently, I decided to move on to the next bin because I sensed the potential might be better there. I like the older stuff and this bin was full of a good mix of foreign coins with most being well over 50 years old. There was a sign pasted above this bin that read "Foreign 1/2 Off". Most the coins in this bin were in 2x2's holders of differing color and condition. Apparently, when he brings in collections that have some foreign material already in 2x2's or other holders, that's his clue that the collector must have thought these were somewhat better World Coins. And of course, he surely recognizes some of the better foreign stuff since he's been in business for many years. He puts the better loose stuff in his own 2x2's and in the bin it goes. The coins are all attributed and each is marked with a price. I noticed as I searched the bin that some of the coins were not attributed correctly which can occasionally lead to a real opportunity. It's not that this dealer knows nothing about World Coins. He surely does know enough to get by, but he just focuses on the U.S. market as that's where 99 percent of his business is. He knows the U.S. market like the back of his hand, whereas he must look up the foreign coins and he's probably learned that most of them are not worth his time to do so. Surely, he pulls out the gold and the silver crowns and anything that he recognizes that he can get a premium on. But that leaves alot of other coins that make it into the bargain bin.
Heres what I came away with from the "Foreign 1/2 Off" bin and my cost:
1721 Italian States-Genoa - 2 Soldi - nice Fine (irregular planchet) $8
1861 New Brunswick - One Cent - nice VF (Very Fine) $4.50
1877 Japan - 1 Sen - Nice XF (Extremely Fine) (Year 10 of the Meiji era) $1.50
Searching the Bargain Bin at the Local Coin Shop
I love Saturday's in the Fall. College Football and Coins! Coins and College Football! I usually try to visit one of the local B & M (brick and mortar) coin shops each Saturday morning to see what treasures may be waiting for me. This Saturday I had plenty of time since I had all my chores done by 9:00 a.m. and my favorite college team wouldn't be on the tube until late in the day. I picked a shop I had been in many times before but I hadn't been there recently. It's a nice little hole-in-the wall coin shop that gets quite a bit of walk-in traffic. They are constantly bringing in nice coins and collections to resell. The owner is mostly into U.S. coins and paper money but he has a bargain bin and junk box where he puts the stuff he doesn't care that much about. Of course, this means that these boxes are chock full of World Coins!
My goal when I go coin hunting like this is to find a nice piece or two for my collection and to find some good values that I can make some profit on. I don't always accomplish the second part of my goal but I usually can find something that would fit in my collection. I am not a specialist when on these trips but instead I must be a generalist. I want to pick up any coin that is a little better date, or that just leaps out at me as a cool coin that I just gotta have. This "cool factor" works well as long as the price factor doesn't over-rule it. Sometimes price dictates what I acquire when the deal is so good that I just have to buy it even though the coin is something I wouldn't normally care about. These deals then land in my resell box. If all goes well, by the end of the day, I've added something nice to my collection and if I'm lucky enough, I've got some nice resale material to make a few bucks on. This is truly one of the few hobbies where you can get tremendous collecting satisfaction and more often than not, evenyually get your money back and then some (as long as you learn the market and don't make too many overpaying mistakes).
This particular dealer has the World Coins in 3 seperate bins. The first bin is labeled "Foreign Coins" and they are all priced at 10c each. I scooped a few handfulls and spot checked and concluded that most of these were very common and mostly very modern World Coins. Perfect material for a kid just starting out but not for me. To allocate my time efficiently, I decided to move on to the next bin because I sensed the potential might be better there. I like the older stuff and this bin was full of a good mix of foreign coins with most being well over 50 years old. There was a sign pasted above this bin that read "Foreign 1/2 Off". Most the coins in this bin were in 2x2's holders of differing color and condition. Apparently, when he brings in collections that have some foreign material already in 2x2's or other holders, that's his clue that the collector must have thought these were somewhat better World Coins. And of course, he surely recognizes some of the better foreign stuff since he's been in business for many years. He puts the better loose stuff in his own 2x2's and in the bin it goes. The coins are all attributed and each is marked with a price. I noticed as I searched the bin that some of the coins were not attributed correctly which can occasionally lead to a real opportunity. It's not that this dealer knows nothing about World Coins. He surely does know enough to get by, but he just focuses on the U.S. market as that's where 99 percent of his business is. He knows the U.S. market like the back of his hand, whereas he must look up the foreign coins and he's probably learned that most of them are not worth his time to do so. Surely, he pulls out the gold and the silver crowns and anything that he recognizes that he can get a premium on. But that leaves alot of other coins that make it into the bargain bin.
Heres what I came away with from the "Foreign 1/2 Off" bin and my cost:
1721 Italian States-Genoa - 2 Soldi - nice Fine (irregular planchet) $8
1861 New Brunswick - One Cent - nice VF (Very Fine) $4.50
1877 Japan - 1 Sen - Nice XF (Extremely Fine) (Year 10 of the Meiji era) $1.50
1890-H Canada - One Cent - nice VF (better date from the Heaton Mint) $7
1903 Canada - 10c - nice F (Fine) (better date, only 500k minted) $5
1915 Canada - 5c - nice XF (Extremely Fine) (better date in better cond.) $10
1935 Canada - 10c - nice F (better date with only 384k minted) $3
1942 Mexico - Cinco Centavos - Ch BU (gorgeous red, purple, blue toning!) $1
The third bin contained a good amount of larger loose coins. There was a good variety but most were coppers from Great Britain, Australia, and Ireland. The bin was marked "Foreign Coins 50c". Heres what this box produced at a cost of US 50c per coin:
1783 George III Coin - Low Grade with Damage. Still need to attribute.
1859 Canada - One Cent - Fine (with some minor rim bumps)
1906 Canada - One Cent - VF
1912-H Britain - One Penny Group of 7 Coins- Average F-VF grade (better dates)
1918-H
1918-KN
1919-H
1922 (2 coins)
1926
When I was done with the last bin, I noticed in his display case he had 2 certifed World Coins sitting among his hundreds of US coins. One he wanted way too much for but the other seemed to have that cool factor and was reasonably priced too. For just over $100 I was able to add this lovely little gem to my collection:
1720 Britain - Silver 1 Pence NGC MS (Mint State) 63 pedigreed from the Cheshire Collection.
1903 Canada - 10c - nice F (Fine) (better date, only 500k minted) $5
1915 Canada - 5c - nice XF (Extremely Fine) (better date in better cond.) $10
1935 Canada - 10c - nice F (better date with only 384k minted) $3
1942 Mexico - Cinco Centavos - Ch BU (gorgeous red, purple, blue toning!) $1
The third bin contained a good amount of larger loose coins. There was a good variety but most were coppers from Great Britain, Australia, and Ireland. The bin was marked "Foreign Coins 50c". Heres what this box produced at a cost of US 50c per coin:
1783 George III Coin - Low Grade with Damage. Still need to attribute.
1859 Canada - One Cent - Fine (with some minor rim bumps)
1906 Canada - One Cent - VF
1912-H Britain - One Penny Group of 7 Coins- Average F-VF grade (better dates)
1918-H
1918-KN
1919-H
1922 (2 coins)
1926
When I was done with the last bin, I noticed in his display case he had 2 certifed World Coins sitting among his hundreds of US coins. One he wanted way too much for but the other seemed to have that cool factor and was reasonably priced too. For just over $100 I was able to add this lovely little gem to my collection:
1720 Britain - Silver 1 Pence NGC MS (Mint State) 63 pedigreed from the Cheshire Collection.
The coin has the HIPEX inscription error on the Reverse and has lovely original golden blue toning! It's just the type of fascinating coin that I love to own in my collection.
All told, I spent about 3 hours looking through the coins at this shop. While I did so, let me tell you, I was in another world. I had no cares, no worries, and I was just totally relaxing while enjoying my quest to pick up some decent world coins. How did I do? Well, from my habit of studying the market and keeping abreast of prices, I know that I acquired all of the above coins at very reasonable prices with a couple of them downright cheap. With proper marketing, I will be able to resell some of these coins and make a decent profit. Though I'm not getting rich from this trip, I'm surely having fun with the hobby that pays me to participate. So, all in all I'd say it was a very good day!
All told, I spent about 3 hours looking through the coins at this shop. While I did so, let me tell you, I was in another world. I had no cares, no worries, and I was just totally relaxing while enjoying my quest to pick up some decent world coins. How did I do? Well, from my habit of studying the market and keeping abreast of prices, I know that I acquired all of the above coins at very reasonable prices with a couple of them downright cheap. With proper marketing, I will be able to resell some of these coins and make a decent profit. Though I'm not getting rich from this trip, I'm surely having fun with the hobby that pays me to participate. So, all in all I'd say it was a very good day!