i have studied and researched and bought and sold united states coins since 2008. that being said, i have only bought any world coins one time. last year i bought a one pound bag of unsearched world coins on ebay for $12.00. i looked through the coins and they seem to be dated from the 1950's through the 2000's. the grades of these coins range from average circulated through bu. they are from a number of different countries. there does not appear to be any silver or gold coins in the lot. i don't know anything about world coins and have no idea what coins to look for. any info. and or advise would be helpful.
Gosh, where to beggin? First, I am probably not the best person to ask this question but I have asked it myself so I will give my stab at it and hope someone comes along to set me straight if need be. Personaly I have found that most dealers sell foriegn coins by bulk and also do not give then much value. Having said that, there are certain foriegn coins that can go for premium inthe right condition. I am sure their are many that I am unaware of but one of interests is early american coinage which can go for a pretty penny indeed yet i pulled one from a junk bin along with 7 other foriegn coins for $1.00 US It was in terrible shape, maybe P-2, but it attributable to type if not year.
So your answer to what modern world coins are valuable is "early US coinage" lol...sorry I had to do it.
You will need to research but look for low mintage. Some countries simply do not and cannot produce the massive number of coins typical in the modern era. Those will be the "sleepers" you want to preserve.
Right, but mintage is, by itself, not really a good criterion when it comes to how "valuable" a non-US (what you call "world") coin might be. Things get interesting if there is sufficient demand too. If a regular (not silver, gold, platinum, etc.) coin has a mintage of 10,000 but hardly anybody finds it interesting or worth collecting, then it won't be expensive or worth a lot. Now if the mintage is 100,000 but many collectors find it attractive for whichever reason ... That being said, searching coin bags can be a lot of fun. Mostly for the novice collector, but also for those who have collected a certain area/period so far. The OFEC collector (one from every country) may well find some "jewels" in such a bag - but not likely in terms of making money. Christian
You can have a whole separate argument on the meaning of "modern," and people have done so here. Let's say you mean after World War II, which is a good definition in my book. There are some that are worth money, like the 1951 British Penny, 1946 Australian penny, some New Zealand coins from the 1950s and 60s whose exact dates I can't say off the top of my head, some French coins from the 1950s, etc. These are mostly valuable because they are very low mintage and they are series that people collect. The only way to really know is to get a Krause World Coin book and browse through and see what's valuable. You just learn over time. You are unlikely to find these valuable coins in bulk eBay purchases because they are valuable because they are rare, but you might get lucky because a lot of times the people selling them don't know what the key dates are either. Many people search for silver and assume anything else is junk.
Part of the fun of collection modern World coins is research. Research of the coins and research of the history and geographic regions. I have kept records of what I have spent on all my coins for the last several years. Mostly for insurance reasons. A close estimate of the retail value of my "circulated" world coins is a little over $1500. I have spent about $500 and sold about $200, so my net is around $300. Not bad. As far as buying by the pound, how about a 1951J German 2 Mark in XF which cost me .20 and has a retail of $30. I have several others with a retail over $4 to $15. Not bad for a coin that cost me .10 to .20 each. Now I look for specific circulated silver coins at a cost as close to melt as I can, but have higher collector value. One can build a nice collection without spending a lot of money.
Great! And I'm not saying it can't be done (finding such "pearls" in bags); it's just not that likely. Many who sells such bags have gone through the pieces before ... Christian
Get yourself a Krause catalog for 1900-2000. You will find used copies on eBay & sometimes they are available from dealers at coin shows. This last weekend, I purchased this used Krause catalog (1800-1900) for $20.
Mumu. My response was indicating that you can occasionally find early copper coinage in bulk / junk world coins lots. These coins can sometimes carry a premium.; I see my error now...Ooops...yeah silly of me.
Not much to add to what has already been said. I buy and sell world coins all the time, and researching each one is part of the fun, and often worthwhile. Almost any coin could be worth a lot - or nothing, so Krause becomes your guide. (Not that Krause is infallible - as with any printed reference, it goes out of date as soon as it is printed.) As a general rule, low denomination coins post about 1950 are unlikely to command a premium unless they are out of the ordinary. In the UK the 1950 and 1951 pennies are examples that are scarce, and will get you GBP 10 to 20 now. There are even more modern ones that can do well - we have made lots of varieties in the 2 pound and fifty pence coins over the last few years, some of which are now trading at 2 to 5 times face value. The 2009 fifty pence Kew gardens is making GBP 6 or more on Ebay. You can get even better - I have a Royal Mint Trial 2 pound coin from 1994 which would sell at GBP 800 to 1000! The unique 1952 halfcrown would make GBP 100k + if it ever sold, but I doubt HM will be parting with it! But mostly you focus on pre-WW2 - partly because much more coinage from that time had silver content, and partly because much more of it has been scrapped. German Silver from that time can be very good, and I have even had Portuguese escudos that have sold for over GBP 200 each. There is no sure fire way of knowing without researching each coin. After a while you will get to know the junk quite quickly, and only need to research the few you have not seen before.
Another good rule of thumb is that if something really appeals to you, odds are it will appeal to someone else too. It's not a perfect system, but when I started buying world coins that's what I was looking for. I'd buy coins that were large or had especially appealing images on them, and later as I learned more I found that many others collected these same coins.
German Silver, or German Silver? From what I have learned, the term is used - in English, that is - for Cu-Zn-Ni alloys that do not contain any silver. Christian
Some that I have, which I think could have some value in the future, South Africa 2001-2008 CW 5 rand coins can sell today for more than 5000 US at MS 68. It is only a normal 5 rand at the end of the day. Chile 1971 2 Escudos with 106 mintage Chile 1960 5 centesimos Chile 2009 50 pesos Chiie error. The escudos and centesimos would sell quickly in Chile for 1000 US. It will not be more than 24 hours on local public site.
