Any coins collectors here?

wd40

Hi,
<rant>
I started collecting coins when I was in high school, then when I got my first job 10 years ago I could not afford to collect coins any more ..

every year or so I go to ebay and search for coin lots where they sell by the pound and start thinking about buying some, this time I have been looking for the past week .

I know it is a waste of money in my case but still I would like to remember the days when I was a student with this hobby and had almost nothing to worry about.
</rant>

Everyone

Not actively. I did when I was a kid. I still have all my coins, which wasn't that many. Never bought any, just collected what I found. So I don't have anything super rare.

I still have a habit of looking at every coin I get on the rare occasions I get change (don't use cash much these days).

I have quite a few foreign coins and currency. Some old Canadian coins, a few old Mexican Pesos, a Rupee with Ghandi on it, some Papa New Guinea coins, some Kuwaiti Dinar, and some Euros.

wd40

I bought most of mine, I have some British Indian coins 100 years old.

I just bought a couple of Russian 1909 banknotes for 7$
eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

I have some more on my watch list..

RobertKaucher

Cool. The oldest international item I have is a late 1800s coin from Portugal. I've got plenty of old US coins and even a gold peso from Mexico, not sure of the date right now.

Devilsbane

My Grandpa and Dad are huge coin collectors. I can't even imagine how much the have spent on them. My dad spends about $50 a year getting the proof sets from the mints and has an extensive collection of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, 50 cent pieces, everything.

I being their offspring have accumulated a small collection, but never really got into it. I draw the line somwhere around paying $100 for a single penny.

wd40

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Cool. The oldest international item I have is a late 1800s coin from Portugal. I've got plenty of old US coins and even a gold peso from Mexico, not sure of the date right now.

I have a 1780 thaler, it is over 200 years old, then I did some research and found out that it was minted upto early 20th century and there is no way to know the actual production date, imagine the shock after finding out 10 years later that what I thought was my oldest coin may not be the oldest after all.

Maria Theresa thaler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

wd40

Devilsbane wrote: »

My Grandpa and Dad are huge coin collectors. I can't even imagine how much the have spent on them. My dad spends about $50 a year getting the proof sets from the mints and has an extensive collection of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, 50 cent pieces, everything.

I being their offspring have accumulated a small collection, but never really got into it. I draw the line somwhere around paying $100 for a single penny.

I am thinking about getting 2 local silver proof sets, but @ 300$ each I am sleeping on it, for two reasons
1: if my wife finds out she will kill me
2: I can not afford it

I am starting to think about retirement, 30 years from now I can start selling them in the flea market .. just to pass some time, not many activities for old people here.

Michael2

I used to collect coins but it just sort of stopped being fun for me. I never had enough money to get anything good and I couldn't accumulate enough, plus I was trying to do it for profit and anyone who's looked at a price guide knows what that's like. I filled out a couple of albums (lincoln cents and rosie dimes) but I soon got to where I couldn't find the dates and mintmarks I needed. Pretty soon my stuff got stolen. Good riddance. Even if I had that stuff today, I'd be better off spending it.

wd40

You will need to spend lots of money / time / luck or all of them to make any profit off coins, I am bidding on two identical sets on ebay for under 20$, if I win I could in theory sell them for at least 100$ if I could find a local buyer, the market is dead these days.

---

so I bought the two silver proof sets , for one reason, one of the sets was minted in 2010 only 500 sets were available, half of which were withdrawn from the market for political reasons and there is absolutely no way that they will be released again, I wish I had money to buy one more .. the guy selling it told me that he is making 100% profit selling it to me .

N2IT

Just silver and gold

Walking Liberties, Silver Eagles, Mercury Dimes, Silver Eisenhowers, Silver JFK's.

Nothing spectacular, but in quantity it adds up.

I do have over 140 64 or older JFK's.

Michael2

I'm sure I don't need to remind a bunch of certified IT professionals about the dangers of buying coins. I watch a lot of that show "Pawn Stars" on The History Channel and it seems like out of every ten people that go in to sell coins it turns out that eight of them got ripped off.

Armymanis

I have a really good coin collection. Everything from 1800's silver and copper coins to present coins. I mostly collect Silver coinage, but my favorite coins out of the copper collection have to be the large cents. I just love their design. I almost have a whole set of large cents. Mind you they are from Good-Very Fine condition because that is all I can afford. Once you start getting past the Very fine grade your spending at least over $200 or more for the coins. Have not been able to buy a coin since I started school. All my work money is going towards school and text books. I also have an abundence of different foreign coins, but I do not keep them in coin holders like I do all my 1800's and up U.S. Coins.

wd40

<p>

N2IT wrote: »

Just silver and gold Walking Liberties, Silver Eagles, Mercury Dimes, Silver Eisenhowers, Silver JFK's. Nothing spectacular, but in quantity it adds up. I do have over 140 64 or older JFK's.

Of course it adds up, I think it will serve as an emergency fund, I once paid off a credit card by using 10 LBS of change. I have been thinking of getting some US silver, but I am currently working on getting all local -Bahrain- proofs first, I started yesterady and I am almost done , not many coins / proofs minted here. Getting the Gold coins would be diffecult because they are rare and they would cost 1000$ each at least, but they would make a good investment over 20 or 30 years.

Michael2 wrote: »

I'm sure I don't need to remind a bunch of certified IT professionals about the dangers of buying coins. I watch a lot of that show "Pawn Stars" on The History Channel and it seems like out of every ten people that go in to sell coins it turns out that eight of them got ripped off.

That is true, if you have to sell you have to sell, as I said before, You will need to spend lots of money / time / luck or all of them to make any profit off coins.

Armymanis wrote: »

I have a really good coin collection. Everything from 1800's silver and copper coins to present coins. I mostly collect Silver coinage, but my favorite coins out of the copper collection have to be the large cents. I just love their design. I almost have a whole set of large cents. Mind you they are from Good-Very Fine condition because that is all I can afford. Once you start getting past the Very fine grade your spending at least over $200 or more for the coins. Have not been able to buy a coin since I started school. All my work money is going towards school and text books. I also have an abundence of different foreign coins, but I do not keep them in coin holders like I do all my 1800's and up U.S. Coins.

This reminded me about people on e-bay saying they got hoards of coins for cheap prices going to garage sales, any body tried that?</p>

cisco_trooper

I only collect coins with real silver or gold content. It's more of an investment for me. Morgan Dollars, American Eagles, various pre-1965 coinage, and pre-1933 Gold.

Devilsbane

wd40 wrote: »

I am starting to think about retirement, 30 years from now I can start selling them in the flea market .. just to pass some time, not many activities for old people here.

Any good personal finance book is going to tell you that collections (coins, stamps, baseball cards, ect) aren't really an investment. In theory your Babe Ruth rookie card is going to be worth a lot of money someday. But in order to actually make that investment pay off you're going to have to be willing to part with it.

The costs and efforts associated with collections make it more of a business than an investment. With time and knowledge you can learn to buy low and sell high and make some money. But this is now a part time side gig and not an investment. The last thing we have to consider is storage. My dad has two large safes full of coins. My grandpa has an even bigger one. For something extremely valuable (such as Babe Ruth's card) you might even want to take out an insurance policy on. The amount of effort and money spent makes it a bad investment. It can still be a hobby if you enjoy doing it.

Moral of the story: Collect because you find enjoyment in it. You might end up making some money but if that is your only goal you are going to probably have better luck going the more typical approach.

Some day I know that my grandpa will pass his coins down to my dad, and one day he will pass them down to my brother and I. I don't have the slightest clue what I'll do with them. I know there is a lot of money involved there, but there is also a lot of sentimental value. I'm not the jerk that is just going to sell off 40 years of my dad's life because I want some spare change. Plus I wouldn't want to be screwed over and lack the interest to find out what everything is worth myself. It will probably end up just sitting in my basement collecting dust, and maybe my kids will find it more interesting than I do.

wd40

I am not looking into it for retirement from financial point of view, but to have something to do other than setting at home and watching TV ..

About getting screwed, I just bought 2 proof sets from ebay for less than half of the price they are sold for, I think the seller either inherited the sets "he is selling many of them", or he really needs the money.

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Devilsbane

Can't rule out the potential for counterfeits either. Just another reason that if you are going to do it then you better love it or you might be on the short end of the stick from time to time.

wd40

This is True, however I do love collecting coins and generally know what I am doing, but you know, Love before marriage is different from love after marriage and having kids, it is still love but it is not the same .

My Love to collecting coins evolved with time

wd40

I just bought one of these for 120 $ BAHRAIN coins, pièces de monnaie BAHRAIN , BAHRAIN Münzen , FFCC , fauna and flora coins , fauna-and-flora-coins

Face Value 15$
List price 30-35$
Actual market Coin value = 35-45$
Coin in the plastic capsule = 55-65$
Coin in the plastic capsule with certificate = 65-85$
Coin in the plastic capsule with certificate in a box with card board sleeve = 120$ , after a long search I was able to find only one in a dusty shop where an old guy had bags of dusty coins piled every where.

Moral of the story, if you buy coins, silver, proof sets etc keep all the boxes and paperwork because they make a huge difference in the sale price.

cisco_trooper

Also to note, as a gold and silver investor there is no additional perceived value in a proof set. If you have a proof set, I don't care how pretty it is I won't pay you more than the spot price of gold or silver for it. Having a proof finish doesn't put any more metal in to the coin, and that is all that matters to an investor acquiring gold and silver assets. People using coins as an investment vehicle aren't looking for rare coins, they are looking for gold and silver, at least I hope that's what they are doing or they are just nuts.

motogpman

Hey fellas, my question isn't about coins, rather for stamps. I gather that both coins/stamps collectors are in the same circles. Can anyone shed any info on any "honest" stamp collectors? I have a leather bound book that has stamps from all over the world. When I was younger, around 10 ( I am now in my 40's), this poor old lady was being moved out of her house by her son and his wife. I wanted to pay for the book, but she told me to take it, that her husband would have wanted me to have it than let her "kids" get it. I roamed the house a bit and then went and sat by her until it was time to leave. Just didn't feel right and I thought the least I could do was sit there and listen to every story she would tell, when people were walking out of the house with her belongings. How hard is that, for a person to endure that situation when she lived in that house for well over 50 years.....

After all of these years, I have held onto it, but now I need to sell what I can to pay medicals bills. I hate to part with them, hell, I honestly wouldn't know what any of it's worth either. Any help is appreciated and sorry to add a stamps questions to a Coin thread.

wd40

cisco_trooper wrote: »

Also to note, as a gold and silver investor there is no additional perceived value in a proof set. If you have a proof set, I don't care how pretty it is I won't pay you more than the spot price of gold or silver for it. Having a proof finish doesn't put any more metal in to the coin, and that is all that matters to an investor acquiring gold and silver assets. People using coins as an investment vehicle aren't looking for rare coins, they are looking for gold and silver, at least I hope that's what they are doing or they are just nuts.

What you are doing is OK, you can just buy junk silver for investing if you want.
this is about collecting as a hobby, which may be used as a risky investment, if I buy a silver set with a limited mintage of 500 at 10 times the spot price, within 10 years it may worth 5 times the purchase price, if the price stays the same, no big deal I bought it to enjoy it

wd40

motogpman wrote: »

Hey fellas, my question isn't about coins, rather for stamps. I gather that both coins/stamps collectors are in the same circles. Can anyone shed any info on any "honest" stamp collectors? I have a leather bound book that has stamps from all over the world. When I was younger, around 10 ( I am now in my 40's), this poor old lady was being moved out of her house by her son and his wife. I wanted to pay for the book, but she told me to take it, that her husband would have wanted me to have it than let her "kids" get it. I roamed the house a bit and then went and sat by her until it was time to leave. Just didn't feel right and I thought the least I could do was sit there and listen to every story she would tell, when people were walking out of the house with her belongings. How hard is that, for a person to endure that situation when she lived in that house for well over 50 years.....

After all of these years, I have held onto it, but now I need to sell what I can to pay medicals bills. I hate to part with them, hell, I honestly wouldn't know what any of it's worth either. Any help is appreciated and sorry to add a stamps questions to a Coin thread.

as a general rule if the coin "stamp in your case" was expensive 30 years ago, it is most likely more expensive now.

If it was common / mass produced, chances are it is still not worth much.
You got it from an old lady, it was her husbands collection, so it should be much older than 30 years, stamps are difficult to grade at least to me, simple variations in colors, marks, etc can cause a big difference in the price.

Devilsbane

wd40 wrote: »

stamps are difficult to grade at least to me, simple variations in colors, marks, etc can cause a big difference in the price.

At least with coins there is a pattern. Most coins generally wear in the same locations so you sort of know where to look to spot the difference between grades. Stamps are a whole different ballgame, especially international ones. Wouldn't even know where to begin.

There must be some shops that you can bring it into and get a value for it. They might undercut you, but thats why you shop around. And if you don't have the time to do that, there is always e-bay. Let the public decide what they're willing to pay for it.