Lot of World Coins What To Do 1 1

[pogohatesme]

Hi all. Well after reading several other threads recently I am hesitant on posting this, lol. Scare I light be attacked or hijacked lol. But anyhow I am unsure what to do. World coins are not my cup of tea and seriously thinking of getting rid of these. The one local coin dealet I had look at them a couple years ago really wasn't interested. In fact pointed to a bucket at the end of the counter that had a lot of the same type stuff for really cheap. And I feel as though another dealer would probably have the same reaction, or would I be wrong? I don't want to just "throw them in the trash". Should I try another dealer? Honestly I am fairly certain there is nothing a real value. Thanks in advance

[l.cutler]

They can be tough, most dealers just have boxes of them and sell them for 3 or 4 for a dollar or something similar.  It wouldn't hurt to separate and do a little research, or post some of the more interesting ones on here one at a time, might be something there.  Otherwise probably sell them as a lot on ebay.  Another thought, is there a scout troop near you?  Might be a scout working on a coin collecting merit badge.

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by l.cutler

[Moxie15]

Research, research, research. Then do not get upset if you find they are worthless. Many foreign coins are no longer money so have zero value there. Many that are not silver or gold have very small value in circulated condition.  I see lots of history and fun value there, but not a lot of cash value. Enjoy yourself and lets know if you find some cool stuff.

[kbbpll]

There's a place or two that buys these by the pound. You'd probably spend more in shipping that you'd get back. You could go visit all the countries and spend (most of) them, but that might cost more. I like the boy scout idea. I've got piles of this stuff myself from my own travels, and a large part of my inherited collection is stuff my grandfather accumulated in the 1940s - all also nearly worthless. I wonder what ultimately happens to these piles - lots of people have them.

[pogohatesme]

I did look up a couple of the coins and found 1 that was interesting to me. I can't remember which coin or which country, but according to the info I was able to look at, it showed it was minted the US Mint. Not sure how accurate that would be though for the US Mint to do other countries coins. Other than that looking at info on them confused me more than looking up info on a US coin 😂. I do like the boy scout idea however I do not know anyone personally. 

[VKurtB]

37 minutes ago, pogohatesme said:

I did look up a couple of the coins and found 1 that was interesting to me. I can't remember which coin or which country, but according to the info I was able to look at, it showed it was minted the US Mint. Not sure how accurate that would be though for the US Mint to do other countries coins. Other than that looking at info on them confused me more than looking up info on a US coin 😂. I do like the boy scout idea however I do not know anyone personally. 

Over history, the US Mints have done minting for various countries. Just today, I ran across another example of it while attributing some coins from a large box of foreign coins - the 1948 Venezuelan 5 centimos, done in Philadelphia. 

[JKK]

53 minutes ago, pogohatesme said:

I did look up a couple of the coins and found 1 that was interesting to me. I can't remember which coin or which country, but according to the info I was able to look at, it showed it was minted the US Mint. Not sure how accurate that would be though for the US Mint to do other countries coins. Other than that looking at info on them confused me more than looking up info on a US coin 😂. I do like the boy scout idea however I do not know anyone personally. 

We've minted quite a few, especially during the war years; most notably much of the Phillipine coinage pre- and during WWII. For example, if you ever wondered what happened to all the unused steel penny planchets, they were used to strike liberation coinage for Belgium (BFr2 pieces, I think). Mintage abroad isn't rare. Some Cuban coins were minted at Kremnica; the Franklin Mint has been hired to mint some Caribbean countries' coins; many WWII and pre-WWII Aussie coins were minted in British India.

[pogohatesme]

This is the coin I was speaking of that was minted in the US. It also really struck me because of the embargo against them.

Centavo 100 Year Hero

[VKurtB]

Pre-revolutionary Cuban coins are perfectly fine.

[BSquared]

I certainly wouldn't throw them out, even if you gone through them for any actual silver or gold content.  They'll still have some interest as "art", if you're into that.  I'd suggest going to Amazon and do a search for "3D display case".  Pick the size you want, put the coins in them,  and then you can show them on a coffee table, bookshelf, etc.  That was my solution. 

[pogohatesme]

Thanks for the suggestions. Being a novice I wasn't sure what exactly to do with them since they do seem to be in abundance and not being able to grade and such.

[kbbpll]

I wonder if there's any family history with these that might have value to you. I notice a couple German pfennigs from the 1950s - I have a bunch of those because my father was stationed in Germany during the Korean War.

[pogohatesme]

26 minutes ago, kbbpll said:

I wonder if there's any family history with these that might have value to you. I notice a couple German pfennigs from the 1950s - I have a bunch of those because my father was stationed in Germany during the Korean War.

Yes I saw a couple of German coins that caught my eye. One from Germany from the Weimar Repulic. Just the little bit of research I did and seen of it. A lot of my problem is also I have no friends and family that has any kind of history with anything like this.

Edited to add that I am using coinoscope app to help identify some of the coins. But then am limited on how much I can actually tell because I am unsure which one to choose, if that makes sense.

Edited June 12, 2020 by pogohatesme

[JKK]

8 minutes ago, pogohatesme said:

Yes I saw a couple of German coins that caught my eye. One from Germany from the Weimar Repulic. Just the little bit of research I did and seen of it. A lot of my problem is also I have no friends and family that has any kind of history with anything like this.

Edited to add that I am using coinoscope app to help identify some of the coins. But then am limited on how much I can actually tell because I am unsure which one to choose, if that makes sense.

I see: French, Israeli, Nicaraguan, Cuban (many), what I think is Haitian or Ethopian, Swedish, Mexican, Weimar German, Dutch East Indies, West German, Panamanian...probably as many other nationalities buried or too fuzzy to see.

[pogohatesme]

9 minutes ago, JKK said:

I see: French, Israeli, Nicaraguan, Cuban (many), what I think is Haitian or Ethopian, Swedish, Mexican, Weimar German, Dutch East Indies, West German, Panamanian...probably as many other nationalities buried or too fuzzy to see.

Pretty much all the ones I have looked up so far with the exception of the Ethiopian or Haitian. Also to add some Japanese and Nederland Antilles. These are just the ones I have looked at so far. Most of the composition has been nickle/copper or straight nickle and a couple aluminum. 

Edited to add: the only reason I posted the pic originally was to give yall an idea of what I was talking about originally. 

Edited June 12, 2020 by pogohatesme

[Outhaul]

Donate them to your local school for a geography class (do they still teach that?). Or a social studies class where they can learn about the people on the coins. Or make up little baggies to hand out for Halloween 👻.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Outhaul

[pogohatesme]

Wow. I really have no imagination apparently as yall have given some good ideas lol. All I was seeing is not being any value really so was thinking there was some sort of coin dealer that might specialize in these for some reason. I really had not even thought of all the other good ideas. Thanks a bunch.

[JKK]

11 hours ago, pogohatesme said:

Wow. I really have no imagination apparently as yall have given some good ideas lol. All I was seeing is not being any value really so was thinking there was some sort of coin dealer that might specialize in these for some reason. I really had not even thought of all the other good ideas. Thanks a bunch.

I'm guessing most of us have confronted that situation before and have thus had to look for solutions. If you buy out coin collections, at some point you're sure to come across a mixed fruitcake tin of assorted foreign coins. Probably Bampaw brought them home from the war or the postwar. The US not being a hotbed of geographic understanding, the descendants often have no idea where most are from, especially any in other alphabets, and in any case few are willing to look them all up once they find that maybe one in a hundred is worth more than a nickel (and that one's worth a quarter). There they sit until it's time to get rid of them.

An experienced world coin collector, or a dealer, can pretty much rip through them with half a second each of face time to make the decision: junk or value? The dealer, who buys a lot of collections, hasn't time to waste, so he sets aside the few worth looking up. The rest he maybe pays a nickel each for, dumps in his assortment bin, charges 15-25c for, and makes a small but non-trivial income stream considering his margin.

[VKurtB]

1 hour ago, JKK said:

I'm guessing most of us have confronted that situation before and have thus had to look for solutions. If you buy out coin collections, at some point you're sure to come across a mixed fruitcake tin of assorted foreign coins. Probably Bampaw brought them home from the war or the postwar. The US not being a hotbed of geographic understanding, the descendants often have no idea where most are from, especially any in other alphabets, and in any case few are willing to look them all up once they find that maybe one in a hundred is worth more than a nickel (and that one's worth a quarter). There they sit until it's time to get rid of them.

An experienced world coin collector, or a dealer, can pretty much rip through them with half a second each of face time to make the decision: junk or value? The dealer, who buys a lot of collections, hasn't time to waste, so he sets aside the few worth looking up. The rest he maybe pays a nickel each for, dumps in his assortment bin, charges 15-25c for, and makes a small but non-trivial income stream considering his margin.

I like to look these things up and try to find the correct KM# or Y#, just as a pastime. Sure beats coin roll hunting.

[JKK]

12 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

I like to look these things up and try to find the correct KM# or Y#, just as a pastime. Sure beats coin roll hunting.

I do too, provided they are dated before 1950 or so. Now and then one finds something interesting.

[KarenHolcomb]

Mostly people just send them to me. Js.

[Thompson2]

1 minute ago, KarenHolcomb said:

Mostly people just send them to me. Js.

True story!

 

Did any turn out to be keepers? 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Thompson2

[pogohatesme]

1 hour ago, KarenHolcomb said:

Mostly people just send them to me. Js.

Don't tempt me lol. I just got done going through another bag of coins and discovered a lot more V nickels and wheat pennies and having a hard enough time figuring things out with them much less this lot of stuff.