Bargain finds

We used to have some of these threads, but I thought I'd start a new one.  

With the exhorbitant prices most sellers are asking, it can be hard to get a decent price.  But what are some of your bargain finds.  The auctions with no reserve that nobody else bid on, the auctions where the seller didn't know what they had so you picked it up for a song, or the hidden gem found in a bulk lot or bargain bin?

I have a couple of nice little finds recently.  This junk silver wasn't listed in the coin section, but in the silver section of the NZ auction site, I picked them up for about half melt.

And I found this beautiful little lot of Territory of New Guinea coins that I managed to get for around ⅔ of the melt value of the silver

I recently bought a bag of 25 mixed roman bronze coins for 500 sek (~50$) in which i found this tetradrachm from alexandria!

https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/59334

Rpc states that this coin only has 7 known examples! 

Marc16

I recently bought a bag of 25 mixed roman bronze coins for 500 sek (~50$) in which i found this tetradrachm from alexandria!

https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/59334

Rpc states that this coin only has 7 known examples! 

Nice!  Any idea what it's worth?

Your finds are quite nice, neilithicman and Marc16. As for the Alexandrian tetradrachm, the number of 7 is of those in the PRC database, but that doesn't exclude some more in private collections. It has an “unassigned number” in RPC V.3 because the volume has not been completed yet (so far as I know). Yet I don't find it in Wildwinds under Septimius Severus, so it may well be quite scarce.

Among many other possibilities, the first coin that comes to my mind it this Italian 1 centesimo 1918:

In a December 2019 thread I mentioned it as being part of a lot which I won for only CA $18.50. There were other valuable coins in there.

Another absolutely incredible bargain was a lot of 103 Canadian coins, including colonial and Newfoundland, that I won on eBay for CA $400. One of the coins was a Newfoundland 1885 10 cents (mintage 8000) which alone is worth about a third of the price I paid for the entire lot. These are 10 of 18 pictures:

neilithicman

Marc16

I recently bought a bag of 25 mixed roman bronze coins for 500 sek (~50$) in which i found this tetradrachm from alexandria!

https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/59334

Rpc states that this coin only has 7 known examples! 

Nice!  Any idea what it's worth?

Looking at its latest sale for 190 $ in janurary, in which the coin is in a bit better condition, my guess would be somewhere between 100-200 dollars!

Camerinvs

Your finds are quite nice, neilithicman and Marc16. As for the Alexandrian tetradrachm, the number of 7 is of those in the PRC database, but that doesn't exclude some more in private collections. It has an “unassigned number” in RPC V.3 because the volume has not been completed yet (so far as I know). Yet I don't find it in Wildwinds under Septimius Severus, so it may well be quite scarce.

 

Among many other possibilities, the first coin that comes to my mind it this Italian 1 centesimo 1918:

 

 

In a December 2019 thread I mentioned it as being part of a lot which I won for only CA $18.50. There were other valuable coins in there.

 

Another absolutely incredible bargain was a lot of 103 Canadian coins, including colonial and Newfoundland, that I won on eBay for CA $400. One of the coins was a Newfoundland 1885 10 cents (mintage 8000) which alone is worth about a third of the price I paid for the entire lot. These are 10 of 18 pictures:

 

Thanks for the info! I’m not really familiar with rpc, so i just went off of  the auctioned ones and the ones in museums. Nice finds too!

Amazing buys guys - Love the Canadian mix with all those old tokens of yours Camerinvs. The ancients are always nice too.

I can't really show anything yet, most of what I have bought has been really generously overpriced! But I find bargainz every now and then.

I am very active on the Dutch ebay, always looking for some nice bargains. My most recent acquisition is this coin of Trajan for a grand price of 10 euro. Seller photos.

Edit: probably something like this N#253351

Got some finally, my local junk shop which sells some coins as a side hustle (Usually marked up) has fallen behind with silver prices.

I bought today 2 x Sterling silver half crowns (1887 and 1912 both VF/EF) at $25 each, when silver is melt for them at $37 and 2 Florin coins of same purity at $25 and $20 when silver is melting at $29.66.

Silver is definitely soaring again at the moment.  I saw on the news it had topped US$50 an ounce for the first time in over a decade

Even better was a 1966 US 50 cents (40%) silver which was a bit more ($25), but I needed it for my date run. Noticed it had a D mintmark which was strange as the US Mint had this leftist experiment in 1965 - 67 to leave mintmarks off coins (Part of LBJ's groovy society), and therefore all 1966 halves would have no mintmarks. I thought, okay its likely a 68 or 69 and I have overpaid as a 40% has only $12 or 13 or so of silver in it, and this coin is visibly worn.

But to my delight I turn the coin over and its a 1964D! 90% Halves are melting at $31.05 - so thats another coin bought under melt! I know 1964 and 1964D Kennedies are the most common silver coins of all time, but they are collectible below melt value!

 I bought a box of coins in our club auction for £5.

Among the usual junk were a few interesting coins, including a Gibraltar £5, and a couple of euros (for my holidays)  -

But most interesting are these tiny (no more than 1cm) cob coins and 2 bits of holed silver. I need to research these -

That's awesome.  One of my favorite part of collecting is getting a big bulk lot and having a fossick through it looking for gems.  

Harris79

 I bought a box of coins in our club auction for £5.

 

 

Among the usual junk were a few interesting coins, including a Gibraltar £5, and a couple of euros (for my holidays)  -

 

But most interesting are these tiny (no more than 1cm) cob coins and 2 bits of holed silver. I need to research these -

 

Bloody good bargain for a fiver! Good to see. Got your money back just with the territories and Belgian Congo coin alone. Great stuff.

neilithicman

That's awesome.  One of my favorite part of collecting is getting a big bulk lot and having a fossick through it looking for gems.  

This can get addictive…

 sadly the coins have all dried up in my region. I haven’t found more than one bulk lot years. I don’t know why. 
 Thankfully, I did find one lot at this time last year. It was 70 pounds of wheat pennies and about 6 ounces of silver +150 silver US nickels. And a bag of Chinese cash that I still haven’t gone through. I was just recently able to sell the pennies for what I paid for the lot. I also sold the nickels and some of the silver (colorized Australian stuff) while silver was $52.

 I bought the lot because for the last 30 years, I’ve always wanted a Canadian maple leaf 1 ounce silver round and never gotten one before. This lot had three of those in it so I basically got those for free!

redsmithstudios This lot had three of those in it so I basically got those for free!

Score!

I already posted about this one in the additions to your collections forum, but i want to show it here too. I got this 25 kopeck from 1896 yesterday for only 75 sek (~8 usd)! I found it in a bin of junk silver and i just loved its design so i bought it. I looked it up and ngc says it could be worth between 25 and 50 usd!

My bargain finds this week. Junk to some. Treasure to others. 4 crown sized coin covers for £3 each. 2 coins from the Marshall Islands, 1 from Guernsey and 1 from the Turks and Caicos Islands. At £3 each can't really complain. Especially for small islands coinage.

BrunoCoins

My bargain finds this week. Junk to some. Treasure to others. 4 crown sized coin covers for £3 each. 2 coinz from the Marshall Islands, 1 from Guernsey and 1 from the Turks and Caicos Islands. At £3 each can't really complain. Especially for small islands coinage.

 

Nice finds! Is the guernsey 2 pounds 1995 the copper-nickel or silver proof variety? I can’t really see it in the picture.

Marc16

BrunoCoins

My bargain finds this week. Junk to some. Treasure to others. 4 crown sized coin covers for £3 each. 2 coinz from the Marshall Islands, 1 from Guernsey and 1 from the Turks and Caicos Islands. At £3 each can't really complain. Especially for small islands coinage.

 

Nice finds! Is the guernsey 2 pounds 1995 the copper-nickel or silver proof variety? I can’t really see it in the picture.

Copper nickel as far as I know. Wouldn't expect silver for £3 though miracles happen sometimes. 

Here is a link to the Chinese Cash I received. 
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic168509.html

redsmithstudios

Here is a link to the Chinese Cash I received. 
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic168509.html

That’s a big lot! How much did you pay for it?

Marc16

redsmithstudios

Here is a link to the Chinese Cash I received. 
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic168509.html

That’s a big lot! How much did you pay for it?

See my above post, from October 22. 
It’s already paid for!

redsmithstudios

Marc16

redsmithstudios

Here is a link to the Chinese Cash I received. 
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic168509.html

That’s a big lot! How much did you pay for it?

See my above post, from October 22. 
It’s already paid for!

Of course you already paid for it, but how much money did you spend buying it? You didn’t clarify that in your last post.

Oh, gotcha, I paid $700 Total for the lot.

He wanted a lot more originally, but I offered a lower amount because I didn't want the wheat cents.  All I wanted were the 3 Canada Maple leafs. Originally I was nervous about being able to sell the wheat cents, and it did take a long time to find a buyer, but he was very happy to have them all. 

It had been sitting for sale for over a month so I believe he was just ready to move it. 

I sold the pennies for $680. Sold the silver nickels and some commemorative's for another $350 when silver hit $52.

 There are also about 40 rolls of 1960-1980 cents that I will keep, I like having the copper too. Plus there was $40 in current change that I just took to the bank, so I am glad I took what seemed like a risk. 
 You can see my Canada coin in this type set box by my bed. 

I posted this in the additions to my collection thread.  But I think this counts as a bargain find.  I would grade it as VF on the obverse, and F+ on the reverse.  I picked it up for NZ$16, which is around US$9.25.  It has a mintage of just 100,000 and the book value in VF is US$75

Paid £5.37 for each silver coin. 

Belgium 100 Francs 1949 (Flemish text)

Greece 30 Drachmai 1964 Royal wedding 

Norway 10 Kroner 1964 Constitution Sesquicentennial. Couldn't believe it finding silver listings at such prices still. The Norwegian silver is my favourite!.

Not a huge bargain, but still pretty nice!

AE from Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain) commemorating the death of Augustus and with the city walls on the reverse. Reign of Tiberius, value ~45 euro, paid 12. RPC vol 1 #26

I managed to get a bit of a score today.  My wife was spending ages shopping in a second hand shop on the way back from our anniversary trip this weekend.  I got bored waiting for her, so I popped into the antiques store next door.  I asked if she had any coins, and she said that she had a box of half crowns she was selling for $20 each.  I had a fossick through and as expected, most of them were the cu-ni coins, but I managed to find 4 silver ones.  3x 1934 and 1x 1943.  $20 is around $5 less than melt each.

Silvers are a bargain I guess, but was this woman selling the Cupronickel ones at $20 a pop too? Thats crazy, they are worth $1 each on a good day.

I went down to a antique shop in East Chch and they had some coins and notes, mainly NZ 50% silver 3d's at $2 each when their silver value was about $1.75 or so. After I bought them, the guy asked if I liked coins and I told him they had silver , he took out an old NZ 1934 halfcrown and asked me how much the silver was worth. I was honest and said around $17, 10x the threepences as it was thirty pence. He said $10 and insisted I buy it at that price, despite being under melt. So I did.

No bargains for me lately, been buying a lot of collector pieces as crazy metal prices are slowing down my buying of ordinary pieces, but I consider some 1952 South African proofs a good buy.

Not below melt, but these are proofs - Crown $70 has $45 silver (Only half silver, if they had been 1950 or older, would have been 80%)

Half crown $34 - $23 silver

Florin $24 - $18 silver

Sixpence $6 - $4.50 silver

Threepence $4 - $2.25

And a free original case - Proof grade silver for under double melt and under 10k made.

Moneytane

Silvers are a bargain I guess, but was this woman selling the Cupronickel ones at $20 a pop too? Thats crazy, they are worth $1 each on a good day.

 

Yeah, that's why I had no moral qualms about taking the silver off her hands for well under melt.  She had a British Victorian crown in a reasonable F condition, but was asking $140 for that, so I passed.  But that's what you get when it's an antique shop rather than a coin dealer.  

So true, yet some times an antique shop or realistically a bric or brac shop (If they sell anything from the 1970s like ashtrays with smoking dogs on them, and oddments from 1951 era tea sets along with any kind of modern coloured free blown glass, its a junk shop/mission shop/dove shop/market), can offer real bargains as the people who run these things, may not always see coins as their number one priority, the real money lays in ceramics, crystal glasses, coasters and kitsch items that have hit with the hipster set.

This British penny cost me $8 from a Whanganui Antique shop 3 years ago, yet next to it was a 1948 Halfcrown worn to VG (The lowest possible for cupronickel with the carving's lips flat and George was a silhouette with no hairline or ear) for $15. Its fun in these places, digging for diamons in a pile of turds.

I mentioned this little jewel in a previous post.

Back in September / October? our local antique market holds two big events annually where dealers from all over Southern Ontario bring their wares.  I was hoping one particular dealer was going to be their again, as I had picked over some rather nice pieces for cents on the dollar the previous year.

He was there again but, didn't bring all I knew he had.  I had to settle on an 1918 and 1920  N#12775 for $2.50 Cdn each knowing fairly certainly that they were silver.  After closer inspection the 1920, in easily VF grade, was priced at $60 USD on the NGC Price Guide.  Why was that?

Seems this date of a 3 year type doesn't have a high survival rate and is uncommon.  I even checked Ebay and there were no current offerings or sales of this date.

Lucky Strike!!

Nice score

A nice mix of Jersey,Guernsey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar low denomination coins for £2.77 . Oldest coin dated 1911 and most recent dated 1998.

Some Canadian cents 1942,43,59,60. A 1942 nickel and a silver 1960 quarter. Paid £1.96.

That is definitely a bargain.  The melt value on the quarter would be around £10-£11 I'm  guessing?

Vatican City 2 Euro 2011 26th World Youth Day. Paid £2.39. 1 of 8000 issued in the philatelic envelope version too.

Thats really good, Vatican City and San Marino are both known for hawking their Euro coins at a massive mark up. I still have a 50 Eurocent of Pope John Paul II in a cardm I paid like 4 euro for in 2014, when I went to the Vatican city (Although I suspect the souvenir shops selling coins are just over the Italian “border”, - just outside the Loggia).

Much cheaper were 2 cards with sets of coins from the Lire era and a large medal of Pope John Paul II that cost me just 2 euros each.