Advice on selling gold Austrian coins in New York?

[ccarroll]

I'm a newbie hoping I might get lucky with some suggestions here.

I have a few gold Austrian coins I was hoping to sell. The most notable is a 4-ducat piece from 1900. I ventured to a big coin show here earlier in the year, but got misled with some not-exactly-real-offers. Now I was hoping to try and sell them locally, but although there are a lot of people claiming to be for numismatists, they're really only buying for the melt-down value of the gold, and I was told I should be able to get a bit more than that.

I've also tried to track down coin collector groups, with no success. They seem very secretive and unresonsive. On top of that, I'm avoiding internet transactions. I'm happy to post on Craigslist and let anyone meet in person to see the coins, but I don't do Ebay and such.

Any suggestions?

 

[Art1.2]

I'd take them to any of the large dealers who have offices in New York City. In fact, I'd probably take them to all of the major dealers and see what they offer.

[Benz Gemz]

A lot of this stuff really does sell as bullion. Unless collectors are willing to buy it a lot higher (mostly they aren't) dealers will pretty much offer the gold value and nothing more. They have to be able to make something on it when they sell it. If you have particularly collectable coins you may get a bit more.

[ccarroll]

Thanks, but I haven't had much luck with that. A lot of the coin dealers in NYC don't seem to be that reputable. In my case, they didn't know, for instance, that while the 1915 version of this coin is likely a re-strike and only worth melt value, my 1900 version should be worth more. I've been kind of surprised, in fact.

[gxseries]

I think this might be a bit harsh but there's too much limitation that maximizes the sale that you are hoping for.

 

The ideal scenario in this case would be to find a buyer that is a) local, knows what he / she is looking at, c) willing to pay a substantial premium

 

Given that this is an Austrian coin and is not American, a lot of buyers aren't aware of what they are looking at. This may be more popular back in Austria however by limiting the market plus being in an area where foreign coins aren't hot - it's not a surprise.

 

The only other alternative that I can see is that you have to be flexible with your option. Whether it is to sell overseas or forced to sell at a loss, it would be best to hold onto it unless you really need the money.

[ccarroll]

gxseries, I think you're absolutely right. I've called around a lot, and been in person to several places, and I get the impression that not only are the dealers not interested in international coins, but a lot of them don't seem to know anything about them.

 

This is so weird. When I went to a coin show, I naively thought that the interested dealers would be American, not European, because they'd be harder to find in the U.S.

[ccarroll]

Re-visiting the 4-ducat coin...

 

I'm supposed to meet a collector who might be interested. I've been told the coin would sell for over $1000, maybe $1200. But dealer have offered me around $500-$600. My hope is to sell to a collector where I could ask more than a dealer would pay, while still offering it to the collector for less than he'd pay a dealer. Would $800 be reasonable, do you think?

[ccg]

"Bid" on a mint 1915 piece would be about $480 give or take at the moment.

 

A non restrike date would be better, but without knowing the condition it'd be hard to say. A well worn piece, for example, would be worth just the same as a "common date".