In case you have any money left shortly after Christmas, here is your opportunity to spend it. Tiff already brought this up here http://coinpeople.com/index.php?showtopic=5589 ... now the pictures are there.

Want Kitty on coins? Ask and you shall receive in abundance. Here are the three silver and two gold coins that the Monnaie de Paris issues on this, errm, occasion.

Three silver coins (900), face value €1.50, EU price* €41 each:
Kitty flying above Paris

Kitty in a Parisian café

Kitty shopping on the Avenue des Champs Elysées


The 1/4 oz gold coin (999), face value €10, EU price* €269:
Kitty at the Opéra Garnier


The 1 oz gold coin (999), face value €50, EU price* €912:
Kitty and her friend Daniel at the Galerie des Glaces (Versailles Castle)


*French sales tax (TVA) included

Most of these coins will be sold in Japan. But if for some strange reason you feel obliged to buy one ...

Christian

Ohhhhhhhh those are sooooooo dang cute! How much are they in good ol' US currency? Im sure more then I could ever afford....but curious none the less

Crazy. I just don't get this kind of thing.

Bleh.

It's happening for the same reason there will be a Presidential Dollar Series here in the US.

OK, I get the money making desire of the mint officials. I don't get why people would buy those instead of a denarius, a bust half, or any other decent coin :-P

I know, I know, to each his own.

That is for the same reason people will drink Segrams 7 instead of Bushmills or smoke an el Segundo instead of a Punch Gran Puro, as one deveolps a sophisticated pallet ones discrimination between what is good and what is pedestrian will inevitably become more refined and respectable.

I wonder how much did the Japanese black market paid to the French mint.

Is the Japanese mint too stupid to think of better commemorative coins to be minted in Japan? The Hello Kitty proof set was one of the most ridicious sets ever minted - with the exact same proof coins and with a new medal plus a new case, tada! A brand new record price for doing "nothing much"!!! All you get in that mintset is a new medal and ohhhhhhhhhhh fancy packaging. So much for mad hello kitty collectors.

What's next, Hello Kitty in the US, and you get the Hello Kitty 50 states version?!

Hello Kitty in Hawaii, Hello Kitty in NY, Hello Kitty in blah blah blah.

Oh boy, that's going to be a real expensive series to collect.

Well, it was either Hello Kitty or Modern French War Heros, but all of those were going to be just blank planchets.

Sure, because France does not fight as many wars as some others. As for the Kitty "coins", whoever likes them should buy them. Not me, though ...

The Monnaie de Paris knows of course that no collector is able/willing to buy all their coins. Its policy is apparently to issue a whole bunch of coins every year, and some collectors will eventually buy a piece here and there. (I'm one of those collectors .) Voilà, profit made.

Christian

Of course the US could issue a "Victory over Iraq" commemoritive.

Let's not get too much into politics in this thread, please. That is what Debates is for. The Kitty coins are bad enough by themselves.

Christian

I actually like them , except for that ugly copyright line. It's just huge on the Opera coin.

Yes, I noticed the same thing. It could have been done more discreetly like on the US Dolly Madison dollar.

Yep, very "unobtrusive", that one. Last year I bought the Belgian Tintin coin http://www.honscha.de/bilder/10b04g.jpg (not colored, and the coin has something to do with the issuing country ...). Nice piece IMO but I found the "© Hergé/ML" disturbing in all that empty space around.

Now these ones are even worse! As for the size of that line on the €10 Kitty coin, well, that piece is fairly small anyway (Ø 22 mm). The €10 silver coins and the €50 gold coin OTOH all have a diameter of 37 mm.

Christian

For the past year I have seen I think 10% of all those Monnaie de Paris coins
of yonder years pass by on ebay Germany
Every week I see Lance Armstrong winning the 100 th year tour de france in 20 euro gold half ounce

I got my Avatar on ebay Germany for what was like 15% over spot 6 months ago

Now their 5 ounces gold at 99 pieces only are weekly on ebay Germany
So I think the Japanese did not buy all the coins

I like this Kitty but would not even buy it on the secondary market
to much kitch for me

I am now watching the Secondary Spanish market lol
I just got Europa on the bull last week

http://boutique.monnaiedeparis.fr/is-bin/I...ricSearch-Start



Now this is an intresting observation
As far as I know only France has VAT on gold even old gold napoleon coins
In Belgium I pay no VAT whatsoever on French Napoleons only the French do when and if they buy in France
Rumour has it they come and buy in Belgium and Luxembourg and Spain and Italy and Switzerland but that is only rumour I think

You will know more about this than I do (I do not collect gold coins, with veeery few exceptions) ... But basically there is no sales tax if the coin is legal tender in the issuing country and if the price does not exceed 180 (?) percent of the gold value. The European Union issues a list of such sales tax free gold coins every year; this http://vddm.de/dokumente/2005.pdf is the German language version of that list for 2005, for example.

Christian

In theory the coin has to be a coin legal tender past or present
The coin has to be post the year 1800
The coin has to have at least 0.900 goldcontent
The price has to be less then 170% i thought of the goldcontent
Notwithstanding all these the French in France pay VAT on their goldcoins
and Nothwithstanding all this there are interpretations circulated to the custom people ; interpratations you can only buy because they will not answer questions
Interpretations that made a Double Eagle 20 $ coming from Switzerland to Belgium subject to TAX and they could not be bothered to explain why

Well, I guess you could go to court for that - it was an administrative act after all. Problem is that the amounts we are talking about are usually not immense, so nobody would take it to court unless one is very sure about the legal situation and we are talking about a large volume ...

If many people are involved, now that may sometimes help. I remember one case, exactly two years ago, when a lot of collectors were charged customs fees (actually Einfuhrumsatzsteuer - import turnover tax) by German customs for gold euro coins from San Marino. A forum member asked somebody knowledgeable about customs criteria, tariff groups and such, then wrote to customs that he would like to get the EUSt back, and posted his letter to that forum. A few others wrote similar letters, and voilà, after a while, they all got their money back.

But yes, it is odd indeed that the MdP charges VAT for such gold coins ...

Christian

I have paid VAT on coinsets etc from Monnaie de Paris boutiques, but when I went into banks in Paris I do not remember paying VAT on Napoleons, but this was a few years ago too.

VAT??? is that Vague Additions to the Total?

Vat do you mean? Nah, it's not vague at all - it's precisely 69.



Christian

I read the French reinstituted Tax on gold
However they invented a new name I see

http://www.aocchange.com/or-bourse-cours.htm.php

An 8% deduction on the sale
of which 7.5% is called tax on precious materials
and 0.5 % is called reduction of social deficit


La TMP
Les particuliers sont soumis à un prélèvement forfaitaire de 8% du montant brut de la transaction.

Il se décompose en 2 éléments distincts :
- La TMP, Taxe sur les Métaux Précieux : 7,5 %
- La RDS, Réduction de la Dette Sociale : 0,5 %.

Hello Madness rampage is on:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=8392466030

Most of these Kitty coins were supposed to be sold in Japan
They are on ebay germany constantly going high prices whilst Lance Armstrong
is still on winning the Tour for week after week after week but going low prices
Looks like all the Lance coins were bought by germans to start with

Almost embarassing to admit but I'd like to own those, at least the silver. However, until the prices come down I'll have to console myself with just a Hello Kitty clipboard.



Did you know she has no mouth beacuse she speaks from the heart in no particular language?

But hey, I do own a batch of such plushees somewhere I believe

Yes you do know it very well JamminJ! Well done!

Alternatively, if you are into the Hello Kitty goods, here is one mint set produced by Japan back in 2004, http://www.mint.go.jp/eng/coin/page07-9_e.html

Man, am I "into" Hello Kitty goods? That's a scary thought.

I was outbid today on the Flying Over Paris, but it looked a bit hazy from the photo. There is a guy selling the three silvers with BINs...

I can't believe I'm stating this openly on a public forum.

Sorry, it's Mashimaro for me.


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Ugh I can't stand that stupid cat.

Although my little cousin can stare at the TV for hours on end, not blinking.

nah. that's how they're gonna market the presidential dollar coins. hello kitty with george washington, hello kitty with abe lincoln, and hello kitty with richard nixon!

She was the one behind Water-Gate.........

she was! rose mary woods took the rap because she wanted to be in the history books!

I couldn't resist any longer, and even slabbed them:

Even more disturbing is I bought multiples of each to get at high grade keeper of each design.

Yeah, I just checked eBay Germany - 22 items under "Hello Kitty" in the category "Muenzen" - the silver ones all for sale in three coin sets - not my kind of coin but I know someone who would love them.......

Yes somhow or other ebay Germany seems to be the main outlet for all the Monnaie de Paris coins
The Kitty series was supposed to be largely for Japanese buyers

Lance Armstrong is still winning last years Tours de France
This was a 2400 coin series and I think I have seen about 200 sell
on ebay germany and they are still selling them

You're very funny I thought I was bad, buying a Hutt River "coin" - these are at least cute. My husband thinks this kind of thing is crazy - he always made me remove the tags from any Beenie Babies I got.

I may bid on the the kittens if the dollar weakens further against the Euro; if I use German funds they don't seem so pricey in dollar terms (this is called Rationalizing the Irrational).