bobh Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 I will kick this off with these pictures. I kept a photo of the holder this coin was in when I bought it at a coin show in Basel several years ago ... price is in Swiss Francs, at the time CHF 20 was about $17: :hysterical: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Wonderful bargain Bob and a great coin. I don't really have anything that fits this catagory. Maybe I need to change my means of purchasing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted January 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Wonderful bargain Bob and a great coin. I don't really have anything that fits this catagory. Maybe I need to change my means of purchasing. Thanks, Art. I really think it was just a fluke of luck. That dealer certainly didn't put out as much money for the coin as he sold it for, so I didn't have any compunctions about picking it up at the price marked. What I find amusing is that the seller knew that it was a rare coin ("selten" in German = scarce, or seldom encountered), yet didn't know what its true value was (or just didn't bother to look for it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Fly overseas and find a clueless dealer. Hmm... Might not be all that cost effective. I do remember seeing what to me was pocket change in a dealer's junk tray in the Netherlands, mixed in with a bunch of stuff we would see in such a tray here. It was one of those slightly surprising "oh, of course this would happen here!" moments you sometimes get when traveling. There was no way I'd pay the equivalent of a dime or quarter for a perfectly ordinary nickel. I didn't _have_ any American coins with me at the time or I might have tried to sell them to him to double my money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzkirk Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 1803 1/2 penny for $30.00, my father got a 1799 US dollar for $100 (I was with him in 1997 when he got it) Those were the best so far, but remember I'm CHEAP, and live in the south. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 I don't have pics with me, but I bought a barber dime with a die variety that is supposedly worth 5 times what I paid. But who is going to buy that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldeCollector Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 I don't have pics with me, but I bought a barber dime with a die variety that is supposedly worth 5 times what I paid. But who is going to buy that? You... But seriously, a good find, George! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeOldeCollector Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 I bought an unknown hammered coin on eBay for little over £1 - it is a unique type of Henry I, worth about 250 times what I paid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 A few coins come to mind. The KINGS of MACEDON. Alexander III ‘the Great’. 336-323 BC. AR Tetradrachm ‘Amphipolis’ mint. Struck under Kassander, circa 316-315 BC. The coin shop had not id'ed the mint and such. It's one of the scarcer types. Next I guess was the 1762 Catherine II silver Rouble, picked up for silver price when silver was about $4 an ounce. I got it, a 1914 Netherlands nickel, a 1943 silver peso, and a few other coins for $20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almingbg Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Last year I found 6 banknotes from Austria-Hungaria with overprint/stamp CITTA DI FIUME in dealer's junk box for 1€ each. The cheapest banknote is worth at least twice the total price. This is one of the better looking banknotes: Fiume 50 kroner 1921 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
token d Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Nice buy on the 1872 cent. I bought a Spanish proclamation piece dated 1789. I didn't know exactly what it was but for $20 I was sure it was a bargain. A year or so later I bought Walter Breens Encyclopedia of US coins. The proclamation piece was listed as being from Florida. I later sold it through a Bowers and Merena auction for $5,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted January 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Nice buy on the 1872 cent. I bought a Spanish proclamation piece dated 1789. I didn't know exactly what it was but for $20 I was sure it was a bargain. A year or so later I bought Walter Breens Encyclopedia of US coins. The proclamation piece was listed as being from Florida. I later sold it through a Bowers and Merena auction for $5,000. Wow! Now, THAT is a bargain!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn235 Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 I'm very cheap when it comes to coins, so the vast majority of my collection has come from roll hunting. So, for face value: 1950-D nickel (F-VF) Several AU '64 Kennedy halves About 2 silver quarters, 14 silver dimes, and 31 silver nickels (At its peak last April, I had about $350 worth of silver; probably should have sold it on ebay) Not for face value: 1936 Walker half (F/VF) bought it from a co-worker for $5.00 (which was melt value at the time) 1946-D Philippines 10 centavos (XF/AU) - bought it from a junk bin for $0.25, which was a little bit over silver spot when I bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 VF Geo IV 1/4d for 25c. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 Mine is maybe an impaired proof like 1834 commemorative ruble. Bought it around 300USD or so but that's a while ago. Not too sure how much that goes for these days but definitely a fair bit of money. Another one is a holed 1798 polupolutinnik - mere 1 dollar but it's near impossible to replace it within a reasonable price! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corina Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 well i bought two morgan dollars for $12 each, one turned out to be a VAM 18a, the other one had a minor die crack in it, both as of now are worth in the neighborhood of $30 or higher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veldpond1902 Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 I went to a general auction in 2010 there was a packet of coins i bought it for R300 (£23) and between two crowns was a 1892 Gold south african Pond in EF condition that i later sold for R11000 (£850) thats my biggest bargain Buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veldpond1902 Posted January 29, 2012 Report Share Posted January 29, 2012 second best bargain for me a sigar box full of coins that i bought for R200 (£15) i found a Extremely RARE east Africa 1943 1/ Coin (25-50 examples known) image attached Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just carl Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 How much did you snag that for, Carl? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 He's not saying. I bought six French medals in a lot at a Stacks auction (it seemed a very uninteresting lot, no photo) for about $65. Four or five years later I thought I would sell them on eBay. One medal alone brought in $330; the group of six brought in over $600. I had no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 Do coins you bought at a reasonable price at the time, but had shoot way up in market value, count? Or does it have to be super bargain at the time of purchase (or in other words, an item you could have "flipped" immediately)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted February 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 Do coins you bought at a reasonable price at the time, but had shoot way up in market value, count? Or does it have to be super bargain at the time of purchase (or in other words, an item you could have "flipped" immediately)? A bargain is a bargain ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 In that case any Russian coin I paid more than $50 for before 2001 turned into a huge bargain in the fullness of time. The coin in my avatar, just for instance, brought me over eight times what I paid for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikaros Posted February 10, 2012 Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 Now that I think about it, I think my single best deal was this 1942S silver nickel: ...inasmuch as it cost me 5c -- it came out of a roll in this condition. And while it's not a multi-hundred dollar coin, it's certainly worth more than 5 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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