Where do coins come from?

[IMIS]

I would like to offer for discussion the topic of the origin(s) of high grade coins at auctions. Every time I see a new catalogue from a major auction house I am pleasantly surprised at the wealth of material presented. Yes, there are exceptions, but overall most auctions have very nice material. For simplicity, we can stick to graded coins, since more, or less reliable statistics is available for these coins.

 

Sale of old collections seems to be the most obvious source. This year we saw some excellent coins attributed to Newman, Stiller, Demereti and Sodderman, however with the exception of the latter, these coins are but a small part of the numismatic pie offered for sale.

 

I can think of only two possibilities, explaining the phenomena: old school collectors, like Newman, who believed in 'buy and hold until you hit 100 years old' approach have been replaced by new school collectors, who believe in 'buy and resell as soon as coins appreciate' approach, effectively turning collectors into profiteers. The second possibility, is that the vast majority of coins at each auction are sold and bought by professional numismatic dealers, or the market makers.

 

What do you guys think?

[squirrel]

I respectfully think you have answered your own question. But do not discount the collector who is satisfied with an area of past interest in their collection, and ready to fund a new area of interest by selling.

[gxseries]

I am under the impression that dealers keep in touch with collectors that have a deep passion. From time to time, they might bug collectors to part away with their collection. Afterall, dealers are out there to make money from commission.

 

Another small source of interesting discovery can be coins which may appear in the market out of the blue. Hidden away in the attic, shipwrecks, found under the ground etc. Those can make things very interesting. I believe that there was a small source of high grade Russian coins that was sold recently on sixbid. Doesn't have to be out of an old known collection.

[IMIS]

gxseries,

 

To your point, I have recently acquired a couple of scarce coins in amazing state of preservation, that I was not able to trace back to any known collection, or previous sale. It seems that they literally appeared out of the blue. (Yes, they are authentic.)

[gxseries]

It can happen IMIS - imagine a couple of hundred years ago, someone kept their coins away and handed them down generation after generation. Fair enough, back in those days, coins were worth some decent amount of money and not many would have kept coins as a hobby.

 

I would be more surprised if this kind of tradition never occurred. All you need is just one special coin that never appeared in the public to make it in the news.

[bobh]

Believe it or not, this turned up on eBay several years after being in two of Jim Elmen's auctions:

[IMIS]

gxseries,

 

This is a lovely story and very believable for Western Europe; unfortunately there were too many tragic interruptions in Russian history. Take our family for example, none of the material tokens of the days begone survived. However, by some miracle, a few letters and draft pages form various works by one of our neighbors survived in the family archives. How? Why? I do not know, but they are there and to my knowledge they are not known to scholars. So, miracles are possible!