Monday, August 08, 2011

Opening the Vaults

Well less of a vault and more of a bunch of tin cans.

I had been collecting for years before this blog started. Slowly my unorganized collection grew and in the middle of 2005 I decided I should track my finds so I started blogging and listing them as they came in.

Of course this left all the previous finds, gifts, and purchases just sitting there. Recently I used Numismaster to catalog my coins. I placed at least one of each type and year, ignoring multiples, Canadians, and American coins. For example I have 33 British 1992 ten pence but I just cataloged it as one. This was mostly done because Numismaster does not neatly allow for multiple quantities of the same coin. At the same time I finally separated the coins by country.

There is a third box not pictured. This is during the sorting.
This is how Numismaster appraised my collection:
Calculated collection price: $275.55
View My Full Collection of 1,371 coins
Some problems with this estimation is like most coin pricing guides is that most values under extra-fine are not listed, left blank or with that annoying --. So instead of listing current exchange rate values or metal value they decide to give it a null value. I would estimate I was undervalued by anywhere from $13.00 to $130.00. This is just knowing melt value of a copper cent of most countries is more than a cent, not to mention other metals.

Although not confirmed I am sure that I have about 4,000 foreign coins (non-Canadian, non-American) from 108 countries. 

The Vault
So that brings back me to the reason for this post. I need to start showcasing some of these oldies. As you can tell even though I have twenty pounds of coins, which may seem like a lot, the average value for each coin is between $0.05 and $0.10.

I will begin posting some that I like, then after that I will try to post all of them depending on anything that inspires me that day. I will also continue to post change finds as they come but will skip repeats like the 2010 Canada cent I recently found.

4 dollars worth, for Comments/Questions click here.:

Kelly said...

I do love the leopard print of your vault!

Do you think you will ever (or do you already) put some of your coins in storage so that you can see some of the more intricately designed? In frames, for instance? Just wondering....

Man said...

I do love the leopard print of your vault!
--Thanks, I cannot recall where I got that tin.

Do you think you will ever (or do you already) put some of your coins in storage so that you can see some of the more intricately designed? In frames, for instance?
--Maybe in a coin-safe album but not displayed. Air and light ruins coins plus I'm not much for public displays of collections.

Hunter Krueger said...

That is certainly a plethora of coins you have. I also have a few foreign coins separate from the rest of the bunch but because they are in MS. The only country I have separate from the rest is Germany.

Man said...

I also have a few foreign coins separate from the rest of the bunch but because they are in MS. The only country I have separate from the rest is Germany.

That makes sense. Germany has so many types that I also should separate them even more. I want to buy some holders since I only have 65 but I've been lazy.