Post A Low Mintage World Coin

[jackson64]

I picked up this coin last night while perusing ebay..I paid a few bucks above what Krause claims it's value to be--but with a super low mintage of only 381....I may not see one again for years, if ever...

 

Post some of your lower/lowest mintage coins in this thread---it may be interesting to confirm that it is demand that sets a coins' value and not the # that were made...

 

 

1988 Cayman Islands Proof Quater ( with sailing ship-duh)

 

[straits-migration]

yup...seen some of the values in #...

either too high or too low....

 

only use it as a reference to gauge demand....supply does not work so well especially for modern....

 

example:

just seen an india proof coin graded by NGC PF67....listed as rare in #....final bid price? US$200+ only

[ant]

 

first yr mintage. 75000 i believe.

[Yarm]

C. Pye halfpenny. 36 struck.

 

[ant]

(thumbs u

[Conder101]

Warwickshire 31 108 struck. This one isn't mine, mine is a little better struck with the auctioneers head almost fully struck up.

 

[RI AL]

Some nice looking low mintage stuff, guys!! Very interesting.

Here's my contribution: the 6 grouped together have a mintage of 25 each...the 7th has a mintage of 100. These are listed in "Unusual World Coins".

 

RI AL

 

 

[World Colonial]

I picked up this coin last night while perusing ebay..I paid a few bucks above what Krause claims it's value to be--but with a super low mintage of only 381....I may not see one again for years, if ever...

 

Post some of your lower/lowest mintage coins in this thread---it may be interesting to confirm that it is demand that sets a coins' value and not the # that were made...

 

 

1988 Cayman Islands Proof Quater ( with sailing ship-duh)

 

 

Are you sure this coin is hard to find? I know nothing of it but there are many world coins with low mintages that come up for sale regularly if they never were circulating coins.

 

Two examples that immediately come to mind are the 1839 UK proofs and the 1935 New Zealand proofs. I believe that the 1839 had a mintage of 300 except for the 5 Pound gold "Una and the Lion" which had 400. The 1935 NZ set has a reported mintage of 364. Each of these come up for sale at public auction many times a year.

 

Of the coins I collect, there are many South African Union coins which have low or very low mintages but I cannot post a picture because I am clueless and have not figured out how to do it on this site (ouch!). King George V proofs outside the 1923 set have a mintage of 12 to 62. King George VI proofs from 1937-1946 have mintages of 30 to 150. The 1950 set has a mintage of 500.

 

Several KGVI circulating coinage issues from 1947-1950 have mintages less than 5500. And unlike most coins like this, most of them are not in high grade or even available. Their low prices at the time doomed them to the melting pot.

[jackson64]

I guess the answer to your question may be partly demand. I do know that I haven't seen one available in the past 7 years that I've worked on my sailing ship themed collection---and if they are all in the hands of collectors who prize them , then they are going to be very hard to find---if some are sitting in jewelry boxes of non-collectors then they may have a few pop up from time to time.....

 

My experience has shown that the Maritime Theme in Numismatic Collecting is quite popular...and bidding gets quite competetive for some of the more obscure coins...

[World Colonial]

I believe you are correct and I was not trying to single your coin out. The point I was trying to make is that there are many equally scarce coins but some seem to be far more available than others.

 

For the NZ and UK coins I mentioned, those are popular but they are not cheap and as a guess, there are possibly still enough buyers who have been liquidating them for more money as prices have risen.

 

On the South Africa coins I collect, I own few of the proofs I listed mainly because I cannot afford them but secondly because they mostly come up for sale in sets and because they sell infrequently or not at all. If the coins were sold as singles more often, then I could buy more. This is for the KGV.

 

The KGVI are actually the opposite. I used to see them for sale more often before even though they were cheap. I have about 10 of these coins but should have bought more of the others. Now I see them far more irregularly and it is primarily from one source.

[jackson64]

I had not assumed that you meant offense and none was taken...your point was also well taken--I have a few coins in my set that I was excited as hell to find, only to find a year or two later a small hoard has hit the market and my prize has become common...

 

any of us would be foolish to equate mintage with value..but mintage can be a very large factor in scarcity/rarity in relation to demand...

 

 

I just started the thread to stir up some action here in the world coin sector and give those of us on this side a chance to show off some of our coins....I hope you get the posting picture thing down so you can share some pics of your KGVI's with us...

[World Colonial]

Here is a list of the scarcer South Africa proofs I own. I only have a few pictures and all of them are on my other computer.

 

1931 Six Pence NGC PR-66, mintage 62

1934 Six Pence PCGS PR-66, mintage 24

1934 Half Penny PCGS PR-66BN, mintage 24

1936 2 1/2 Shillings NCS (gem proof with a light wipe mark), mintage 40

1937 3 Pence ANACS PR-64, mintage 116 (At NGC for cross-over)

1937 Six Pence NGC PR-64, mintage 116

1938 2 1/2 Shillings NGC PR-64, mintage 44

1944 2 1/2 Shillings PCGS PR-64, mintage 150

1944 2 Shillings ANACS PR-64, mintage 150 (At NGC for cross-over)

1944 Shilling PCGS PR-66, mintage 150

1944 Six Pence NGC PR-65, mintage 150

1944 3 Pence NGC PR-66, mintage 150

1945 2 1/2 Shillings PCGS PR-65, mintage 150

1946 2 1/2 Shillings NGC PR-64, mintage 150

1946 3 Pence NGC PR-65, mintage 150

 

I also have the 1950 farthing, half penny, penny, 3 pence, six pence (2) and shilling from NGC PR-64 to NGC PR-66. The copper is red. The mintage for these is 500.

[straits-migration]

wow

[World Colonial]

Thanks, but these are not the hardest or scarcest coins from South Africa to find, even from the Union (1923-1960) series. Not by a long shot.

 

From the proofs, the scarcest are the 1925 three pence and six Pence and the 1928 Sovereign with one each. Excluding these, it is the 1926, 1930, 1932, 1933 and 1939 sets with reported mintages of 16, 14, 12, 20 and 30. But the actual availability seems to differ from the mintages. Of these, I've seen a few of the 1932's (once) plus one full set for the 1930 ($50,000 earlier this year), 1933 ($25,000 last year) and the 1939. A 1926 farthing (red which is almost never found) sold for $23,000.

 

Of the business strikes, there are the "impossible eight" as I like to call them. The 1933, 1934 and 1936 farthings and the 1931 three pence, six pence, shilling, two shillings and 2 1/2 shillings. The farthings had mintages of less than 50 (the 1936 is reportedly three). The three pence has a mintage of 128. The 1931 2 shillings is 383 and the 2 1/2 shillings is 791. The six pence is about 4800 and the shillling is about 6600. I have seen two 2 1/2 shillings for sale (both in low grade) but that is it.

 

Unlike many other coins from other countries, many of these circulated extensively. I recently asked a prominent dealer in South Africa if they could find any of the 1931 coins in uncirculated or any higher grade. I asked because I consider the catalog prices absurdly low and would buy as many as anyone would sell me at the listed prices if they were available.

 

Their response? In 40 years, they had only handled one six pence and one shilling (both uncirculated), both in the early 1980's. They had never seen (or at least owned) the others. They must exist somewhere, but maybe in the South Africa Mint and ABSA museums plus maybe a handful of world class collections that never sell them.

 

 

[Tbirde56]

[RI AL]

Hi, Guys.

 

Here is a set from China that has a low mintage...sort of. The silver coins had a maximum mintage of 36,000 and the gold coins, 16,000. I don't know how many of those numbers are included in the actual boxed set. Sorry that the photography is so crappy...this is my first attempt at actually photographing coins rather than putting them on my scanner. I think I have some "refinement work" to do...or maybe a better set up. RI AL

 

 

[RareSov]

My 1885M Half Sov qualifies I hope only around 11,000 minted, with an estimated population now of around 500.

 

Of those around 350 are in only FINE condition or worse (Aussie grading, say VF30)

 

Mine's VF, XF40

 

[RI AL]

Handsome looking 1/2 sovereign there, Raresov!!

 

RI AL

[RI AL]

Rare sov...where do you find information on the estimated remaining numbers of coins as you mentioned with your half sovereign?

 

RI AL

[rbrown4]

Rare Sov,

 

Nice looking coin, I am still trying to find time to dig up some low mintage coins to post on here.

 

Rey

[BioProf]

Hi Folks,

 

I'm new here. I just getting into the game of finding and trying to conserve coins. I metal detect in the US, UK, and the Netherlands. I got lucky this year and found a low mintage coin. It's silver so it stands up pretty well. I am having this one conserved and we will see what they can do and what the grade will be.

 

The coin is a Willem I - Self-Declared King of the Netherlands - 1819 Silver 5 cents piece. He only lasted about 5 years so his coins are very collectible as a set. For some reason, the mintage for 1819 was only 3000 coins.

 

I'll just have to wait on the conservation and grading to see how high I will get to jump.

 

Daryl

 

[jackson64]

I wish I could find some nice 200 year old silver coins lying about...nice find Fisher and welcome