Bulk buying

A note about buying bulk lots of coins.

I deal regularly with three suppliers of bulk, modern, foreign coins. The contents of the lots while they vary, show distinct patterns depending upon the supplier.

One supplier includes almost exclusively coins post 1950, no US cents, lots of Belgian 1 Franc and 5 Franc coins of the larger 1970's model, a few pre-decimal UK copper coins.

Another supplier includes lots of later, small size Belgian francs (no early Belgian francs), and includes coins back to the 1920s including Third Reich German coinage, Vichy France coinage, GDR pfennigs. Jersey and Guernsey pre-decimalisation coins, but no pre-decimal UK coins.

The third supplier supplies lots very similar to the second supplier, but with more modern US 1 cents, 10 cents and less Channel island pre-decimal coinage and no German Third Reich coinage, and less early 20th century French coinage.

In all three cases the majority of coins are French Centimes, Spanish Pesetas, Greek Drachmas, Belgian Francs and Portugese Escudos, Austrian 10 Groschen coins, and frequently  with a large quantity also of German pfennigs and either Canadian cents or US cents depending on supplier.

All three supplies quite accurately decsribe their bulk lots as simply "modern foreign coins" and all three extract any silver, I simply wish to point out that bulk lots from different sippliers are not all the same, even though the price may be fairly consistent. It is then worth buying bulk lots from different suppliers to get a better spread of world coinage, if that is what one desires.

Matt

Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate.

If I could add. I sought out and bought what I thought was a private collection of about 3 kilos recently (from someone selling bulk coins on the web) and it worked out because, there was hardly any two coins of the same type. I was able to add Malay Penninsula, Italian states, Portuguese India, and a few other countries to my list. There was even silver coins. An Unc silver 10 kopek of 1881 for example. I paid a bit more than usual, but the pleasure was much greater.

 good one scotty!!!