Old rare coins

I don't know why people are looking for old rare coins. Those are not for swap... The coin which mintage was 11000, how can one swap that? Ridiculous..

I've swapped, sold and given away coins with mintages as low as 2,000. Just because a coin has a lower mintage, doesn't mean it's hard to get or expensive.

Thats great. But some time some coins are not easy to get..that coin was minted in 1995. When i was 1 year old. Now in 20yrs, 90% of those are in collectors album... And 1 coin price is nearly 150usd. Thats tough for a new collector.

Wow, that is one serious delay in responding!

Finding that rare coin is not just about purchasing it directly. I have found a few high value coins in job lot bulk coins, far exceeding what I paid for them in total.
But it is true that low mintage doesn't always mean high value as Neil said. Remember that a coin is only worth what a collector is willing to pay for it on the open market, hence why prices are reviewed yearly by Krause, to keep up with that change.

When you get a rare coin in your hand you will be elated because you thought it would never happen.

I remember Imreh talking about coin rarity, something about the term "rare" being severely overused. I think he said something isn't really rare unless there are less than 200 pieces known, and I agree with that.

It's easy to get coins with very few known examples, with ancient, medieval, and Islamic being your best bet. My rarest coin is an ancient with 11-50 examples known.

I use the same terminology as CNG, with 1-10 as extremely rare, 11-50 very rare, and 51-100 rare.

Yes, that was in my thread "what is your lowest mintage coin" I tend to disagree. There are many factors that affect rarity, not just the mintage.

• How many have been melted down or lost - I have some Scandinavian coins that have mintages over 1 million but are listed as rare in Krause because most of them were melted down and there are few examples remaining.
  
• How long they circulated - I have one Belgian 2 franc coin that is worth just above melt in VF but around $300 in XF simply because they circulated so much that high grade copies are very hard to find.
  
• How many people actually want the coin - Some of the monstrosities put out by places like Niue and Cook Islands have mintages of only 500-100, but there is such a limited market for them that a lot of the time when they are put up for sale well below catalogue value, they don't sell.
  

Rare coins are usually expensive.
But, sometimes not.
For me, "RARE" is coin which is impossible to find in online shops, ebay, and local shops. even for x10 price.
But, some people like to call expensive coins "RARE". For example, French colonial coins of Djibouti, Comoros, Algeria, etc. They say " RARE coin ! wow" ... But how are they rare, if you can find them in any online French coinshop? You can find them at Ma-shops, ebay, Vcoins, and so and so on.. and they worth $ 250-300 etc..

THEY ARE JUST EXPENSIVE . and, nobody know why they are so expensive if they are exist in any coinshop, but coins, which worth $ 15-20 impossible to find neither in online shops, nor at auctions.

So, mainly, today rarity mostly base on request.

Among several immutable laws of numismatics I've observed over the years......

1. Most dealers have a very flexible view of a coin's rarity and condition which has absolutely nothing to do with the coin itself but everything to do with whether you are buying or selling.

2. "Rare" is the most overused word in numismatics, especially when preceded by such gems as ultra, very or WOW XXX!!!!!.

3. The most underused words are "scarce" and "uncommon".

4. At the current trajectory (according to the Nightingale Research Foundation) by 2018 every coin in the world, no matter if it has mintages in the billions, will be classed as "rare". Scarce coins will have to become MEGA SUPER ULTRA RARE, and a whole new word will be needed for truly rare coins, like "ubersplendicious".

Very fair vision, Phil  ?
I agree with you in the most
Yours,
David

Thanks everyone for your valuable comment. I learned lots from you.

Quote: "Coinkolkata"​I don't know why people are looking for old rare coins. Those are not for swap... The coin which mintage was 11000, how can one swap that? Ridiculous..

​obviously, to get one in exchange that you want more.