Bargain Finds (2017 Edition)

We've had threads like this in the past, but the 2016 one fell off the forum front pages several months ago.

Post your lucky finds, whether it was a purchase for drastically below catalog value, or simply an unexpected country or era found in a bulk lot, etc.

Photos are always appreciated, but don't let the lack of immediate camera access stop you from sharing your best treasure hunt successes!

I'll start things off with my own lucky find. I was at the coin shop yesterday, fishing through their bucket of US junk silver dimes. I am working on a Whitman folder of Mercury dimes acquired at spot price, mainly just for my amusement because I like the design and it's hard to go wrong if you buy at spot. (Well, assuming silver prices don't crash!)

One of the dimes I purchased for $1.25 (slightly below spot, I believe) turned out to be a 1928-D in VF. Mintage was relatively low at 4 million and it has a catalog value of around $20. So I was pretty pleased with that find!

I'll play I just got this lot shipped for melt value. I think that's a pretty good deal!


Matt

Just got these with some yard sale money I made today for 14xFace all silver and lots of harder to find D-S mint marks.



Matt

I picked up the 1975 proof set from Papua New Guinea for the equivalent of US$22

It has a catalogue value of US$75 and a whopping 1.7 troy ounces of silver in it. Including this Monster 10 kina coin. It's bigger than a Morgan Dollar, twice as thick, has a higher silver purity (92.5% sterling silver as opposed to the Morgan's 90%), has a mintage of just 79,000, and this coin alone has a mind boggling 1.2372 Troy ounces of silver.

Here it is pictured next to a Morgan Dollar

Quote: "neilithic"​I picked up the 1975 proof set from Papua New Guinea for the equivalent of US$22
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​It has a catalogue value of US$75 and a whopping 1.7 troy ounces of silver in it. Including this Monster 10 kina coin. It's bigger than a Morgan Dollar, twice as thick, has a higher silver purity (92.5% sterling silver as opposed to the Morgan's 90%), has a mintage of just 79,000, and this coin alone has a mind boggling 1.2372 Troy ounces of silver.
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​WOW!! What action site do you use?

The New Zealand one, http://www.trademe.co.nz

It's like any other coin site, there's a whole lot of overpriced rubbish, but the occasional deal that you have to hope nobody else has spotted. This particular auction the seller didn't say that the coins were silver so I took a punt on it and came up trumps.

Just got a 1925-S US cent in my change for a cup of coffee. Nothing particularly valuable (maybe worth $1) but it's hard to beat a price of $0.01! And I needed this one for my folder, too! It's also the oldest coin I have found in "live" circulation.

I occasionally go to the Izmaylovo Vernisage to check out their "random metal detector find stuff" junk bins - they often have nice Russian Empire copper coins (and sometimes even the occasional silver) for very low prices (though naturally also in very bad condition).

This time, since I arrived very late (half past four in the evening), most of the places where I look for those had already closed down, but I did find a Peter I denga in a 50 ruble bin - apparently this type.
After some cross-checking of online images, I've entered the year as 1705, with a comment along the lines of "not very sure"; this is supposed to be written as ҂АΨЕ, but the last letter on my own coin looks more like F or even P - which apparently is exactly how it's supposed to look on a real 1705 denga (not sure why).

As far as I can recall, this is the first coin in my collection that had a rarity index of 100 before I entered it (97 now, obviously).
To clarify - this excludes coins I added to the catalog (if they counted it would have been the second).

Flea market on this France national day
After a tough negotiation, each coin 0.1€, so 5€ for the total
There are 2 or 3 coins that I don't get so far, and other coins feed my swap list.

at 0.5€ the note, it's a little bit less interesting

Quote: "Frenchlover"​Flea market on this France national day
​After a tough negotiation, each coin 0.1€, so 5€ for the total
​There are 2 or 3 coins that I don't get so far, and other coins feed my swap list.
​

​love the Moroccan and Argentina coins!

Quote: "Frenchlover"​Flea market on this France national day
​After a tough negotiation, each coin 0.1€, so 5€ for the total
​There are 2 or 3 coins that I don't get so far, and other coins feed my swap list.
​
​

Wow, nice job.

Hi everybody, in a lot I found this one (spent about 1,5 € )


https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces16012.html

No chance you got a silver coin

Haven't been collecting for a while, but every now and then I have an urge to look at what's for sale on Trademe and inevitably end up buying something



containing these coins, among others...





(not rare or valuable but I do like it)

(quite nice, I think. Certainly one for the album in any case)

Quote: "Frenchlover"

​I like the 5 Francs World Fisheries Conference coin in the bottom left

Quote: "MihajloNesic"​

Quote: "Frenchlover"
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​​I like the 5 Francs World Fisheries Conference coin in the bottom left

​My favourite too. The fish is a coelacanth, which until 1938, was thought to have been extinct for 66 million years.

not exactly super valuable but I traded my little cousin a normal Australian 50 cent for it (1966 is 40% silver)