"Junk Box" Finds July-September 2018

On other strings, members have said that there is nothing to find in junk boxes--I doubt that.
In this string, please add your best junk box finds from July through September. (Also indicate the price per item from your junk box, and whether you got a discount from the marked price.)
I raided some interesting junk boxes today; I will report my best ones after I sort through them.

1691 England 4 Pence - William and Mary

Found in a 10€ silver junk box, got for 9€. I reported this in the Additions to your collection threads as well, and I'm still super stoked about it. Shame it's so worn and a bit bent, but it's still worth at least five times what I bought it for.

I went to a coin shop in the northern Texas area, which I had never visited in the past. I picked out 155 coins from the box, and paid a total of $15.50 (no further discount). These were the best finds:

USA Large Cent (low grade, with a smooth reverse) type of 1793-96 (probably 1795, but I need to spend some time with "Penny Whimsy")
Connecticut copper 1787
France 5 francs 1945 C (aluminum-bronze, for colonial use)
Mexico 20 centavos 1935 (bronze)
Japan 500 yen coins, years 58 and 12
Switzerland 5 francs 1984
Switzerland 2 francs 1973 and 1979
Hong Kong $10 1994
Australia $2 2010

(There was no silver in the 10 cent box.)

Quote: "halfdisme"​On other strings, members have said that there is nothing to find in junk boxes--I doubt that.

​Whoever said that has probably never bothered to dig through a junk bin in the past before.

Some of my best finds have been in junk bins, and while you probably won't find a Gothic Crown in there, if you know what to look for you can get some pretty good finds. Spending an afternoon getting your hands dirty in a box is still enjoyable after 7 years of collecting!

Jealous of the William and Mary coin, still don't own one. Waiting for a decent farthing to come up for a good price. The tin ones always go for hundreds.

I got a holed, worn and battered Madeira Islands 20 Reis once for £0.5. Very rarely see Madeira coins for sale, so regardless of condition i think its a good deal. I spent most my childhood summers there so it also has sentimental value :)

Going to a show on Tuesday, ill let you know if i find anything new :)

@WHATEVERR
I know what you're talking about; I have a worn copper W&M farthing I got for 2€, but tin is a whole other story.

I thought that I had seen a William and Mary recently (a 2 pence):

http://www.elfreeman2.com/13/5a392o.jpg

http://www.elfreeman2.com/13/5a392r.jpg

The wording is garbled because it was struck with clashed dies.

Went to a flea market, found these nice coins:

Quote: "CassTaylor"​Went to a flea market, found these nice coins:
​

​The Philippines quarto is definitely the best of that group. Good find!

Quote: "halfdisme"​

Quote: "CassTaylor"​Went to a flea market, found these nice coins:
​​

​​The Philippines quarto is definitely the best of that group. Good find!

​Thanks, I actually thought it was either the nice red Edward VIII New Guinea penny, or the silver Ceylon 50 cents, but the Quarto is indeed the coin I've been most excited about finding. I remember someone posted here a while back about them being subcontracted out to Chinese mints who did a shoddy job of making them; that seems to have been confirmed to me, what with the retrograde/incomplete letters, and the "lions" in the CoA.


Closeups of the 1830 Philippines Quarto; some letters are mirrored (retrograde), others are incomplete, and some are straight up wrong or missing.

Being successful at pulling junk box finds requires:
One part luck;
One part knowing what you have found, or knowing that you have not found one before; and
One part being willing and able to take advantage of an opportunity when it arises.

I saw a 1/10th ounce platinum coin at a Chicago flea market for what I thought was a bargain price, but did not buy it. The next week, it was marked $100 higher! (It was not a true "junk box" find, just a bargain.)

It might not win a beauty contest, but it is what it is (Connecticut copper, draped bust facing left, 1787):

http://www.elfreeman2.com/t18/477bo.jpg

http://www.elfreeman2.com/t18/477br.jpg

Quote: "halfdisme"​Being successful at pulling junk box finds requires:
​One part luck;
​One part knowing what you have found, or knowing that you have not found one before; and
​One part being willing and able to take advantage of an opportunity when it arises.

​I'd say personally it's more a combination of the first two points, 50/50 (depending on where/who you are).

The third point isn't so hard to overcome if one finds a 50€ coin in a 10€> bin, or a mis-priced tag, and probably even the biggest virtue signalling hypocrite around has gotten away with paying a fraction of what a nice coin's really worth. Dealers, do your homework.

@halfdisme
Are those US colonial coppers common in low grades, or scarce in any condition? I fancy one for my own collection.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​@halfdisme
​Are those US colonial coppers common in low grades, or scarce in any condition? I fancy one for my own collection.

​I would not say they are common. I have run into a few of them over the years--especially Connecticut. Sometimes the Connecticuts were marked as British coins.

(There are some Colonial coins for which the highest grade known is About Good.)

The 1767 French sou coppers (with or without the RF counterstamp) used to turn up occasionally marked as French Caribbean coins, but most people now know that they are listed in the Redbook.

Send me a message if you are interested; I will see what I have as extras.

Thanks, for the offer, I might just take it up when I start swapping!

I'm never sure whether to post my junk box finds here or on the "Additions to your collection" thread, but here's a nice red 5 centimes Dupuis from 1900 already posted there, the year of Paris' 5th Exposition Universelle in 100 years.


My favourite non-silver French design hands down.

I was not aware of the other thread, when I started this one; however, I intended this one to focus on what could be found in low-priced "junk boxes".

As Cass said about "Dealer, do you homework", I admit that I have a double standard. If someone (collector or dealer) asks me what a coin is worth, I will give a true answer. But if a dealer has a price written on a holder, or the box, or quotes a price on a coin, I have no duty to tell him that he has underpriced it.

If the dealer has made a business decision NOT to spend the time to research the value of his inventory, that is his choice. It should be a fair assumption that his price is higher than his cost.

Early on, I did sometimes politely tell dealers when they had something underpriced. The rude comments that I got in response ended that "duty".

Quote: "halfdisme"​Early on, I did sometimes politely tell dealers when they had something underpriced. The rude comments that I got in response ended that "duty".
​
​

​I think you ran into someone in dire need of ego-busting there. If I had a 200€ coin for sale priced at 20€, and someone took the time out of their day to tell me the true value of my coin, I would graciously thank them and correct the price ASAP, not double down and insist I'm right and they're fake news. That's especially if they're nice enough to not take advantage of my ignorance. Surprised anyone would do that.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​

Quote: "halfdisme"​​Early on, I did sometimes politely tell dealers when they had something underpriced. The rude comments that I got in response ended that "duty".
​​
​​

​​I think you ran into someone in dire need of ego-busting there. If I had a 200€ coin for sale priced at 20€, and someone took the time out of their day to tell me the true value of my coin, I would graciously thank them and correct the price ASAP, not double down and insist I'm right and they're fake news. That's especially if they're nice enough to not take advantage of my ignorance. Surprised anyone would do that.
​
​

​It actually happened about three times. One, in particular, had a German 5 mark coin in a ten cent box.

I went back to the 10 cent junk boxes I went through last week, and only found about 30 more to acquire. The best coins were:

Norway 2 ore (iron) 1919
Sweden 2 ore (iron) 1917
Germany (Weissenfels) 50 pfennig 1919
Hong Kong $10
Argentina 20 centavos 1949 with a strong doubled die obverse
2 George III half pennies in dismal grade--probably "Bungtown Tokens" or contemporary counterfeits.

I'll be going through a few junk boxes later today; will update as to what I find!

Quote: "CassTaylor"​I'll be going through a few junk boxes later today; will update as to what I find!

​
If I have anything left after lunch I might go back for an afternoon round, but for now, this is what I got today from the boxes. The silver sixpence is my highlight, and the Panama 5 centesimos too, as well as an Italian 25 centesimi I've posted on the regular monthly acquisitions thread.

Cass, do the French monnaies de necessite coins show up in your area junk boxes? (I assume Provencale is common there, as it is here.)

What about the related paper money and encased postage?

Quote: "halfdisme"​Cass, do the French monnaies de necessite coins show up in your area junk boxes? (I assume Provencale is common there, as it is here.)
​
​What about the related paper money and encased postage?

By that I assume you mean all the coins in "French Notgeld", yes? The answer is honestly yes, but not as much as, for example, "regular" coinage. In fact I've seen similar amounts of French (and sometimes German) notgeld in the inventory of flea market sellers in Spain and Italy (Barcelona and Milan) as I do Spanish stamp coins (the ones from the Civil War) in the former.

I'm not the best person to ask this question though, since I rarely actually look out for them. I'm sure if I did I'd have more encounters.

The more unusual countries from the batch I got from a dealers 'Bargain' tray this weekend




Burundi. Georgia
San Marino, Vietnam, DR Congo

Gordon

here are some South American pieces from a junk silver tray i got today. I spent US$25 for all this -

I had not seen a 1/4 bolivar before. Struck in Philadelphia, as was the 1936 1 Bolivar.

Quote: "halfdisme"​I went to a coin shop in the northern Texas area, which I had never visited in the past. I picked out 155 coins from the box, and paid a total of $15.50 (no further discount). These were the best finds:
​
​USA Large Cent (low grade, with a smooth reverse) type of 1793-96 (probably 1795, but I need to spend some time with "Penny Whimsy")

​The weight (9.9 grams) indicates that it is the thin planchet, minted only in 1795 and 1796--most probably 1795. It will not win a beauty contest, but it is what it is:

http://www.elfreeman2.com/t18/477ao.jpg

http://www.elfreeman2.com/t18/477ar.jpg

Today I found a silver 1905 Dutch 25 cents in a junk box for 3€, alongside some Vietnamese cash coins. I'll get some photos of each up later.

Don't have pics but I purchased a bulk lot of coins from a "flea market" (or carboot sale for us Brits) and got way more than I was expecting. The "good" stuff was as follows.
1839 Isle of Man farthing
1813 "Commerce" Marquis Wellington halfpenny token.
1795 Sir George Jackson Stort Navigation token (yes really! NR 93!)
TWO 1790 Prince of Wales SIT LUX, ET LUX, FUIT tokens
1799 Penny
1773 Halfpenny
1843 Half-Farthing
1805 Hibernia Ireland Half Penny
1966 silver 1 Rand
Not bad for £25 eh?
And many other more worn bronze/copper old stuff too.
If anyone is interested in any of those let me know.

@Ash
Not bad indeed! That Isle of Man farthing sounds particularly appealing to me, as does the silver rand.
Did you mean a halfpenny for 1799 though?

Perhaps we could abolish the "July to September" part of the title? On the French forum there is a thread about flea market finds that is older than my account (started 2014) and now has over 300 posts.

Anyway, I want to show off my little find:

1831 W France 1 Franc - Louis-Philippe I (bare head)

This coin was actually found a few years ago in the UK, but I only had it evaluated on the French side today; Le Franc lists this coin in this condition (at least VF+ I'd say) at 280 euro. Not bad for a junk box find that I paid £10 for, not bad at all! The UK dealer I got this from knew (probably) next to nothing about French coins, and I confess I did not either until about a year ago. But I didn't know I'd gotten such a nice price until today!

Silver denominations of French franc coins (other than the relatively more common 5 Franc types) from the Revolution up until the laureled bust of Napoleon III, tend to be quite scarce and expensive in France, and it is usually by luck only that even a worn type is found for a low price (which for me is less than 30€).

Goes to show that more expensive coins can be found cheaper outside than inside their country of origin!

Quote: "CassTaylor"​Perhaps we could abolish the "July to September" part of the title? On the French forum there is a thread about flea market finds that is older than my account (started 2014) and now has over 300 posts.
​

​My thought was to limit this to one quarter year, so that the "finds" would be recent, and the chain would not get to be unwieldly (hundreds of posts).

Either way is fine with me. I bow to the wishes of the community.

Well if Cass pulls out the "over a year" card...
I can include this!!!
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4898.html
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/italy-2-lire-km-33-1901-1907-cuid-1201466-duid-1471401
1904 2 Lire

This one:
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic54037.html
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/italy-lira-km-a5-1861-cuid-1124255-duid-1478702

And this one:
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic58011.html
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/germany-empire-mark-km-14-1891-1916-cuid-1130964-duid-1313174

@loruca
These 1 and 2 lire of Victor Emmanuel III (with the eagle) remain missing from my Italian type collection; any idea of how common/scarce they are compared with the other silver LMU lire types?

Their Numista pages call the eagle "Araldic", although I can't find that term anywhere else; maybe it is a misspellig of "heraldic"?

Quote: "CassTaylor"​@loruca
​These 1 and 2 lire of Victor Emmanuel III (with the eagle) remain missing from my Italian type collection; any idea of how common/scarce they are compared with the other silver LMU lire types?
​
​Their Numista pages call the eagle "Araldic", although I can't find that term anywhere else; maybe it is a misspellig of "heraldic"?

​You can get 1 lira for 10€ in VF and 2 lira for around 50-70€ in VF or so. They are not really scarce.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​@loruca
​These 1 and 2 lire of Victor Emmanuel III (with the eagle) remain missing from my Italian type collection; any idea of how common/scarce they are compared with the other silver LMU lire types?
​
​Their Numista pages call the eagle "Araldic", although I can't find that term anywhere else; maybe it is a misspellig of "heraldic"?

​Yes, you've got it on the misspelling. While the 1 liras are common except for the 1905 and should be bought around 15 dollars, the 2 liras are rare-ish, with some dates, including my 1904 selling for a pretty penny, others though like the 1907 are more common and can be found for 70 or so dollars.

Thanks you two!

The irony is that I misspelt the word "misspelling" there.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​Thanks you two!
​
​The irony is that I misspelt the word "misspelling" there.

​

I posted this coin on the September additions to your collection thread as well, but I wanted to focus in on this one here; found in a junk bin for 2€.

It's a groschen from Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, which is a new issuer for me as well; but it's dated 1857, which seems to be the lowest mintage date of this type by far, with only some 38 thousand pieces made. Not too much more valuable than the other common dates according to NGC though:

https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/german-states-brunswick-wolfenb%C3%BCttel-groschen-km-1150-1857-1860-cuid-1139043-duid-1364902

I drove to the coin show in Jacksonville, Arkansas, this weekend, and visited 3 coin shops en route. The 20 cent junk box led to 163 purchases, including the following:

USA 5 cents 1883 with Cents (holed)

Philippines (Culion Leper Colony) 20 centavos 1922
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21626.html

Yemen (Ghurfah) 30 khumsi AH 1344 (1926)
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces55667.html

West Germany 2 mark 1951 D
Mexico 20 Neuvos Pesos 1993 (0.250 ASW)
Portugal 5 escudos 1960 Prince Henry the Navigator (0.180 ASW)
Switzerland 5 francs 1968
Malaya & British Borneo 50 cents 1961
Japan 5 sen Year 29 (1896)
North Viet Nam 2 dong 1946
Italy 10 centesimi 1911
Japan 100 yen Year 41 (1966) (0.0926 ASW)
Netherlands 25 cent 1944 P (acorn) (0.0736 ASW)
Sarawak 1 cent 1929, 1937
Italy (Naples) 2 tornesi 1859
Russia 2 kopeks 1863 EM
Romania 50 bani 1956

There were also Japan 100 yen, German 1 mark, a Spain 1 euro, etc., plus a large number of British West Africa 1/10 penny coins from 1920-1954.

Got an 1875H Canada quarter (listed as 400 in VG) for 2$ out of a junk silver box

Thought I'd restart the post; just this afternoon, I found this bent, damaged 1826 (or 1828?) A 1/2 franc of Charles X in a junk box for less than 5 euro:

Quote: "halfdisme"​I drove to the coin show in Jacksonville, Arkansas, this weekend, and visited 3 coin shops en route. The 20 cent junk box led to 163 purchases, including the following:
​
​USA 5 cents 1883 with Cents (holed)
​
​Philippines (Culion Leper Colony) 20 centavos 1922
​https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21626.html
​
​Yemen (Ghurfah) 30 khumsi AH 1344 (1926)
​https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces55667.html

​

​One of the coins purchased during that trip turned out to be more unusual than first noticed. A Mexican 20 centavos 1970 had two errors:

1. The coin has a small clip at the edge, visible from both sides; and
2. The coin's planchet has separated on the reverse (probably a lamination error, although it could be rolled in metal), resulting in a piece of the planchet sticking up above the rest of the reverse (see ME of MEXICANOS).

http://www.elfreeman2.com/t18/18t5778r.jpg

http://www.elfreeman2.com/t18/18t5778o.jpg