If you had 1 million € only to spend on coins/banknotes

I already did a topic like this (about a year ago). This has the same idea, but with a 10 times larger amount of money. Dreaming is allowed. Prices not have to be 100% accurate. Still would be nicer if the prices were realistic. No debating allowed.

What would you buy, if you got 1M€ to spend only on coins/banknotes?

See sites for example coinarchive, if you are going to search for expensive ones sold in auctions.

I would...
Buy a Swedish 8 Daler plate money (~18000€)
Then to use the 2000€, I would buy a Finnish 2 Penniä 1866 Pattern coin.
Then a Finnish 10 Rouble banknote 1806- about 1500€ and a better condition 75 kopek from the 1810s for 500€.
Then maybe a Turku 16 öre 1556 for about 23000€
Then I would spend 5000€ on world gold coins from the late 19th century.
50000€ spent!
I would also try to buy a Finnish pattern coin from 1863. About 200000€ I guess.
1/4 Spent
A early chinese ming dynasty 400 Cash from the 14th century, 50000€.
12 Rouble platinum coin, 100000€.
Then possibly I would buy cheaper patterns and other rarer and "not so rare" coins for most of money left (~400000€)
Then, the rare first Australian 10 shilling note for about 190000€.
Last I would buy a few rare Finnish banknotes from 1860, and other Finnish banknotes for 10000€.

What would you buy?

Dreaming is nice indeed, but it will not bring you anything....so it is really a wast of time...

Hmm.

I'd probably use the money to buy examples of the rarer French issues to fill in my post-1795 type set; such as:

the 1878/89 20 centimes,
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1147.html

the 1929-36 100 Francs gold,
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8038.html

all the 1815 Napoleon Hundred Days issues,
and of course the gold coins; all issues of the 20, 50 and 100 Franc coins.

After that, I'd probably work on my 1861-1946 Italian type set. Italy under the Fascist era had tons of commemoratives with total mintage numbers being around 10,000 (or even lower) only; such as:

the 20 Lire 1936-40
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21257.html

the 50 Lires 1931-36:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21255.html

The 100 Lire 1925:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21254.html

and a few more, like the 1911 5 and 50 Lires, the Prova 1914 5 Lire, and the 50 ct. of Umberto I

I'll probably spend what's left at this point on assorted German thalers/ 5 Mark coins and Swiss shooting thalers; ever since I got my first I've been hooked on them!

Ok, I also dream sometimes;

The 15 rupie gold coins from German East Africa (both types, once money is not an issue:)
The coins from Mombasa, which I do not have yet.
5 pounds 1966 Rhodesia
Burgers Pound South-Africa
and different other old SA, like those Criqua-town coins
This Queen-something Madagascar from 18..
Different of the early Angola-coins, like this 12 macuta
The first Lesotho gold pieces
Some Belgian-Congo coins like the 5 franc 1887
and offcourse the British West Africa 1shilling 1920G + 6D 1952 and some more BWA
And so many more...this is just a randomlist what came to my mind just now.
Now dreaming time is over for today...
Sorry I do not know how to make a link, otherwise I would have done that to show
those coins in the catalogue.
Yvon

Quote: "yvon"​Sorry I do not know how to make a link, otherwise I would have done that to show
​ those coins in the catalogue.
​Yvon

Go to the page to be linked, right-click on the web address, then above the
reply box the seventh icon (shown below) is for links, then click on it and paste your link.
Like this > https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces38129.html 5 pounds 1966 Rhodesia

Quote: "ZacUK"​

Quote: "yvon"​​Sorry I do not know how to make a link, otherwise I would have done that to show
​​ those coins in the catalogue.
​​Yvon

​
​Go to the page to be linked, right-click on the web address, then above the
​reply box the seventh icon (shown below) is for links, then click on it and paste your link.
​ Like this > https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces38129.html 5 pounds 1966 Rhodesia
​

​I'm not sure if it's just my browser but I can just copy and paste an address into the text field and it shows up as a clickable link in the post.

a million is too much. I would lose interest in coin collecting long before the million was gone.

or maybe i could buy a million dollars worth of unsorted junk world coins, maybe 1 tonne of it, and spend the rest of my days sorting though it.

Quote: "Mr. Midnight"​a million is too much. I would lose interest in coin collecting long before the million was gone.
​
​or maybe i could buy a million dollars worth of unsorted junk world coins, maybe 1 tonne of it, and spend the rest of my days sorting though it.
​

​You wouldn't need a million for that. Someone had a tonne of NZ, AUS and UK pennies for sale on our local auction site over here a month or so ago and it was only NZ$12,000 which is about 7,000 Euro

1 million may seem like a lot but it wouldn't go that far if you're buying top end coins. If all else fails you could get a bullion hoard and just spend it all on gold coins.

Quote: "ZacUK"​

Quote: "yvon"​​Sorry I do not know how to make a link, otherwise I would have done that to show
​​ those coins in the catalogue.
​​Yvon

​
​Go to the page to be linked, right-click on the web address, then above the
​reply box the seventh icon (shown below) is for links, then click on it and paste your link.
​ Like this > https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces38129.html 5 pounds 1966 Rhodesia
​

​Thank you very much for your reply and explanation, but I can not get it done, still. It is definitly my stupidity on computers, actually it is allready a miracle to me to write some thing here and somebody else can read it, on a big distance

Quote: "Mr. Midnight"​a million is too much. I would lose interest in coin collecting long before the million was gone.
​

​

​I was also thinking that. It's not fun when you can get everything you want.

Nonetheless, if I had one million to spend in coins, I'd spent it chasing rare top quality coins from the low countries (gold, silver and copper). That would be really funny.
At first I thought a whole type-set from Belgium 1831-current but it's to easy when you have the money, 99% of the coins are easily findable in high quality.
I think it would cost 150,000-200,000€ to get one type of each in XF (not by years). With these two coins worth half the amount :
https://www.ibelgica.be/catalogue/Belgium-1831-2001/1/category/1688/100-Francs/169
https://www.ibelgica.be/catalogue/Belgium-1831-2001/1/category/1688/100-Frank/170

Quote: "Choucas"​

Quote: "Mr. Midnight"​a million is too much. I would lose interest in coin collecting long before the million was gone.
​​
​
​​

​​I was also thinking that. It's not fun when you can get everything you want.
​
​Nonetheless, if I had one million to spend in coins, I'd spent it chasing rare top quality coins from the low countries (gold, silver and copper). That would be really funny.
​At first I thought a whole type-set from Belgium 1831-current but it's to easy when you have the money, 99% of the coins are easily findable in high quality.
​I think it would cost 150,000-200,000€ to get one type of each in XF (not by years). With these two coins worth half the amount :
​https://www.ibelgica.be/catalogue/Belgium-1831-2001/1/category/1688/100-Francs/169
​https://www.ibelgica.be/catalogue/Belgium-1831-2001/1/category/1688/100-Frank/170

​I was actually thinking you would go after the Austrian Netherlands Escalin coins, and also the 1790 Brabant Revolution coinage!

Belgium is one of the LMU countries I've been neglecting recently; I've focused too much on type collecting from Spain and Italy instead. I remember last time I was in Paris, I saw an affordable example of this coin in a shop window. I kept meaning to go back and buy it, but it's probably gone by now.

I would go after it also of course. But there's not 1 million to spend in it. Maybe 10,000 for an insurrection set (including the gold one). Maybe 1,200 more for an austrian netherlands escalin set (including the rare 1749 1st type). Then there are the spanish escalins... (not one in my collection yet....)
When I say "low countries" in english, I'm broadly using that term to describe everything struck in Belgium's current territory before 1831, even if it's not actually accurate. In french, auction houses usually use the term "Pays-bas méridoniaux".

Quote: "CassTaylor"​​​I'm not sure if it's just my browser but I can just copy and paste an address into the text field and it shows up as a clickable link in the post.

Yes, sometimes it works, but long addresses with weird characters are best to use the link symbol - I have had to amend a few forum posts which have incomplete non-working links due to just pasting as text. Such as ...
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic72793.html
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic71874.html
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic71617.html
and so on ...

If i was given a million euros to spend on coins, i'd try not to be greedy all at once and accept that i had the ability to buy.. what i want (almost)
A bit like waiting for payday and then going to a burger restaurant and ordering more than you can fit into your stomach.. but on a greater scale haha.
Anyway, i'd spend it on filling up my timeline.
After years of collecting i'm concentrating on the throne of England/Great Britain (including Scotland) from 827 to 1951.
So i would be spending it on Cromwell coins, Edward V, Richard III and Mary to name a few.
A nice Lady Jane Grey forgery from E. Emery ca. 1840 to give me a big smile (won't cost a million but at least i'd be able to buy it )
If there was anything left over i would then try my luck at buying someones 1933 Penny.

It might be fun to try and corner the market on one particular coin, hold on to them for a few years and see how much you can artificially push up the price.

Don't forget to spend some of the million on a ultra-high security vault to keep your 200000€ coin in! Probably a three ring binder on the bookshelf isn't going to cut it anymore.

Coins need a house - I would buy one!

I was browsing Ebay today, and I should have added this to my dream list:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/1810-ISLE-DE-FRANCE-REUNION-ISLANDS-NAPOLEON-SILVER-10-LIVRES-PCGS-XF-45-L-K/322118180484?_trksid=p5411.c100170.m2943&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140616153347%26meid%3D27f90abb13db4ed39560383bfc3c7366%26pid%3D100170%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D302009070012

While I wouldn't complain about being given such a budget it would in large part destroy a lot of the incentive and challenge. To reduce the question to a more imaginable scale, how enjoyable would coin collecting be if you could walk into WalMart (shudder) and buy a complete album set of every coin ever minted for $100? Game over man, problem solved. It would have as much interest as a completed crossword.

I prefer the challenge of building a top tier collection on the back of my own merits as a hopefully wise and experienced collector. It's about the hunt, not the venison. Queen Elizabeth has a far better collection of coins, stamps and banknotes than anything I could put together in ten lifetimes. But when do you think she last looked at them? Could she tell you anything about them? I'm much happier haggling with a sweaty, unpleasant goblin at the fleamarket for the right coin that having one presented to me on a velvet cushion by some simpering, perfumed sycophant.

An honorable exception must be made for Italy's King Victor Emmanuel who was a genuine numismatist. I'd very much like to be reincarnated as him.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​I was browsing Ebay today, and I should have added this to my dream list:
​https://www.ebay.fr/itm/1810-ISLE-DE-FRANCE-REUNION-ISLANDS-NAPOLEON-SILVER-10-LIVRES-PCGS-XF-45-L-K/322118180484?_trksid=p5411.c100170.m2943&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140616153347%26meid%3D27f90abb13db4ed39560383bfc3c7366%26pid%3D100170%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D302009070012
​
​

​I forgot to mention this one on my list

Quote: "yvon"​

Quote: "CassTaylor"​I was browsing Ebay today, and I should have added this to my dream list:
​​https://www.ebay.fr/itm/1810-ISLE-DE-FRANCE-REUNION-ISLANDS-NAPOLEON-SILVER-10-LIVRES-PCGS-XF-45-L-K/322118180484?_trksid=p5411.c100170.m2943&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140616153347%26meid%3D27f90abb13db4ed39560383bfc3c7366%26pid%3D100170%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D302009070012
​​
​​

​​I forgot to mention this one on my list

​You've got some pretty nice stuff on your list I'd fancy too, like the Congo Free State 5 Francs, and the German East Africa 15 Rupien gold coins.

For Madagascar, Queen Ranavalona III's coins were only ever minted in copper & aluminium as patterns in 1883:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces79827.html
But I'd love those too!


It's nice to dream once in a while.

Quote: "CassTaylor"​

Quote: "yvon"​
​

Quote: "CassTaylor"​I was browsing Ebay today, and I should have added this to my dream list:
​​​https://www.ebay.fr/itm/1810-ISLE-DE-FRANCE-REUNION-ISLANDS-NAPOLEON-SILVER-10-LIVRES-PCGS-XF-45-L-K/322118180484?_trksid=p5411.c100170.m2943&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140616153347%26meid%3D27f90abb13db4ed39560383bfc3c7366%26pid%3D100170%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D302009070012
​​​
​​​

​​​I forgot to mention this one on my list

​​You've got some pretty nice stuff on your list I'd fancy too, like the Congo Free State 5 Francs, and the German East Africa 15 Rupien gold coins.
​
​For Madagascar, Queen Ranavalona III's coins were only ever minted in copper & aluminium as patterns in 1883:
​https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces79827.html
​But I'd love those too!
​
​
​It's nice to dream once in a while.
​
​
​

​...maybe, one day....