Anyone know why Fijian coins are valued so low?

I have quite an extensive collection of Fijian coins and a lot of the pre-decimal coins, especially the florins and shillings, have mintages of less than 100,000.  Some of them are even as low as 20,000 and yet their catalogue value is usually only a couple of dollars.

Thank you.

I noticed that too. I have a 20 Cent from Fiji, 1977, BU, lowest mintage of its type. It's not even worth more than a dollar.

Maybe they're just too readily accessible. Online though, they always sell high.

I suppose it is the fact that they are not minted in Fiji. Thus almost nullifying them as anything ultimately rare. In a sense it is very much like the £1 (Capital Cities Series) low mintage at 250,000 but yet "easily" accessible or attainable.
Still, in time the value will go up...slowly...still I like the colony coins and they are a nice thing to have in any collection.

All we need to do to make our collections valuable is spike world interest in coin collecting, Fiji coins are rair and when people want them they have to pay more.

I think the 1945 coins especially are pretty hard to get because one of the ships carying them was torpedoed

yes ,i think you right about that ,a lot ships were torpedoed during  w.w. 2 like the hong kong coins during the beginning of the war  

If You are trying to buy high grade Fijian coins, graded by PCGS or others, You'll find they are not that cheap at all.

yes any thing graded by pcgs or others all tend to be on the high side, an british empire to numista  

I don't worry too much about buying the really high grade coins.  I prefer my coins to have a bit of history behind them, but most of my coins would grade around the very fine range.  I was just a bit puzzled because I'm from New Zealand and one of our coins the 1935 threepenny coin had a mintage of 40,000 and sells for around $200 New Zealand dollars in a decent grade.  Yet my 1937 fiji florin which has a mintage of only 20,000 catalogues at $12-$20 US for VF-XF grade.  It's not until you get an uncirculated copy that the price jumps up to over $150 US

I don't know the answer to your question  for sure, but price is influenced by demand. Maybe the lower population of Fiji compared to New Zealand makes for fewer collectors.
 I imagine most of a country's coins that are collected by people within the borders, so if there are few collectors then the price will be lower, even with a lower mintage.

This is just a guess, but it seems logical (in my head).

if i can recall i paid like 10.00 for my fijiian 1934 penny  

I won't tell you how much I paid for my 1934 penny, I'll just say it was a lot less than $10.  The fijian stuff seems to be pretty plentiful here in New Zealand but not many people seem to know too much about them because you can pick them up really cheaply, most of the silver coins can be picked up for scrap value.

i seen on your list the coin says grading vg is that the case or i noticed they all had been grade marked that id say mine is close to xf but thats just my personal opinion some might say vf-xf whats the book price for an uncirculated 34 penny

Most of my coins would grade around VF but I just put a mark in VG to let myself know I have a copy of the coin, because it's easier to scan down the page where the mark is in the first column.  The ones where it wasn't in the VG column were coins I had swaps of and I'd sold them and forgotten to move the mark back to the VG column.  Thanks for reminding me, I've fixed them all up now.

Sorry missed your question
1934 penny - vf $1.00, xf - $5.00, unc - $12.50

Quote: ctuckerI don't know the answer to your question  for sure, but price is influenced by demand. Maybe the lower population of Fiji compared to New Zealand makes for fewer collectors.
 I imagine most of a country's coins that are collected by people within the borders, so if there are few collectors then the price will be lower, even with a lower mintage.

This is just a guess, but it seems logical (in my head).

I think you hit the nail on the head. It doesn't matter how rare something is if their is little or no demand for something then its value will be low and I can say with all honesty I have never met a person who says they are mad about collecting Fijian coins.

How many people on this thread or even the forum specialise in collecting coins from Fiji?  

You say you've never met a person who's mad about collecting Fijian coins.....you have now

My wife is Fijian Indian and I've been there a couple of times with her so I got interested in their coins.

 i like fiji money,i had a freind that met prince charles in fiji before he married princess di