BELGIAN NEWBIE

Hey Guys ,

I'm Ruben,

I'm 29 and together with my sun I started out numismatics. We bought some KG lots and started sorting out.
We have started putting all in a on-line free catalog but found out really quick this catalog didn't have ''all'' the coins in it. When we found out about numista and the "error" coins , medal strikes, .. my head kinda exploded.
Atm. it seems a jungle to find out all what could be wrong with all those coins from those 130 countries .. µ

I have a load from : Belgium (+Congo), Netherlands ( +india+antillen,..), France , Germany , Russia , USA , UK and former ("kolonies") ,....

Are there complete lists of all the error coins per country ?
I'm certaintly very interested in Belgian missstrikes because i have like 50Kgs of them .


Also the cleaning of some coins interrests me.. a.t.m. i keep evrything as it is , taking no risks to dmg old , gold or silver coins. ...

PLease help this newbie out starting up .. all sorts of help welcome .

Kind regards
Ruben.

big files, links ,.. also welcome @ verbovenruben@gmail.com


Thanks in advance

Welcome aboard Ruben!

I'm not much of a coin guy but it sounds as if you've got your work cut out for you sorting out your recent acquisitions. Good luck! (And I believe it's a good idea NOT to clean your coins but then again I'm no expert on coins). I'm sure there's a lot of Numista members here who can help guide you to the right info. Just remember to ask, to post photos (they really help) or link to the coin you can find in the Numista catalogue.

Vague questions won't help one who seeks clear answers.

don't start chasing butterflies until you have a field to run in.
the errors / varieties should come second to just filling out date sets of each type.
sort what you have until you have stacks of different types.
when you have a tall stack of a type, for example -
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1244.html
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces571.html
sort by date. (please always site the numista catalog page like above, when you refer to a coin)
when you have 10 or more of a type and date, then you can start looking for errors/varieties.
I love this type of work and have done a lot of it. I am jealous of your kgs. of coins.
I look forward to see your findings.
welcome to numista, there is a lot of good data here.

Quote: "Mr. Midnight"​don't start chasing butterflies until you have a field to run in.
​the errors / varieties should come second to just filling out date sets of each type.
​sort what you have until you have stacks of different types.
​when you have a tall stack of a type, for example -
​https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1244.html
​https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces571.html
​sort by date. (please always site the numista catalog page like above, when you refer to a coin)
​when you have 10 or more of a type and date, then you can start looking for errors/varieties.
​I love this type of work and have done a lot of it. I am jealous of your kgs. of coins.
​I look forward to see your findings.
​welcome to numista, there is a lot of good data here.
​
​

​Mr Midnight, that is a nice systematic approach for a new start.
Like the way you explained it

Quote: "BluHawk"​

​​Mr Midnight, that is a nice systematic approach for a new start.
​Like the way you explained it

​

We did a little such project in this thread.
Many pages in the numista catalogue include contributors notes and pictures of varieties.
for example https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces889.html

Hi Ruben,

Before setting off on your treasure hunt in a too optimistic mood: many of the common mint errors do not really fetch a large premium over the price of a regular variant (and probably even no premium at all). The Belgian medal strikes are definitely collectible, but common die rotations, filled dies, die cracks - they're fun, but won't make you rich.

Talking about irregularities, I did a strange discovery the other day. I was putting coins in new albums recently, top and bottom neatly aligned, and found that 3 out of 5 coins with the JP Laenen portrait of Boudewijn I have minor die rotations, while none of my other 119 Belgian coins have it:

[EDIT 13-jul: I checked my spare 5fr, which is a neat coin alignment. That makes my count 3 out of 6 with die rotations.]

Strange fact, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one with a harvest like this. And these are just 6 coins, randomly collected over the years.
Perhaps the design of the obverse made it difficult to for mint quality staff to detect die rotations, so that many passed unnoticed.

Another interesting thing to set out for: perhaps your kilograms of coins can solve the question of the ghost(?) variant of 20 Centimes 1954-1960 KM#147.2. The question was recently brought up on the forum:
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic96650.html

Enjoy collecting!

"Perhaps the design of the obverse made it difficult to for mint quality staff to detect die rotations, so that many passed unnoticed."

I was about to bid on an Albanian 10 Lek Valute (=500 Leke) P-49 and then I checked my SCWPM & discovered a note which states:
"Many examples of P-49 have mismatched serial numbers. No additional premium is attached to them." Looking back on P-49b signifies notes without serial numbers (same BV!). Now I watched that banknote bid up to $100 USD (5X BV) and this happened only a few weeks ago. Sadly, I'm sure a couple newbies got into a bidding war on this banknote.

So great advice "Arnov" & "Mr Midnight" which I hope Reuben takes to heart. Get as much information and educate yourself silly!

Dear ArnoV,

regarding irregularities with modern Belgian coins: It almost seems that if you find a 1 FR or 5 Fr from 1986-2000 that has no die rotation, no die cracks and sharp crisp lettering... THEN you have a truly rare coin 😉
Most of my collection from these dates is comprised of filled dies, die cracks, die rotation... Like you said, the only ones worth searching for are the true medallic issues. The largest rotation I ever found was a 1 FR Albert II that is 135° rotated... Die cracks on these coins are more plentiful than problem free coins 😁