Nickels & Flea Market revenge

Rosco53

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Mar 17, 2018
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Well, 3 bags of nickels later, and I have another 1943S to show for it. Thinking I may have used up most of my luck finding those IHPs... Noticed a few more vendors at the flea market when I drove past to the bank, so figured why not, and ran through again. Glutton for punishment I guess. Browsed through the new ones, nothing doin for coins sadly, so went back to the other ones I saw the day before. Found a couple neat ones:
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Like the history for the French ones, and the other 2 just for their age and the fact that they were only $0.25 each so why not... Worked my way back through to where I had purchased the "Roman" coin the day before, started talking with the vendor since he recognized me. Had a few neat older WWII pieces he was showing off, and some neat old tokens from the depression, all of which were out of my price range, though conveniently "on sale". Then I noticed he had a little box of random coins, so I asked to look through them. Most were Mexican and Canadian, some George VI cents and whatnot, but then one caught my eye. After a little haggling I got 8 coins for about $1 each, including this beauty:

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Also got this one:
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Which, upon further investigation: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4326.html

Figure between those and the 1814 Rigsbanktegn, I came out ahead on the entire weekend, even factoring in the "Roman" coin I bought. Gotta learn to pick my spots better should I go to more Flea Markets. Also finding that searching through bags is a little boring now, got spoiled after the IHP hits and the Flea Market now...
 

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A2coins

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Go get.em.my friend
 

gary lee

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The only flea market still in operation around my area is a still operating drive-in theater. It looks like next Sunday I'm going to have to give them a try.
 

MalteseFalcon

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Aug 17, 2005
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I have so many foreign coins it is ridiculous. And a vast majority of them I have no idea where they came from.

That said, I also have a 1/4 Quetzal. They are worth some serious money. Well, 40-50 bucks anyway give or take a few dollars. ;)

There is a "collectibles" shop not far from where I live and I stopped in a few months back.

In one case they had several small groupings of old coins that could be purchased. Buffalo Nickels, old wheat backs, Mercury dimes, etc.

They all were "retail", as even the silver content was not enough in some of them to be worth the asking price.

However, I saw one thing that was interesting....it just said "Ancient Roman Coin 300s AD", for 5 bucks.

I bought it. Found out it is a Valentinian bronze coin, made at the Siscia mint in Croatia between 364-375 AD.

There was so much acretion built up on it over the centuries, and it is such a common coin, it is really worth 5 bucks only because that is what the asking price was.
And because numerous hoards of these with thousands of them in each hoard have been discovered over the past 80 years.

I have soaked it in olive oil, used a pencil eraser, toothpicks, etc. It is so much worth almost nothing, I don't care if I abuse the thing to make the features stand out a bit more.

It is marginally better than when I bought it. Yeah I know. Blasphemy, lol.

But....the point of ancient coins....this one is over 1600 years old. Probably most of it buried underground, but one has to wonder who had possession of it back in the day.

It is awesome to own such a cool piece of history.

Ancient Roman coins are surprisingly cheap.

Enough about my find....Cool finds, Rosco! :)
 

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MalteseFalcon

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Aug 17, 2005
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Color me ignorant.

Those 1/4 Quetzals USED to be worth 40 bucks 10-15 years back, but can be had stupid cheap on eBay now. 11 bucks and up.

Oh well. I am not an expert by any means. ;)
 

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