My first journey in buying a “bulk lot” of coins...

[Lindeman]

Just wanted to share a story that may be typical of us coin collectors...as it shows how you learn along the way. 

A few weeks ago at auction I decided to bid on a bulk lot of coins - 3 stacker boxes full of mainly UK coins, because a quick rummage revealed several Britannias I needed for my date run, silver Piedforts from the 1970s, plenty old £1 coins and some beautifully kept old English and Jersey banknotes. Those were amongst kilos of old pennies and other predecimal mintage from Victoria through to QEII and lots of modern era uncirculated 50ps from 1969-1983, modern U.K. commemoratives etc. I figured that after I had kept the Britannias, I would sell the old pennies and coppers for scrap and maybe auction off all the rest. 

But I had not realised how interesting it was to sort through these old coins - as essentially I was going through a family's history as I was doing so - with notes about family holidays in Jersey, Gibraltar and Spain, and it was obvious that multiples of various commemoratives had been bought with kids names on various packages. 

First eye-opener was the prices realised on eBay for old banknotes - which I had no clue about.  Selling an old fiver (albeit in crisp mint condition) for £17 amazed me. 

Piedfort silver is something I had never even looked at - but some 50p pieces like the special EEC 1992/93 50p fetched over £50, and others like the D- day commem reached over £30. For some reason this stacker/family had assembled a pile of the  1973 EEC special 50ps (the clasped hands design), and these have been selling well - maybe pre-Brexit nostalgia for some buyers?! I found other 50ps from Gibraltar and Isle of Man that have also attracted buyers that have made it worth the effort to put them up on eBay. As my main goal was to shift stuff without asking crazy prices I usually started auctions at 99p and you quickly find out whether there is a market for any given coin.  Some stuff I never thought would sell were bought - like 1951 Festival of Britain cupronickel crowns and plain UK coin sets from the 1960s.  

Picking through kilos of old pennies was only of interest to find the 20 or so Queen Vic pennies, but it was certainly nostalgic to think of where these coins may have been over the past century. None are in spectacular condition - but I am keeping a few examples from Vic, Edward, George V and George VI.  The vast bulk of them went for scrap though. From the piles of farthings I kept a few of the Victoria ones, including an 1875 "H" Heaton mintmark example ( I had no idea that coins were minted in Birmingham !), some from 1900-1930 and a half farthing from 1844. Also didn’t appreciate that the actual Britannia design on those farthings changed between the 1870s and 1880s.  

Then looking for the pre-47 UK silver I sorted out quite a few good coins - Threepences (nice ones from 1922 and 1938), sixpences - the oak reverse (from 1934-1936 among these) and the later George VI ones from 1939-1945, four single shillings (1934, 1937, 1939, 1946), two shillings/florins (six - from 1939 to 1946).  Although they are "silver free" I must say I found some of bigger Elizabeth predecimal era coins really cool  - particularly the half crowns ( I got six - including a nice condition 1961) and a full crown from 1960. Got stacks of Decimal coin sets, post-47 shillings, farthings and sixpences as well - not sure if they are worth flogging or not. Also quite a nice bunch of brass Threepences - including plenty of the early thrift variety from George VI. 

The previous owner was a bigtime hoarder of all British commemorative crowns as well - so I have 6 Churchill crowns, 10 1972 silver wedding crowns, 12 1977 Jubilee crowns, Queen Mother birthday crowns etc. Those I do need to get shifted - but lucky to get 50p each I reckon?

Turning to foreign coins - there were many I had never seen before - including NZ and Australian pennies ( a nice toned 1939 example, but not the famous 1930 penny!), an NZ half crown, a holed but wonderful 1868 50 centimes, a Weimar Republic 50 Pfennigs, some old US wheat cents and lots of postwar "world in a box"-type coins from all over Europe. While there may be some rarities in that lot it's just too much effort to work out right now - so I may sell them on as a "bulk lot" myself - or hold onto them until I have time to find a dealer that may be interested. 

So you may be wondering - have I made any profit on all of this?! The answer is yes, but only about 30% over what I paid. But I did get the stuff that sparked my original interest, learned a whole lot about coins (and notes) I had never seen before, and got some satisfaction in knowing that through selling lots of stuff, coins that would otherwise have stayed hidden away in a loft have been redistributed to collectors that wanted them. That may seem strange - but I actually rather enjoy that aspect, and especially for coins that held no interest for me personally.  

Finally if anyone is interested in any of the coins mentioned above (or wants QEII farthings or sixpences/shillings etc) just PM me; happy to discuss and continue my redistributions!  I guess my interest in these older coins started earlier this year when I picked up a 1930 Florin and an 1887 double florin earlier this year. None of the coins I show here are worth troubling the graders with in my view, so I guess for the aficionados of old silver like SilverTanner or Shortstack66 there is not much to get excited about - but it certainly will make me pay more attention to the long sections in the in-person auctions when the old silver coins come up, and I get it now why you guys can get excited about the beauty of the rarer Victorian sixpences and florins!

[breaktwister]

Live or online auction? I would love to pick up some treasure at a live auction

[Oldun]

Now THAT was a fun read. Thank you

[Switch]

Hope I can find a big lot of US coins to buy here in the U.K.!

[SilverTanner]

I used to buy bulk lots of world coins at auction, £15 for ~500 coins - the kids had a very large world map on the wall and the goal was to find a coin for each country which they would then stick on  the map. It was a great way for them to learn where each country was once they had worked out what the coin was (keeps them occupied for hours looking through Krause). The countries that don't exist anymore caused much confusion!?

[Lindeman]

7 hours ago, breaktwister said:

Live or online auction? I would love to pick up some treasure at a live auction

Live auction.  Had about 5 minutes to have a quick peek in the boxes ; saw some 2001 Britannias, perfect Piedforts and an unmarked envelope that had crisp old banknotes from 60s and 70s and decided right then to bid on it later! I have since hauled over 16kg of copper pennies to the local scrap metal merchant, for the princely sum of £58 so it’s  not all glamour?! The fun part being live at the auction is obviously wondering whether any of your fellow bidders in the room found what you found buried in the boxes.  Don’t think I would ever bid remotely on a bulk lot - unless it was a knockdown bargain...

[sovereignsteve]

8 hours ago, breaktwister said:

Live or online auction?

most of them are both these days.

 

51 minutes ago, Lindeman said:

Don’t think I would ever bid remotely on a bulk lot - unless it was a knockdown bargain...

I would agree entirely, although I have done it a few times in reckless moments!

[HawkHybrid]

my treasure hunt lucky dips have been with hgm.

lots of fun getting lunars as australian nuggets and

kooks, old joeys, random proofs trying to mingle with

the commoners. (sometimes profitable too, at least

on paper)

 

HH

[metallica73]

Yeah, online buying bulk lots blind is a recipe for losing money usually. The saleroom has a ton of auctions for coin lots online and by the time you add on premiums, delivery costs etc.... and the fact you are competing against 'in the room' bidders who will have had a closer look your % chance of success is minimal.

My best result was actually luck on Ebay about 3-4 years back, as I was trying to put a Canada Small Cents collection together and I snapped up about 300 mixed for £3+P&P. It was a terrbile picture but the guy stated lots of different dates and mostly Canadian. When it came there were about 25 Small Brass Chinese Empire coins mixed in with the lot worth about £300!

 

[Augustus1]

I find it kinda sad some ones probably life time passion,  collections & memories are just boxed and sold off in bulk, sad if they had no on to pass them onto, sad if the people who they were left too or there children did not want any of them, just goes to show one mans treasure is another mans junk!!,

well done , and thanks for the story  but apart from turning a profit which I applaud for taking a chance and it working out   I do feel a touch of sorrow for the original collector

deano

[sovereignsteve]

6 hours ago, metallica73 said:

and the fact you are competing against 'in the room' bidders who will have had a closer look your % chance of success is minimal

definitely the case, internet bidders generally bid far too much for these lots. many a time i've been bidding in the room having been able to fully evaluate the lots and some bids off the 'net have been way over the top. talk about a wing and a prayer.

[Lindeman]

3 hours ago, Augustus1 said:

I find it kinda sad some ones probably life time passion,  collections & memories are just boxed and sold off in bulk, sad if they had no on to pass them onto, sad if the people who they were left too or there children did not want any of them, just goes to show one mans treasure is another mans junk!!,

well done , and thanks for the story  but apart from turning a profit which I applaud for taking a chance and it working out   I do feel a touch of sorrow for the original collector

deano

Deano - that is exactly the emotion I felt here, as I was left not knowing whether the collectors’ children had no interest, or were not informed about these modest treasures. I still have about twenty 50ps wrapped individually in tissues in coin flips,each labelled with the year. All makes me realise that the owners never really had the benefit of either selling them or distributing them. Why they hoarded over £100 of Decimal coinage and never spent it before it became demonetised is still a mystery to me ( I have bags of the 1970s and 1980s decimal coins as well as loads of 1967 coins that they should have spent). 

To the advantage of the in -room bidder: yes,this was an auction where I was bidding against online bidders who eventually lost their nerve. No way I will ever bid online on a bulk lot.......well probably never?

 

 

[Cornishfarmer]

@Lindeman did you bid more than you initially intending to or did you have a limit?   What kind of profit was the £300? 5% or 50%?      No chance of me going down this route but interested 

[Lindeman]

@Cornishfarmer - I certainly have not made £300 profit on this - if I had I would quit the day job and go from auction to auction with a vacuum to suck up these old lots! I did pay well over the starting estimate and had to see off one internet bidder, and was pretty much at my predetermined limit...but all in - assuming a value for the coins I have kept that I want (ie the Britannias) and the spendable cash (in £1 coins) as well as some assumptions on what else will sell I estimate about 35%  profit now (after selling expenses). So better ROI than putting £ in the bank - that’s for sure. The only intangible here is the time it has taken me to sort them and sell them - but I regard that as my own choice ?

You raise a good question - which is essentially why bother?. Does make me realise how much work the dealers must have to put in to turn a profit when they buy these lots! 

[Cornishfarmer]

Sorry my head read you made £300 even if you didn’t write it....... why bother? Because if you found a couple sovereigns in the box it would have paid off massively.      Probably the same reason that we all but sovs from HGM hoping that one day we will get a great catch

[metallica73]

At the height of the silver price in 2011-12 I actually did quite well out of snapping up random ebay lots in the £20-30 range. I could regularly pull £40-50 of foreign melt out of lots like that. You almost could not lose it was that good.

Time consuming of course, but I enjoyed going through them to noodle all the goodies.

Sadly the bulk lots on ebay now are not of that quality and you have to find double what you did 5 years ago for it to be worthwhile.

 

[Lindeman]

Thanks everyone for the interesting comments. Not exactly a bulk lot of the scale of the previous one ....but at the weekend I was back at the auction house pouring over a bunch of new bulk lots.  This time I did not even bid on any of the big lots - as I was not convinced they had enough variety (or quality ...) to bother with.  Sure - lots of cases with dodgy commemoratives that probably depreciated fron the minute they were bought!, some assortments of international coins, but nothing like my last “treasure trove”. 

On a smaller scale though - I did turn up a couple of coins I want to mention. I did bag a routine set of 1990s Canadian maples - 9 in all for  about £18 each (I  like those older Maples more than the newer ones ). Only after I bought them did I spot that one was the 1998 reverse proof Lunar Tiger privvy, being the very first Lunar privvy Maple.  Nice contrast on the reverse proof compared to the regular strike. As expected for an older Maple - some evidence of spotting unfortunately but I am happy enough to have something a bit unusual. Second  was a 2coin lot of Vic florins - including an 1849 “godless” florin along with an 1870  These were about £80 for the pair. Would welcome peoples opinion on whether these are good value purchases , or for did I overpay? 

Looking in close up at the Godless 1849 -  what a stunning unique design, with all the detail on Victoria ‘s embroidery and her braided hair.    

Happy to have it in my collection?