#coins

You don't need to buy them all at once either.

speaking of that, I'm still trying to find an affordable kirin coin. I may have to bite the bullet and pay a bunch for it (250+)

For a Japanese one?

two went on ebay recently for north of 200

no the chinese unicorn "kirin"

Those are spelled Qilin in pinyin.

They're pronounced "cheeleen".

"kirin" I think is the Japanese version of it.

I probably should have bid more on that latter one. *shrug*

in japanese its pronounced "kih-rin"

Oh, that reminds me. I need to update my BESFLACS list to include searches for the unicorns.

you will increase my competition ;P

That has a name.

They call it the "badon effect", haha.

indeed

"Badon: helping people find coins they will then not be able to obtain, since 1979"

haha

True!

Many of the coins that I've done that to have permanently disappeared.

Like the 2014 30 g gold baby pandas.

the good news: he helped me find what I'd been searching for. the bad news: he helped 150 other people also find it

Haha

And the mintage is 30 :)

I think that is deserving of the blue/red penguin meme

/r/CoinMemes will thank you :)

bad badon, nooooo cookie!

amiright?

looking

Yeah :)

You going to post it on /r/CoinMemes?

That's like my personal library of memes when I want to find something.

you can have it

Unicorns added: https://forum.coincompendium.com/index.php?topi...

until I manage to get one, that might elicit a boo/hiss from me ;)

I've already got the other two I want

so are those holders airtight? do coins stop toning when encased like that?

What coins are you talking about?

I got one of these https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/252400... and one of these https://apmex.exceda.com/images/Catalog%20Image...

Looking

I like the reared up one

1996 and 1997

Good choices.

I think the kirin ia 95

Yeah, the 1996 is my favorite design.

among the unicorns its second for me to the kirin

Every time you say "kirin" I'm thinking you're talking about a Japanese coin.

heh

that is the nickname I hear for this one. also "kirin with offspring" is also common

You're talking about the Chinese unicorn?

Oh, that's definitely the Western unicorn then.

The Chinese "unicorn" is never depicted with babies.

Not on this series of coins.

my prior exposure to the term was in the series "Juuni Kokki" ("12 kingdoms") japanese anime. 45 episode series where a few kirin were major players

that 95 I am looking for has a juvenile laying on the ground and an adult standing over

Actually, the Chinese unicorn is very uncommon on any of China's coinage. That makes it somewhat special.

Yes, the 1995 is the key.

I bought a gold one for $700 and sold it for something ridiculous like $7000 or whatever.

I'm not sure what the peak value was.

oh nice

They're very attractive coins.

I decided not to collect them, that's why I sold it.

huh

I liked the series, but I already had all the keys, so I was basically finished with it and bored.

that's what happens when you have too much money!

I decided I liked the hand engraved coins, because there's no other coins like them in the world.

Want to know a secret?

oh I didn't know there was such a thing

I would like to bid on this set: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0...

I need to check to see if there are any varieties there that I don't already have, but I suspect I already have everything.

heh, goldfish. I suppose...

I hope so, in any case, because I have no cash right now, haha.

Yes, but they're not just goldfish.

The story behind those is amazing.

The master dies were hand engraved by Yi Shizhong in what looks like a competition with another engraver.

They were originally minted in 1984, but there was an error on the dies, so only a few were minted in 1984, and it appears they were only given out as VIP gifts.

what error?

Later, the error was fixed, and a few more were made, but since the other engraver beat him to market, he had already lost, so they didn't bother putting them into production until 1990.

also what's nice about the kirin coin is the reverse is ALSO very attractive. it seems that for most coins, one side is hugely more interesting than the other

Then, in 1990, the world boycotted Chinese coins after the 1989 Tianenman Square incident, and they didn't sell, so most were destroyed or simply not minted.

wow

Yeah

The way it ended up, the 1990's seem to have a surviving population of around 100 sets.

talk about bad timing

Even though they have an authorized mintage of 2000.

They actually might be a bit rarer than that, but we won't know for sure until prices go up and more time passes.

The coins that beat the goldfish were the 1984 pagodas, also hand engraved, and also about 100 sets surviving. They sell for around $2500 to $3000. The goldfish will probably sell for under $800.

Maybe as little as $400 to $600.

Anyway, the goldfish are by far the most impressive of all of the hand engraved coins. They were the last ones made, and the world will forever covet them as the pinnacle of coinage art.

huh

The error was on the dragon eyes die. Yi Shizhong accidentally engraved the leaves of the seaweed and forgot to put the stem in there too, so it's a "broken stem".

Its' a major error.

I have forgotten which one was rarer, but I seem to remember thinking the error is actually the more common one.

But I don't remember if that's for the 1984 or the 1990, or both.

My memory is crap these days.

I can relate to that

My goal is to assemble a complete set of all dies and all varieties for all of the kinds of goldfish minted. They're my favorites, and they might end up becoming very expensive as "art pricing" starts to gain traction.

I'm hoping the "badon effect" has died-down for them, but I might have to let them go even if they're cheap and I need them to complete my sets. I'm overextended financially already, haha.

Not counting varieties, the key to the 1990 goldfish set is the bubble eyes in 69 grade. Most of them 68 or 67 grades, including the one in the listing I showed you. The dragon eyes isn't shown in the photos, and it appears they ran out of free photos to post.

The goldfish are fairly advanced, but that's what has my attention right now. For investment, for the first time for you, I would probably pick some Nanjing pandas.

so where did you get 7k for that gold unicorn?

I just tossed that number out. I would have to think a bit more to remember how much I got for it.

I think I sold it to a dealer.

I usually sell to dealers.

I'd have thought you wouldn't get as much from a dealer

since they are looking to flip it to a better mark to turn a proffit

No, I don't get as much from a dealer, but they always want to talk to me when I when visit them.

They give me better deals because they know I will sell my coins back to them.

It really pays to establish a good relationship with 1 or 2 favorite dealers.

I have 3 favorite dealers at the moment.

I could see that

I love ebay.... "recommended for you: $4,299 coin" nope.

nope nope nope

N0ZYC: When I was actively buying, I would buy a loaf of bread instead of going to a restaurant for lunch, just to save money. That same day, I made a $30'000 payment for coins.

here's a garage sale you'd like to find: http://www.ebay.com/itm/152633924359

looking

I'll pass.

heh

but if that was a garage sale you drve by