Where in the EU can I sell Gold coins directly?

[Croatian Coin Collector]

I have been trying to sell 3 Gold coins (the first one one is a duplicate, the second one will become a duplicate when I win one in better condition at an auction next month, and the third one is a modern (1926) coin that I have decided I would rather sell and spend that money on an ancient coin) here in Croatia, and so far that hasn't gone well (I have received (and rejected) offers that were based on karats per gram, not their numismatic value, and it would be insane to sell them based on that), so I would like to know where in the European Union (the closest EU countries to me are Slovenia, Hungary, Italy, Austria and Germany) can I go and sell directly for example a Gold Mohur of Shah Jahan for a good price? Also, I want the money to be wired to my bank account, not a cash payment (in general I prefer cash, but since 99,9% of the coins I win at auctions and buy directly from coin dealers are won and bought outside of Zagreb, paying for them with cash is not an option).

In case anyone suggests consigning them to an auction, I have already received offers for that from coin auction houses in Croatia, Austria and the USA, but I would prefer a direct sale in the near future, so that I can spend that money at the 3 big coin auctions in the USA in January (CNG's Triton XXVIII, SBG's NYINC Showcase Auction and Stephen Album Rare Coins Auction 51).

Edited December 19, 2024 by Croatian Coin Collector

[Croatian Coin Collector]

If it helps, these are the Gold coins in question:

Edited December 19, 2024 by Croatian Coin Collector

[panzerman]

I have never sold anything/ even though I get letters from auction houses that want me to consign material to their events.

You can sell coins direct to coin dealers. Or if you have collector friend who wants them☺️

[Croatian Coin Collector]

23 minutes ago, panzerman said:

I have never sold anything/ even though I get letters from auction houses that want me to consign material to their events.

You can sell coins direct to coin dealers. Or if you have collector friend who wants them☺️

I have no intention of ever selling 99% of my collection either, but as you know, I won the Shah Jahan Gold Mohur (minted in Surat in either 1628 or 1629) at the Attica auction recently and I don't collect duplicates, therefore the above 1642 Kabul one will get sold, the Persian Gold Daric will become a duplicate after I win one in better condition at an auction in January, so it well get sold as well, while I honestly don't like the Czechoslovak Gold Ducat that much, so I want to sell it and buy a nice ancient Gold coin with that money.

Which coin dealers? There are probably thousands of them in Germany and Austria, I want the names of reputable ones that people here have had positive experiences with, I have contacted one in Slovenia and we might reach a deal, but I am not currently optimistic about that option.

[Alegandron]

1 hour ago, Croatian Coin Collector said:

If it helps, these are the Gold coins in question:

Really like that Daric @Croatian Coin Collector

[Croatian Coin Collector]

17 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Really like that Daric @Croatian Coin Collector

Thank you, and it looks better in person, but I still want to replace it with one of the elite examples that will be on auction next month.

I actually wouldn't have a problem with selling it to you or somebody else here if I hadn't discovered to my surprise yesterday that Croatia Post, DPD, DHL Express, FedEx, etc. in Croatia all have coins under "prohibited items"!  Therefore, I will either have to go in person to Austria or Germany or wherever to sell them, or somebody will have to come here to Zagreb to collect them.

[Alegandron]

3 minutes ago, Croatian Coin Collector said:

Thank you, and it looks better in person, but I still want to replace it with one of the elite examples that will be on auction next month.

I actually wouldn't have a problem with selling it to you or somebody else here if I hadn't discovered to my surprise yesterday that Croatia Post, DPD, DHL Express, FedEx, etc. in Croatia all have coins under "prohibited items"!  Therefore, I will either have to go in person to Austria or Germany or wherever to sell them, or somebody will have to come here to Zagreb to collect them.

Thank you.  I just enjoy Darics... such a great coin, actually the first in major transactions between states, empires, etc...

Mine:

PERSIA, Achaemenid Empire. temp. Darios I to Xerxes II. Circa 485-420 BC. AV Daric (14mm, 8.30 g). Lydo-Milesian standard. Sardes mint. Persian king or hero, wearing kidaris and kandys, quiver over shoulder, in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear in right hand, bow in left / Incuse punch. Carradice Type IIIb, Group A/B (pl. XIII, 27); Meadows, Administration 321; BMC Arabia pl. XXIV, 26. VF. Well centered and struck.

[Croatian Coin Collector]

1 hour ago, panzerman said:

I have never sold anything/ even though I get letters from auction houses that want me to consign material to their events.

You can sell coins direct to coin dealers. Or if you have collector friend who wants them☺️

I don't know of any serious coin collector in this country apart from myself, others mostly seem to stick to coins from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and maybe Austria-Hungary.

[DonnaML]

1 hour ago, Croatian Coin Collector said:

I don't know of any serious coin collector in this country apart from myself, others mostly seem to stick to coins from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and maybe Austria-Hungary.

The problem with selling them directly to a coin dealer (in any country), instead of consigning them to an auction house and then waiting months before receiving the proceeds, is that you would be extremely unlikely to be paid more than 30-40% of retail value. You could always try selling them on ebay, or offering the  ancient ones on the Facebook Ancient Coins Sales Group.

[Croatian Coin Collector]

1 hour ago, DonnaML said:

The problem with selling them directly to a coin dealer (in any country), instead of consigning them to an auction house and then waiting months before receiving the proceeds, is that you would be extremely unlikely to be paid more than 30-40% of retail value. You could always try selling them on ebay, or offering the  ancient ones on the Facebook Ancient Coins Sales Group.

While I understand that coin dealers have to make a living and thus I am willing to sell the coins for less than what I would like to get for them, offering me 30-40% of the retail price would not only be unacceptable, it would also be highly insulting, so I would both reject the offers and put the coin dealers who did that on my coin dealer blacklist forever, so they would never get any money from me.

 

It has actually occurred to me to sell them on eBay, but at least one problem is that yesterday I found out that Croatia Post, DHL Express, FedEx, UPS and DPD all have coins under "prohibited items" here in Croatia!  Therefore I am not even sure how I would send the coins to the buyer(s)...

 

I don't have a Facebook account and don't want to make one, but thank you anyway for the suggestion.

[DonnaML]

40 minutes ago, Croatian Coin Collector said:

While I understand that coin dealers have to make a living and thus I am willing to sell the coins for less than what I would like to get for them, offering me 30-40% of the retail price would not only be unacceptable, it would also be highly insulting, so I would both reject the offers and put the coin dealers who did that on my coin dealer blacklist forever, so they would never get any money from me.

 

It has actually occurred to me to sell them on eBay, but at least one problem is that yesterday I found out that Croatia Post, DHL Express, FedEx, UPS and DPD all have coins under "prohibited items" here in Croatia!  Therefore I am not even sure how I would send the coins to the buyer(s)...

 

I don't have a Facebook account and don't want to make one, but thank you anyway for the suggestion.

Are you sure that they mean they prohibit shipment of demonetized collector/antique coins, as opposed to actual currency, which it's common to prohibit?

[Croatian Coin Collector]

10 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

Are you sure that they mean they prohibit shipment of demonetized collector/antique coins, as opposed to actual currency, which it's common to prohibit?

It just says "coins", but Gold is also specifically prohibited, so even if shipping for example an ancient Bronze coin was allowed, it wouldn't help me in this case, and I am not willing to risk sending coins that are together worth at a minimum 5000 EUR as "collectibles" or whatever the standard workaround for this nonsense is, because then I can't properly insure the coins, so if they get stolen, I would get almost nothing, while if some inspection opened the package and found that there were Gold coins inside, it is unlikely I would ever get them back.

[Hrefn]

I have pondered the same question of how to sell duplicates or no longer desired coins at what I would regard as a fair price.  There is no easy answer, especially if you want to sell quickly.  Auctions are likely to yield the highest price, but there is a long interval between consigning your coins and being paid for them.   Some auction companies will offer you an advance payment which is some portion of the money you will eventually receive from the firm as your share of the proceeds of the sale.  I have no personal experience with this.

The more unusual your field of collecting, the more scarce your potential buyers are.  If you are the only person in Croatia who collects the coins you prefer, then by definition you have no potential market in your own country.  You problem is not unique.  I am in the USA, and I have no personal acquaintance with any serious collectors like myself.  
 

One method which has worked for me is to sell a coin back to the dealer from whom I purchased it.  I have always received a fair price doing this.  The second method is to trade coins to a dealer to help defray the cost of a more expensive coin he is selling.  This disposes of unwanted coins and facilitates the purchase of a coin you might not have afforded, otherwise.  Both methods entail travel to a coin show and only the first method yields cash.  If you want to realize the best price for your coins, you have to sacrifice speedy payment.   

 

[John Conduitt]

1 hour ago, Croatian Coin Collector said:

It just says "coins", but Gold is also specifically prohibited, so even if shipping for example an ancient Bronze coin was allowed, it wouldn't help me in this case, and I am not willing to risk sending coins that are together worth at a minimum 5000 EUR as "collectibles" or whatever the standard workaround for this nonsense is, because then I can't properly insure the coins, so if they get stolen, I would get almost nothing, while if some inspection opened the package and found that there were Gold coins inside, it is unlikely I would ever get them back.

Yes this is puzzling as it is the case everywhere. The couriers prohibit high value items - antiques, stamps, coins. And yet all these companies ship coins for auction houses. Goodness knows why they insist on using them. But they do and DHL, FedEx etc ship plenty of ‘prohibited items’. Do they do this to refuse to pay insurance? You are also guaranteed to pay the customs charges and a high handling fee - which they charge even knowing the items are ‘prohibited’.

In the UK, the Royal Mail will ship them no problem but there is a limit to how much can be insured. eBay will too. It’s bizarre a specialist courier won’t. But you can get private insurance or use an even more specialist courier, which isn’t cheap.

[Croatian Coin Collector]

18 minutes ago, Hrefn said:

I have pondered the same question of how to sell duplicates or no longer desired coins at what I would regard as a fair price.  There is no easy answer, especially if you want to sell quickly.  Auctions are likely to yield the highest price, but there is a long interval between consigning your coins and being paid for them.   Some auction companies will offer you an advance payment which is some portion of the money you will eventually receive from the firm as your share of the proceeds of the sale.  I have no personal experience with this.

The more unusual your field of collecting, the more scarce your potential buyers are.  If you are the only person in Croatia who collects the coins you prefer, then by definition you have no potential market in your own country.  You problem is not unique.  I am in the USA, and I have no personal acquaintance with any serious collectors like myself.  
 

One method which has worked for me is to sell a coin back to the dealer from whom I purchased it.  I have always received a fair price doing this.  The second method is to trade coins to a dealer to help defray the cost of a more expensive coin he is selling.  This disposes of unwanted coins and facilitates the purchase of a coin you might not have afforded, otherwise.  Both methods entail travel to a coin show and only the first method yields cash.  If you want to realize the best price for your coins, you have to sacrifice speedy payment.   

 

Yes, even if I went to Vienna tomorrow to consign my coins to Numismatik Naumann, which holds coin auctions monthly, my coins would be in the auction that will be held sometime in early March, so at best I would get paid sometime in April.

 

Only the Mughal Mohur was purchased from a coin dealership, and they are based in the United Arab Emirates, so that really isn't an option.

 

The way things are looking right now, these are my options:

1) Sell to the Slovenian coin dealer if he accepts my offer, I have offered him the minimal price I am willing to accept, on condition that he wires the money and comes to Zagreb himself to collect the coins (Zagreb is about an hour and 50 minutes away by car from his coin dealership).

2) Go to the Numismata coin fair in Munich at the start of March and consign with Stephen Album Rare Coins (they have already agreed to this), or maybe try to find somebody there who would be willing to buy the coins directly.

3) Consign with Istra Numizmatika (located in the coastal city of Umag) here in Croatia, they have offered to auction my coins without taking a commission from me, they would only take 20% from the buyer, so I would get the full hammer price. 

 

[Croatian Coin Collector]

4 hours ago, John Conduitt said:

Yes this is puzzling as it is the case everywhere. The couriers prohibit high value items - antiques, stamps, coins. And yet all these companies ship coins for auction houses. Goodness knows why they insist on using them. But they do and DHL, FedEx etc ship plenty of ‘prohibited items’. Do they do this to refuse to pay insurance? You are also guaranteed to pay the customs charges and a high handling fee - which they charge even knowing the items are ‘prohibited’.

In the UK, the Royal Mail will ship them no problem but there is a limit to how much can be insured. eBay will too. It’s bizarre a specialist courier won’t. But you can get private insurance or use an even more specialist courier, which isn’t cheap.

I can't imagine it being any more expensive than personally going to Vienna or Munich or wherever to deliver the coins...

[Croatian Coin Collector]

Some potentially good news, I showed pictures of the coins to a person who doesn't have anything do to with numismatics, but has many connections, and that person showed the pictures to an art gallery owner here in Zagreb, and said that he is interested in buying them, so hopefully I will manage to sell the coins to him.

[Croatian Coin Collector]

On 12/19/2024 at 11:59 AM, John Conduitt said:

Yes this is puzzling as it is the case everywhere. The couriers prohibit high value items - antiques, stamps, coins. And yet all these companies ship coins for auction houses. Goodness knows why they insist on using them. But they do and DHL, FedEx etc ship plenty of ‘prohibited items’. Do they do this to refuse to pay insurance? You are also guaranteed to pay the customs charges and a high handling fee - which they charge even knowing the items are ‘prohibited’.

In the UK, the Royal Mail will ship them no problem but there is a limit to how much can be insured. eBay will too. It’s bizarre a specialist courier won’t. But you can get private insurance or use an even more specialist courier, which isn’t cheap.

Which private insurance would cover you knowingly breaking the rules of the courier company?

[Croatian Coin Collector]

I have decided to sell another Gold coin, a Qajar Gold 1/4 Toman of Agha Mohammad Shah (minted in either 1788 or 1789):

Edited December 20, 2024 by Croatian Coin Collector

[Broucheion]

On 12/19/2024 at 6:58 AM, Croatian Coin Collector said:

The way things are looking right now, these are my options:

Hi @Croatian Coin Collector,

Could you go to a third country (eg Italy or Austria) and mail them from there?

- Broucheion 

[Croatian Coin Collector]

2 hours ago, Broucheion said:

Hi @Croatian Coin Collector,

Could you go to a third country (eg Italy or Austria) and mail them from there?

- Broucheion 

Since Italy has those ridiculous export licences (even for coins that have nothing to do with Italy), I won't even bother looking up whether or not their couriers prohibit the shipment of coins and gold abroad or not, as for Austria, I don't know, but I assume the situation is similar to the one in Croatia, plus even if I could ship the coins from there, the problem is that the return address would have to be an Austrian one, and I neither own any real estate in Austria, nor do I know any trustworthy person there, plus if I was already in Vienna, I would sell the coins to a local coin dealer or consign them with Numismatik Naumann or one of the other major Austrian coin auction houses.

[Croatian Coin Collector]

That didn't work out either, so I have decided to give up trying to sell the coins directly here in Croatia (it is blatantly obvious that I am the only serious collector here, and I don't want to even comment on what I think of the local numismatics companies after all of this), and to go to Germany or Austria next year and either sell them or consign them there (probably with Stephen Album Rare Coins at the Numismata Munich coin fair in March).