Anyone else with money to waste!

[alloway65 10]

A rare R5 Mandela coin: A sound investment? Moneyweb reader struggling to resell coin. Go to A rare R5 Mandela coin: A sound investment? - Special investigations | Moneyweb to read the full story.

[jwither 11]

Many have commented on this topic in the past, including myself. Below I quote extracts from the article and add my commentary.

 

"Blignaut says the internationally accepted definition of a rare coin is that it must be a currency coin, the coin must be of historical significance, the coin must be rare and, to be able to be classified as rare, must be measurable."

 

This comment has no merit whatsoever. There is no "internationally recognized" definition of rarity and his definition is patently false. The first reason any one can know this is that he uses the same descriptive term to define what he is describing. How can you define something as rare by simply stating it is rare? The idea is absolutely nonsensical.

 

I would also be interested to know how he "measures" rarity. There is no absolute standard of rarity, though most will agree that some coins are rare when the number of survivors is "low". The most objective measure is relative rarity, such as the US Judd pattern rarity scale which I have mentioned numerous times on this forum. This scale ranges on the low end from 1 to 8 on the high end. Some in the US also use the Universal Rarity Scale which has a wider range. I consider the latter meaningless because in actuality, any coin that is a Judd R-1 (1250+) is almost always available on short notice and therefore, actually not scarce. Even where someone disagrees with this, it can be applied to a particular grade such as MS-60 or better. No coin which has over 1250 survivors in MS can remotely be considered anything other than common.

 

I also reject that simply because an object (whether a coin or otherwise) contains someone's portrait that it is historically significant by default. I am not aware that the 2000 5R was struck to commemorate anything in particular.

 

“To be measurable the coin must have been graded on an international quality standard in the USA,” he says.

 

Nonsense. Even in the US, no knowledgeable collector or professional numismatist would likely agree with that and those elsewhere who do not prefer TPG but are also knowledgeable would almost certainly reject it.

 

"Blignaut says there are more than 300 000 Mandela related R5 coins graded in the world today."

 

This number includes many issues, including the 2000 5R which is the subject of this article. But regardless, none of them are remotely rare except "grade rare" such as the 2008 NGC MS-69 which the SA Coin Company sold for R2.3MM some time back (I believe 2008 or 2009). More recently, one of the now 11 in this grade failed to sell repeatedly on BoB at the "bargain" price of R499,000. Whether it ultimately sold and at what price, I do not know.

 

"He says the 2000 Proof DCAM 66 sold for R735 in 2005. The current selling price is around R25 000.”

 

Hurry! Hurry! You don't want to miss out on that "bargain"! I do not know what the current actual value is, but I would pass even at R735.

 

“The market price when she bought was what she paid for it, that was determined by the market and that is what she paid.”

 

Uh no, not exactly. The price she paid was arbitrarily determined by SA Coin company, just as it was for the 1892 (MS-64) and 1898 (MS-65) ZAR 1D which they offered me for $2500 each sometime around 2006. Hard as it was, I managed to pass up on that once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

"Glenn Schoeman, chairman of The South African Association of Numismatic Dealers (SAAND) and chief executive officer of Gold Reef City Mint, says the coin was “grossly overpriced” from the beginning, which explains why the reader has difficulty in selling it."

 

Here is a comment I can finally agree with. Of course, I have the sneaking suspicion that he and others like him would not apply this reasoning to sales of ZAR and Union near the market peak of 2011, and neither would most on this forum either.

 

“There are so many of those coins – it is a case of supply and demand. There is an oversupply of those coins in the market at the moment and it is quite sad to hear people like this who spent a lot of money but they just haven’t done their homework.”

 

True and for the 2008 5R at least, there are far more coins available than there will ever be collectors who will want them at more than a nominal premium over face value. That is exactly wher emost of them are ultimately headed.