An Important Numismatic Jubilee on 11 May 2015

[Ni28 10]

In a few days, on 11 May 2015, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of an important numismatic date for South Africa. This is not only the jubilee of the introduction of the second decimal series, but it can also be considered as the 50th anniversary of the day that the tickey fell from grace (after being part of South African coinage for 140 years). It also formally signaled the end of silver in circulating coinage (although the silver R1 saw some minor circulation for another 4-5 years).

 

The first coins of the second decimal series, the 2c and 5c, were released to the public on Tuesday, 11 May 1965. The decision to start with the 2c coin was not arbitrary as there was still uncertainty as to whether the public would prefer the new 2c coin or the old 2½c coin. The 1964 Coinage Act still made provision for both of these coins to be minted. The Advisory Board on Coinage therefore made a decision to release the 2c coin on 11 May 1965 to give the public an early opportunity to make use of the coin.

 

Records from the Advisory Board indicated that the 2c was very popular and the old 2½c coins were accumulating at the banks. In March 1966, the Advisory Board recommended that the 2½c coin be withdrawn from circulation. This makes the humble 1965 2c a special coin, although it hardly gets a second look from collectors. The approximately 60 million 2c coins minted in 1965 ensured they will never become sought after collectibles. It should nevertheless be remembered as the coin that defeated the tickey.

 

(source: History of the Nickel Coins of South Africa)

[coinoisseur 10]

Hello

 

Yes it is an important event. My understanding is that 60 years represents Jubilee and 50 years would be Golden.

 

Cheers

[Ni28 10]

 

My understanding is that 60 years represents Jubilee and 50 years would be Golden.

 

 

Thanks Anthony. I googled "jubilee" as I was suddenly not sure of the meaning myself. Queen Victoria's coinage nevertheless gave me the best answer. She was crowned in 1837 and her redesigned bust 50 years later in 1887 is referred to as her Jubilee coinage. I see the coin books refer to her 50th anniversary as the "Queen's Golden Jubilee" (Coins of England, Spink, 2005)

Edited April 18, 2015 by Ni28
typo

[Ni28 10]

The approximately 60 million 2c coins minted in 1965 ensured they will never become sought after collectibles.

 

Although the mintage of the 1965 2c is huge, another thought struck me this morning. The 1965 2c coin in the proof sets was the Afrikaans variety and the mint packs where only issued from 1967 onwards. This implies the 1965 2c English variety was not issued in either a proof set or a mint pack. It is not clear if people hoarded these coins at the time of issue.

 

How difficult is it nowadays to find a Brilliant UNC 1965 2c English variety that is still in the original untarnished red condition? I do not see any for sale on BoB, although the low demand for these coins might be the reason nobody is listing it. Are there still bags full of these coins in UNC condition lying around somewhere?

Edited April 19, 2015 by Ni28
typo

[jwither 10]

How difficult is it nowadays to find a Brilliant UNC 1965 2c English variety that is still in the original untarnished red condition? I do not see any for sale on BoB, although the low demand for these coins might be the reason nobody is listing it. Are there still bags full of these coins in UNC condition lying around somewhere?

 

I have also raised this point in the past, though not specifically for this coin. I don't have access to these coins as all of you do, but my answer is potentially quite scarce for all earlier RSA bronze, excluding 1961-1964, though it is possible there are more than is apparent because no one bothers to grade them.

[Ni28 10]

Today is now the big day of this celebration. As a coincidence, I am currently in Montreal Canada. Canada is off course the country where our Mint sourced the nickel blanks for the new series. These came from the company Sherrit Gordon which mined the nickel at their mine in Lynn Lake. It was an interesting decision to rather import versus manufacturing in South Africa as the raw material was available from our platinum mines.

 

As another observation. I visited a coin dealer here in Montreal. His website states he has been in business for 40 years and he carries the biggest stock. Big was my disappointment when I walked out there empty handed. According to him the coin market is very quiet in Canada and Ebay is stealing the business from traditional dealers. Sad to hear this as I still prefer the personal contact with the traditional coin dealers. I suppose times are changing.

[jwither 10]

As another observation. I visited a coin dealer here in Montreal. His website states he has been in business for 40 years and he carries the biggest stock. Big was my disappointment when I walked out there empty handed. According to him the coin market is very quiet in Canada and Ebay is stealing the business from traditional dealers. Sad to hear this as I still prefer the personal contact with the traditional coin dealers. I suppose times are changing.

 

What were you looking for?

 

If you were looking for RSA or even South Africa generally, this is exactly what you should have expected. I don't know if you read my other topic but there aren't hardly any dealers who carry the coins I believe you are looking to buy (RSA) just as there aren't for ZAR and Union outside of South Africa.

 

If you were looking to buy Canadian coins, I'm not surprised either. Most traditional dealers cater to "low budget" buyers which means the coins they offer aren't going to be what many members of this forum want to buy. The one time I went to a dealer in Canada, it was in 2004 in downtown Toronto. I walked in and I saw a wall of boxes behind the counter which I assumed was full of coins, as in thousands or tens of thousands of them. I just walked out because I didn't even believe the proprietor would be able toi find anything in that clutter and didn't see he would have anything I would want to buy.

 

eBay is a generic reason in that it makes it more difficult for dealers to acquire coins and sell them for a profit. But the bigger reason is that a dealer is not going to carry the coins that many members of this forum want to buy when they don't have a customer base for it and in Canada, I'm not aware that there are many collectors of your coins above a nominal value because if there are, it must be an abberation since there aren't many in the United States. The prices certainly do not reflect it.

 

Also for traditional dealers, they generally only sell material like this if someone walks into their shop or their table if at a coin show and offers it to them. They do not actively look for it even with known buyers unless the money makes it worth their time. US collectors provide "want lists" to dealers but a dealer is not going to actively look for anything unless its easy to find or the buyer is a (very) big spender.

 

If this surprises you, consider that when I used to look at online inventory of dealers in your country such as Brian Hern and Alec Kaplan, I seldom saw anything I wanted to buy. There are a few others who I won't mention who did have more, but the prices were hugely inflated and for one of them, the coins weren't graded and I presume most of the better ones would receive "details" grades. Even if I was still actively buying Union, I wouldn't waste my time.

 

In the US, I have also been to the national shows about half a dozen times, Long Beach once and the ANA five times. Maybe the NYC International and CICF are a lot better but I have never found much at the ones I attended, even though the inventory is 1000 times better than any local dealer. Looking online at the most prominent dealer inventory, still almost nothing.

Edited May 11, 2015 by jwither

[Ni28 10]

I was not trying to source South Arican coins, but rather some very common Canadian coins, e.g. a 1951 commemorative 5c nickel coin. I suppose as they are of little value, there is no incentive to keep them in stock.

[jwither 10]

I am not familiar with this coin, unless it is part of a set. If it isn't, I would not expect see it in dealer stock. I have the 1967 Centennial specimen set which I bought in October 2000 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I also bought a few PL silver dollars (ungraded) from the 1950's with the QEII portrait. However, these coins are a lot more popular.

 

I don't know what the typical Canadian dealers carries. From what I know, most Canadian collectors have tended to collect like Americans but I might be wrong about it or it might have changed. By this, I mean completing denomination sets out of pocket change to fill albums, though now they would need to buy all of the earlier dates. This predominated in US collecting in the past, certainly when I returned to the US in 1975.

 

Like you stated, selling single coins like this one of low value probably isn't worth their time.