Commemorative coins 2010

CarPark2

My daughter was born in 2010 and I had an idea that it might be nice to buy her a commemorative coin from that year and give it to her for her wedding (if she gets married) as something that she could use for the "exchange these coins as symbols of all that we possess" bit.

Unfortunately the central bank seems to be sold out of the commemorative coins from that year. I had a look at the Bank of England and the Central Bank of France, but they don't seem to do these (or at least not obviously that I could find). I am also cautious as there seem to be a lot of companies that do commemorative coins, but presumably they don't have the same value/significance as the ones issued by central banks.

Any advice on where I might source a good commemorative coin from 2010 (I would consider other countries, but ideally would have liked some sort of link to Ireland)?

Do people ever sell on their commemorative coins? How could you be sure that it is the real deal?

PS: I know that the central bank of Ireland have the book of coins with 2010 on them (€25), but they just seem (to my ignorant eyes) like regular coins worth about €5, but charging €25 for them as they are on a piece of card and have never been in circulation!

filbert the fox

CarPark2 wrote: »

My daughter was born in 2010 and I had an idea that it might be nice to buy her a commemorative coin from that year and give it to her for her wedding (if she gets married) as something that she could use for the "exchange these coins as symbols of all that we possess" bit.

Unfortunately the central bank seems to be sold out of the commemorative coins from that year. I had a look at the Bank of England and the Central Bank of France, but they don't seem to do these (or at least not obviously that I could find). I am also cautious as there seem to be a lot of companies that do commemorative coins, but presumably they don't have the same value/significance as the ones issued by central banks.

Any advice on where I might source a good commemorative coin from 2010 (I would consider other countries, but ideally would have liked some sort of link to Ireland)?

Do people ever sell on their commemorative coins? How could you be sure that it is the real deal?

PS: I know that the central bank of Ireland have the book of coins with 2010 on them (€25), but they just seem (to my ignorant eyes) like regular coins worth about €5, but charging €25 for them as they are on a piece of card and have never been in circulation!

Isn't every coin just a piece of metal? If we used that logic Candy Floss would never have been marketed.

Anyhow, I'm not sure that the commemorative coins state the year anyway. The set does however.

L1011

CarPark2 wrote: »

PS: I know that the central bank of Ireland have the book of coins with 2010 on them (€25), but they just seem (to my ignorant eyes) like regular coins worth about €5, but charging €25 for them as they are on a piece of card and have never been in circulation!

You are mostly paying for the presentation pack, however...

At some point in the future, uncirculated coins will be worth more than circulated ones as collectors pieces. How much that turns out to be is unquantifiable though.

As it happens, 2010 is the year (to date) with the lowest number of Irish euro coins minted both in total and for nearly every coin (its not the lowest number of 10c, 50c or €2 as far as I know) which could also have some bearing in the future.

I don't see either of those making them worth €25+ any time soon though.

The 2010 commemoratives do have the year on them (see here: http://www.adverts.ie/coins/2010-ireland-gaisce-double-proof-coin-set-president-award/6914518 - not connected to the seller, just has a pic of the back) but they'd be out of stock and you'd have to buy them second hand. Most sellers are looking for fairly hefty premiums on them already as the pack cost €95.

CarPark2

Thanks for the responses.
I don't really want to get into a discussion on the merits of the book of coins. They are not for me, but I am not an avid coin collector, so I am not in a position to discuss their merits or not.

L1011, any advice on how to be sure that the second hand ones are the real deal and not fakes?

Also, does anybody have any advice on how/where to buy foreign commemorative coins (e.g., US, UK, France)? I tried their central bank websites, but I couldn't find any.

L1011

The genuine 2010 €10 and €20 coins are .925 silver and .999 gold. Fakes won't be made of as valuable material at all and will tarnish very quickly. Its not foolproof but that plus checking the weight if you've access to a precise scales are decent methods to check

filbert the fox

If it's of any use the Central Bank of Ireland claims to have the Baby set for 2010.

The exchange at weddings used to be Gold and Silver - tokens of all I possess.

Shilling/florin/halfcrown coins before 1947 usually contained silver. The Pearse coin from 1966 is often used or a victorian half crown. the rings do as the gold bit.!

CarPark2

Thanks for the responses. The ones on adverts (such as the one you linked to above) are in the plastic seal and have the bit of card from the central bank. In that case, it won't be possible to check the tarnish (or to weigh them either).
Would I be safe enough if they come in the plastic casing, with the official box and certificate of authenticity (it would seem like a huge amount of trouble to fake that).

DMcL1971

From the Central Bank website you can see that the only coins they still have available for sale are the two collector sets. One is the 2010 uncirculated set for the 'Animals of Irish Coinage' series and the other is the 'Baby Set'. Both these sets contain uncirculated regular coins. The coins only have a face value of 3.88. Because they are in a presentation pack and there is only a limited number of these packs released they charge 25 for them. These sets do not really go up much (if any) in value and are not really suitable as the kind of gift you are looking at.

Your idea of a commemorative coin is much better. These coins are made of either gold or silver, they are manufactured to proof standard, come in a plastic capsule, presentation case and have a numbered certificate of authenticity from the Central Bank. The officially released coins from the Central Bank are sought after by collectors and will usually go up in value. There are other private companies (such as the Dublin Mint) who also release commemorative coins however there is little interest in these unofficial coins and they rarely hold their value, let alone increase.

The coins officially released in 2010 where the 15 Euro Silver Horse coin, 10 Euro Silver Gaisce coin, 20 Euro Gold Gaisce coin and a double presentation case of the Gold and Silver Gaisce coins. Details of these coins and their mintages and dimensions can be found in the first post of this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056826367.

These coins will often be found for sale on Adverts and on eBay. There is not a problem with fakes of these coins, as you have pointed out it is too much trouble to fake them and all their packaging. If you see a coin and all its packaging you can be 99.9% sure it is genuine. The vast majority of people who buy and sell these coins online would never take the coin out of its capsule and handle it so it should be in perfect condition. If in doubt just ask the seller has it ever been removed from its capsule, if it has, then don't bother buying it.

Unfortunately for you, your daughter was born in the year with the lowest mintage of the commemorative coins. This means that the Gaisce coins are among the rarer ones and you might have to wait around for a while to find them on sale and pay a higher price as opposed to some other years when there were large numbers of coins released and they can still be bought for around the same price that they were originally sold for. The Horse coin, though it has sold out, is not nearly as sought after as the Gaisce ones so should be relatively easy to pick up on eBay or adverts.

If you have any further questions please feel free to PM me if you want.

CarPark2

DMcL1971 wrote: »

From the Central Bank website you can see that the only coins they still have available for sale are the two collector sets. One is the 2010 uncirculated set for the 'Animals of Irish Coinage' series and the other is the 'Baby Set'. Both these sets contain uncirculated regular coins. The coins only have a face value of 3.88. Because they are in a presentation pack and there is only a limited number of these packs released they charge 25 for them. These sets do not really go up much (if any) in value and are not really suitable as the kind of gift you are looking at.

Your idea of a commemorative coin is much better. These coins are made of either gold or silver, they are manufactured to proof standard, come in a plastic capsule, presentation case and have a numbered certificate of authenticity from the Central Bank. The officially released coins from the Central Bank are sought after by collectors and will usually go up in value. There are other private companies (such as the Dublin Mint) who also release commemorative coins however there is little interest in these unofficial coins and they rarely hold their value, let alone increase.

The coins officially released in 2010 where the 15 Euro Silver Horse coin, 10 Euro Silver Gaisce coin, 20 Euro Gold Gaisce coin and a double presentation case of the Gold and Silver Gaisce coins. Details of these coins and their mintages and dimensions can be found in the first post of this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056826367.

These coins will often be found for sale on Adverts and on eBay. There is not a problem with fakes of these coins, as you have pointed out it is too much trouble to fake them and all their packaging. If you see a coin and all its packaging you can be 99.9% sure it is genuine. The vast majority of people who buy and sell these coins online would never take the coin out of its capsule and handle it so it should be in perfect condition. If in doubt just ask the seller has it ever been removed from its capsule, if it has, then don't bother buying it.

Unfortunately for you, your daughter was born in the year with the lowest mintage of the commemorative coins. This means that the Gaisce coins are among the rarer ones and you might have to wait around for a while to find them on sale and pay a higher price as opposed to some other years when there were large numbers of coins released and they can still be bought for around the same price that they were originally sold for. The Horse coin, though it has sold out, is not nearly as sought after as the Gaisce ones so should be relatively easy to pick up on eBay or adverts.

If you have any further questions please feel free to PM me if you want.

Thanks for a very thoughtful and informed post.