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Originally posted by Country

SILVER searching for me has been terrible lately - nothing but 1994P BU boxes. Today I went to an antique mall that just got to my neighborhood to see if they had any (SILVER) coins. My first visit was today. Like other antique malls, vendors have stuff in fixed areas, mostly locked up in display cases. Most of the vendors are not there, but other folks sell their stuff in the vendors' absence. I was drawn to one area that had stamps and coins in cases. At first, I saw the typical US overpriced coins in 2x2s. Too high for me. Then, I saw another area that had a few SILVER foreign coins layed out for viewing. These looked reasonable priced and interesting.

I got one of the attendants to open the locked display case for me. I grabbed an VF 1869 France 5f and an EF 1873 Belgium 5f for a few bucks over spot right away, since I knew these were basically foreign SILVER dollars. There were some smaller coins there too. An Italy BU 1958 500L caught my eye at $5 - SOLD. Also, a Switzerland 1932 5f SILVER coin at $4 - SOLD, since I knew that 5 Swiss Francs were worth $5 in today's fiat money. I took a chance on an VG-F 1863 Italy 1L and an VF Italy 1927 5L (with the neat big eagle on the Italian fasces on the reverse) for $5 and $3.25, respectively. Then, there was this half dollar from Newfoundland for $5. I couldn't remember what Canadian coins were worth, let alone anything from Newfoundland. But, I knew Newfoundland coins were scarcer. It was a 50c piece, so there had to be at least $5 worth of SILVER in it. When I got home, I looked all the coins up in my 1990 World Catalog I had on my desk. The Newfoundland 1873 50c had a value of around $20 for it, since it appeared to be in FINE condition. Then, I realized the catalog was 20 years old. Looking up on the net, I found the Newfoundland 1873 half dollars were a key date (only 38000 minted) and one in FINE condition is worth $100+. Pretty good for a $5 purchase. Sometimes you can find great stuff and get lucky too.

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