/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>55283346
>Why though? I just don't get it.

I actually have a pretty good handle on it and could bore you at length, but basically the world of numismatics today was very different 100 years ago. I have some catalogs and dealer buy price lists from the 1890s-1920s and unless you had great rarities in top condition many coins that are treasured 4+ figure gems now were basically just scrap. I don't have it handy but as I recall you could buy things like Flowing Hair and Draped Bust silver dollars, very expensive now, for just 1.50-$2 each in the equivalent of Fine-XF condition. There were far more coins available per-capita and far fewer collectors, it didn't really become popular until after WW2. Anyway, old demonetized coins like circulated Spanish dollars or French Ecus were literally just scrap back 100 years ago so craftspeople and silversmiths used them as decorative novelties for various products, if they could quickly solder some scrap coins together and sell it to a tourist for a buck or 2 over melt value instead of going through the trouble of chiseling and hand-chasing their own decorations in a silverware trinket then why not?

Here are my Indian "Chuckram" (formerly Sneedram) demitasse coin spoons, these little 0.3g babbys sell for $5-10 each now but back when the English were lording over the poos these coins were just junk so using 5 per spoon was transforming them from crap into a value-added curiosity for well-to-do tourists or whoever and was simply good business.

Anyone get any cool numisfag bait lately? I found a 0.38g silver chuckram for $6 shipped so I'll finally have one not soldered to a spoon for my babby silver collection

Today I got a second set (at top) of antique Indian silver spoons each decorated with 5 babby ~.37g silver Travancore Sneedrams (formerly Chuckrams). Both sold cheap because understandably the sellers had no idea what they were, this set weighs 61g and was $15.84 total. I'd love a sack full of the little coins someday, much cheaper than ancient Greek fractions.