Internet Sellers

I tried buying a coin advertised on the internet. It was a 1908 silver peso coin, in very fine condition and looks quite attractive. However, the owner wants P5,000.00 for his coin. He based his price on US coin site selling graded coins (it was more than a hundred dollars). He was irritated when told that 20 million pieces of that coin was minted by USA and that it is estimated that there are more than ten thousand pieces hoarded by coin collectors locally and many more are kept by folks in the provinces. It was a failed negotiation because he was not selling for a lower price.. whew!

I also met with someone who advertised his coins on the Internet. He showed me his collection of beautiful old silver Philippine coins. However, he also based his asking prices on an American Website' quoted prices on Graded coins. He was also very angry that I told him his coins were not comparable to those shown on the Internet site. I presented an Uncirculated coin (the old pink One Centavo 1944 coin which is very common). I pointed to the "Cartwheel" effect and explained to him that his collection do not have this factor, thus can not be considered as a coin in "Mint State". Imagine that he was asking for 500 pesos for a silver ten centavo coin which can be easily bought for less than hundred pesos here in Manila. I am now hesitant to meet and talk with these Internet sellers.

Thanks for the warning of being careful in dealing with these internet sellers. I got into an argument when someone was asking too much for his 1945 ten centavo silver coin. I told him that his price was more than the cost of a graded coin in the ebay internet site. Unfortunately he was not aware of the coin grading system. What angered him more, was when told that the 1944 and 1945 silver coins were the most common coins in the fil-am series because of the very big number of made by usa (50, 20 and 10 ctvs. were reportedly minted to more than 200 million pieces). He just calmed down when I told him that the reason was that during the war, the japanese were confiscating all silver coins and after the war ended, the americans brought along many coins. And his grandfather confirmed that after the war there were many very shiny silver coins around.

I tried to make a count of the total coins issued by the Americans in the Philippines after the war. It was more or less Five Hundred Million pieces, including all the 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 centavo coins. This is why these coins, however shiny and unused condition they are in, sells the cheapest among the Fil-Am series. They are even cheaper than a beautiful uncirculated half-centavo (1903, 1904) coin. I just wonder now, why America did not issue any silver pesos for that same period (1944, 1945)?