Question About Unusual Coinage Materials/Post Your Unusual Materials Coins!

Ok, I do see a few more pearl casino chips with serial numbers on them. That might be a strong indication that it is a gambling token instead of a trade token. That'd be fairly disappointing conclusion, though I'd still be happy with it.

I'm still pretty happy with it even if it is (probably) a gambling token. People seem to want quite a bit for the South American pearl chips and this one is more money-like than most. I also saw a few out there that I'd now call nacre-like plastic rather than actual nacre, which is good to know. I'll be watching out for these and hope I can find something that might really fit the bill here.

Now that is really cool. And it appears to be in really good shape too. Nice find.

Wow. Can I inquire on source and price? A quick look and I guess it's a high X00 price... I doubt I'll be buying one of these any time soon but still.

@bd251,

Thanks!

@nautilator,

Thanks!

I actually came across the auction earlier this week by accident while researching your nacre token. I won it from an auction house in Massachusetts called Skinner Inc. I have never dealt with them before but a friend of mine said that they are a respected antiques and furniture auction house that has been around for about 40 years but it seems that they started branching into coins relatively recently.

The hammer price was pretty good at $425 but when I add in the 23% buyers' premium and shipping I will probably be closer to $575 and then I contacted PCGS to see if I could get them to agree to accept the coin for certification and if they agree that will run about a hundred bucks (I got them to agree to certify my coal Notgeld coins and I know that they do certify the 1915 Mexico Cardboard revolutionary 5 Centavos. So, there's a good chance that they will be willing to certify this too). All in, it will probably end up costing me about $675 to $700. So, not a cheap item by any means and definitely one of my more expensive coin purchases but a great price for what it is. I've seen lower quality examples sell for a bit more.

It seems to me that the reason that I got such a good hammer price is that the auction house seems to be stuck in the past. In that they do online auctions but they won't take payments over the internet. Just wire transfer, personal check or money order and the kicker is that they do 3rd party shipping. Meaning that I have to find and contact from a list of their approved shippers a shipping company that will ship the item to me and remotely arrange all of shipping myself (I'm learning how to do that on the fly). So, it's definitely kind of a hassle on the back end of the transaction but I feel like it's worth it for this particular item. In the end you have an antiques and furniture auction house that is trying to branch out into coin auctions that charges a significantly above average buyers' premium (23 percent is pretty high for the coin auction industry) but isn't even willing to ship the items themselves. With that being said, I'm not particularly sure how much longer they will be doing coin auctions unless they are willing to adapt.

Not a coin, but a currency. This is an Estonian 2 ruble notgeld issued in 1818 and is made of leather. I got a guidebook with it as apparently there were quite a few in the same vein as this.

@nautilator,

That leather Notgeld note is awesome! Out of curiosity does the leather seem dry and brittle in hand or like normal leather (still somewhat soft)? Just curious since 1818 is pretty old for a leather item and I'm just wondering how well something like that would hold up.