Would you pay $30 or even $150 for a coin that only has a legal tender value of $2? The obvious answer is ‘no.’ Obviously no one in their right minds would have over so much cash for a coin that has so little value. But you’d be surprised to hear that many people do so on a regular basis, because they’re not just buying regular old $2 coins. They’re buying special, limited-edition mints that might be worth thousands, even tens of thousands, in the future.
Remember the Doctor Who and Transformers coins we featured a few weeks ago? Well, it turns out there’s more to those where they came from, and you might just be lucky enough to get your hands on a couple more, if you can still find them.
Glow-in-the-Dark Dinosaur Coins
The one above is the second of a series of glow-in-the-dark dinosaur coins being minted by Canada. It’ll have a value of 25 cents, even though it’ll be sold for about C$29.95. But it’s going to be rare, since only 30,000 of these will be minted.
Star Wars Limited Edition Coins
If you fancy yourself having some out-of-this-world currency in your wallet (although we wouldn’t advise keeping these commemorative coins there!), then you might be interested in New Zealand Mint’s Star Wars collection. They’ve done two series already, and while the actual value of each coin is about a fraction of what you’d have to pay for it, it’s a must-have for every coin collector or Star Wars fan.
The first series, which features the bad guys including Darth Vader, retails for NZ$399, while the second series featuring the good guys including Anakin Skywalker and Yoda, retails for NZ$399.56.
The Hobbit Limited Edition Coins
The New Zealand Mint knows limited edition coins are where the money’s at, so it only makes sense that they’re taking on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and releasing a series for the franchise, too. The coins are available in a three-coin gold set, which is priced at $11,000 (yes, they’re crazy expensive, I know), while the silver eight-coin set is priced at $890. For people who can’t spend a ton on Hobbit coins, you can get the aluminum-zinc three-coin set for $85.
You can check out the entire Hobbit series mints here.
Oldies But Goodies: Rare Cents
If you’re not a huge fan of sci-fi stuff but still find collecting coins a pretty interesting (and even profitable) hobby to go into, then you might want to go looking for old coins. You can easily jumpstart your collection by parsing for rarities at garage sales and buying rare coins online or in specialty shops. And when we say ‘old’, we mean really old, like the 1913 Liberty Head nickel pictured above, of which there are only give in existence. One was sold a couple of years ago for close to $3 million dollars. Another one is expected to go under the hammer soon.
Not all old coins are worth that much, obviously, but if you happen to be one of the lucky few in possession of one of a lucky few of extremely rare coins, then lucky you.
