Black Storks on the Move in Croatia

Three Black Storks on Croatian 200 Kuna

One of my favorite coin issuing coutries is Croatia. Like so many other countries in Eastern Europe, Croatia keeps the themes of its commemorative issues relevant to its country and collecting population. You don't see any really wacky commemorative coins issued from Croatiaand you always know that you will become more familiar with the home country when you purchase a Croatian coin.

One trouble with Croatia silver crowns however, is that they can sometimes prove very hard to locate. After initial distribution from the Croatian Nation Bank, the secondary market for Croatian coins is limited and western collectors often have to search a long time to add specific coins to their collection.

One example of a Croatian commemorative silver crown which is becoming more difficult to obtain is the 1997 silver proof Black Storks coin. The mintage of both the Black Storksand White-Tailed Eagleissues from 1997 in Croatia was limited to 1,000 each and world wide animal coin collectors are now driving the prices up in their efforts to add these two coins to their collections.

At present the Three Black Storks 200 Kuna, KM#71, has risen from $45 to $60 on NumisMaster and the smaller 150 Kuna Eagle coin, KM#69, is up from $40 to $45.

One of the best venues for finding Animal coins for your collection is The Coin Lode, run by Al Beck. Beck offers a vast array of animal coin issues on his website www.coinlode.com , in addition to setting up at many major U.S. shows.

For modern Croatian coinsyou may want to connect with one of the major modern coins dealers in Europe. Try A. Jorg Numismatik at thier website www.ajoerg.de, or perhaps search for Croatian coins on eBay, or check out Don's World Coin Gallery, which provides links to eBay offerings for specific countries.