# VCoins Scraper - Ancient, World & US Coins Marketplace (`lulzasaur/vcoins-scraper`) Actor

Scrape coin listings from VCoins.com, the marketplace of 100+ trusted ancient, world & US coin dealers. Search any keyword and get title, dealer, price + currency, category, attribution details, image and URL. Optional detail-page enrichment. Great for numismatic price research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/vcoins-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## VCoins Scraper — Ancient, World & US Coins Marketplace

Scrape coin listings from [VCoins.com](https://www.vcoins.com), the online marketplace of 100+ trusted numismatic dealers selling ancient, world, and US coins. Search any keyword and get structured data: title, dealer, category, price with currency, attribution details, image, and listing URL.

### What it does

- Searches VCoins across all dealer stores by keyword (e.g. `denarius`, `thaler`, `morgan dollar`, `athens tetradrachm`)
- Optional category filter: Ancient Coins, US Coins, or World Coins
- Optional min/max price filters
- Paginates automatically (100 results per page)
- Optional detail-page enrichment: full attribution description, complete category breadcrumb, ISO currency code, availability
- Handles multi-currency dealers (USD, EUR, GBP, NOK, and more)

### Output example

```json
{
  "title": "TRAJAN. AR Denarius, Rome mint, struck 98-99 AD. Concordia",
  "dealer": "Musa Numismatic Art",
  "dealerUrl": "https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/musa_numismatic_art-193/ancient-coins/Default.aspx",
  "category": "Ancient Coins",
  "categoryPath": "Trajan - The Adoptive Emperors - Roman Imperial Coins - Ancient Coins",
  "price": 172,
  "currency": "USD",
  "priceText": "US$ 172.00",
  "attribution": "Roman Imperial TRAJAN, 98-117 AD AR Denarius Rome mint, struck 98-99 AD Laureate head right / Concordia seated left",
  "availability": "InStock",
  "productId": "2404761",
  "imageUrl": "https://images.vcoins.com/product_image/193/R/3/R3k4wB2cXiL6tK3oC5aFAy8ps9fYzH.jpg",
  "url": "https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/musa_numismatic_art/193/product/trajan__ar_denarius_rome_mint_struck_9899_ad__concordia/2404761/Default.aspx",
  "searchQuery": "denarius",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-09T20:30:00.000Z"
}
```

`categoryPath`, `attribution`, and `availability` are filled when **Scrape Detail Pages** is enabled; otherwise `category` comes from the dealer's store section.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `searchQueries` | array | `["denarius"]` | Keywords to search |
| `category` | string | `all` | `all`, `ancient`, `us`, or `world` |
| `minPrice` / `maxPrice` | integer | `0` | Price filters (0 = off) |
| `maxItems` | integer | `100` | Max listings across all queries (0 = unlimited) |
| `scrapeDetails` | boolean | `false` | Fetch each product page for attribution + full category |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | none | Not needed — VCoins serves direct requests |

### Use cases

- **Numismatic price research** — compare asking prices for the same coin type across 100+ dealers
- **Collection management** — track market availability of coins on your want list
- **Dealer inventory monitoring** — watch new listings in a category or price band
- **Market analytics** — build price datasets for ancient, world, and US coins

### Notes

- No proxy required; the actor scrapes server-rendered pages politely with capped retries and timeouts
- Prices are returned in each dealer's listing currency with an ISO code where recognized
- If a search returns no results, the actor writes a `DIAGNOSTIC` record to the key-value store instead of failing

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

One or more keywords to search on VCoins (e.g. "denarius", "thaler", "morgan dollar", "athens tetradrachm"). Each query is searched across all VCoins dealer stores.

## `category` (type: `string`):

Restrict the search to one VCoins top-level category, or search all.

## `minPrice` (type: `integer`):

Minimum price filter (0 = no minimum).

## `maxPrice` (type: `integer`):

Maximum price filter (0 = no maximum).

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of listings to scrape across all queries. Set to 0 for unlimited (capped at 20 pages x 100 results per query).

## `scrapeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

If enabled, opens each listing's product page to add the full attribution description, complete category breadcrumb, ISO currency code, and availability. Slower but richer.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. VCoins (IIS/ASP.NET) returns 200 to a direct request, so no proxy is needed. Enable Apify Proxy only for large repeated runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "denarius"
  ],
  "category": "all",
  "minPrice": 0,
  "maxPrice": 0,
  "maxItems": 30,
  "scrapeDetails": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "denarius"
    ],
    "maxItems": 30
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lulzasaur/vcoins-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQueries": ["denarius"],
    "maxItems": 30,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lulzasaur/vcoins-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "denarius"
  ],
  "maxItems": 30
}' |
apify call lulzasaur/vcoins-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lulzasaur/vcoins-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ZtdY99n2oUfCMjLCz/builds/9ZgfMHNCLCzxSGHcq/openapi.json