Well, I got through the winter by amusing myself with 3 kilos of foreign coins (about 600) and have them all holdered, identified, etc. Now my son gave me a mug of coins from his time in the Navy aboard the USS America and my daughter just gave me 25 or so from Costa Rica. I have about 60 different countries with Canada (80), Mexico (60), Great Britain (60), Germany (40) and France (40) having the most and a few countries with just 1 example. My plan ahead guy was obviously out to lunch when these buys were made, so now I'm looking for some input from you foreign coin collectors as to how to proceed. Representing Germany there are 15 ten pfennig coins with all the various mints locations. I don't think I want to keep all 15 coins. Same could be said for several other countries. So, I got through winter and learned quite a bit and didn't spend much in the process. All suggestions, other than psychiatric care, are welcomed as to how I might proceed.
Sage advice. Agree. After some combination of the above you may also find that one particular country or series makes you want to learn more. Why did they mint these? Who was the engraver? And then you find yourself drawn into searches for information about your area of focus. All good fun! Enjoy the journey!
Many people start on a variation of the "one from each country" collection. So you could start looking for examples from the countries you do not have. Sell or trade excess coins from countries where you have many examples. One quick way would be to make up a lot of all the extras you don't need and sell them all as a group. Another approach is the type set from the country you find interesting, Canada, Great Britain, Germany all have lots of interesting types. John
I know a guy that collects 25 cent coins of every country that makes them and ANY denomination of his birth year.
