I'm wondering how many world coin and/or world currency collectors are trying to get at least one coin and/or one bill from every country in the world. Past, present or both. I'm interested in how and what you collect? How you organize/classify them? And how many countries you have? I know everyone will probably have their own way of determining what is a country, like I consider countries that have changed their names to be separate countries, such as Ceylon and Sri Lanka. I don't count separate provinces of India or China as seperate entries with the exception of Taiwan. And so far I haven't gone back more than 150 years. I currently have 250 listed. I'd be very interested in hearing about your collections. JonySky
I tried that a long time ago, gave up after awhile. Now my kids own most of those coins and I went onto collecting ancients, medieval etc.
Actially I'm an SFEC freak, not an OFEC collector. That's Several From Every Country. My system is roughly based on the Krause categorization, but rather than limit myself to one per country, I am accumulating one (and occasionally more because I just like the designs) from each monetary regime. For example, my Great Britain section has places for one from each ruler, and in the case of Liz II, I have both a pre-decimal and a decimal example. France has places for the individual Kings, the Empire, WW II Vichy France, etc. For the US, I just have three slots - Colonial era, United States, and the Confederacy. It's a project that will never be finished, especially since when I find a really attractive coin from a regime already represented, I have to decide whether to upgrade or add.
I am afraid that if I like it I try to get it type of collector someone mentioned a rather nice Latvian coin a short while ago and 'WELL I HOPE YOUR SATISFIDE NOW LOL' yep I have bought one :goofer: Have to say it realy is lovely 1931 5L now I want the others De Orc
That is the really bad thing about these forums, I have been exposed to early 20th century Italians, Latvians etc.
not a SWCC either Actually being the kind of guy that believes if 1 is good, 2 is better. I have a lot more than 1 per country for most countries. Some Countries have such rare coins (meaning expensive) that there are a few I only have 1 of, but mostly I have a bunch per country. I like the 1 per king thing though for England, Do you have any Edward VIII ? There are just so many really neat coins. And so much history. JonySky
Jony,I believe you hold the "world" record by collecting 250 out of 192 possible countries...just kiddin' Seriously,I know there are a lot more countries that have been absorbed into others and places that issue coinage that aren't considered countries.Good job! http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm
I collect basically by type... as far as coins go, I keep pretty much at least one of each type of coin I come across, and buy any I come across that look interesting. Lately been getting a few Japanese coins... basically from the start of "Modern" coinage (Meiji 3) to just before the generic designs started (so about Shouwa 40 or so, or 1965). My paper money collection is pretty haphazard... I collect just on what designs look interesting. I especially like detailed landscapes, weird architectural designs, and weird portraits. Some of my favorites are a rediculously detailed painting on the back of a Costa Rican bill, to a weird looking star-shaped bridge on a bill from Belarus. It's been a lot of fun collecting this way, and pretty cheap too, since value doesn't really attatch much to relatively recent paper money. Not paid more than $5 for any of the ones I have.
I try to get what I call a complete set of a denomination and mm from a country. For example, I have a very large % of german 1,2,5 pfennig coins (post WWII), I want to get complete collections by date/mm. I also have almost complete collection of some denominations of spain from 1975 to the euro, and a lot from 1957-1975(i think those dates are right). I am currently trying to focus on canadian 20th century. Some countries are just too complicated to try to collect a lot from. Great Britton has so many denominations (farthing, pence, shilling, florin, pound, sovergn, crown) that it seems impossible to get them all. While I am concentrating on a set, I keep anything else I come across, and I constantly upgrade if I find a better example of a coin. I loose focus on one set and start concentrating on another one from some other country. (ADD has its benifits) I keep my coins in 2x2 cardboard holders, in 20 pocket pages, in 3 ring binders, on a shelf, in a closet, in the hall. I just counted 27 binders. The countries are alphabatized, and then there are some countries that have their own binder (germany has 3). The last time I counted them all, I had over 2000 coins from over 100 countries, but i havn't counted in a long time. There are some countries that I want but havn't come across - Vatican City, Cook Islands, and Hawii are some that I want to get, but don't have any examples of yet. My only problem is that I want to trade doubles, but there are so many that it would take so long to get organized, I don't even try. I've got a huge box of coins in baggies, tubes, and boxes that I have to hide from my wife.
Iconography, Symbology and Semiotics I guess the designers fell down on the job. If we are talking of the same note, the picture is of a red wall with a star-shaped hole in it, symbolizing the demise of communism. In the field of ancients, there are coins from Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. Those coins show a rider on a horse. Much has been writtern. Suposedly this is supposed to commemorate an Olympic victory. The first guess is that it is Is it Philip's horse and jockey. But on some of these, the rider is wearing a hat, so do those identify Philip or is this young Alexander and his horse Boucephalos?
Philosophical Frameworks I respect money too much to limit it to governments. "Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. ... Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life." http://www.atlasshrugged.tv/speech.htm Everyone with a checkbook or charge card creates money. Coins and bankotes are more interesting, even beautiful, as are stock certificates, for instance, and many other fiduciary instruments. On the other hand, medals are pure art in the form of coined money. I have no money from Germany 1932-1945. A few years back, I found some in a bulk lot I bought and I threw them in the trash. Over Christmas, I organized my postal collections and I found some old stamps from that era and I wadded them up and pitched them in the trash, also. I have exactly one communist coin, a silver rouble from 1922, with the factory worker showing the peasant the new sunrise. I keep that for the bitter irony: the communists never could abandon money, no matter how they tried, any more than they could abandon the law of gravity. While I do have money issued by governments, most of my collection comes from other sources. "Govern-mentality" comes from all of us having gone to public tax-funded schools. We were never taught anything else. Only a handful of original thinkers ever get beyond that. Numismatics limits itself when it sees itself as being in the employ of the Govern-Mint. Government money is just one piece of the puzzle. Kings and princes, democracies and republics have issued interesting coins and paper. So have many other organizations, incorporations, and real persons. In fact, if you understand the origins of tyranny in the 7th century BC, then you understand that the first coins were personal issues. We have fiduciary instruments, clay tablets with cuneiform, that are promissary notes, one person to another, from 3000 BC.
If we are talking of the same note - the Belarus 50 roubles note, that is - it shows the "Hero Fortress", a war memorial in Brest. Most buildings in that fortress complex are fairly old (19c) but that wall with the star (memorial entrance http://www.brest.by/ct/page4e.html) is from the 1970s ... Christian
That's what I have, based on your description. I remember thinking a) what an odd engineering feat, and b) it seems ironic to put an obvious communist symbol on a post-communist note from Belarus (mine is dated 2000). I have a lot of communist-era banknotes, the artwork is great, if a little ironic in its representations... if communist life was as great as the symbology on the notes depicted it, the Soviet Union would have never fallen, lol. History won't cease to exist if reminders of it are destroyed. For better or worse, it deserves to be remembered. But that's a whole 'nother topic...
Well, with regard to Belarus the term "post-communist" is a little problematic. I'll refrain from posting political comments here - but have a look at one their recent (2004) commemorative coin dedicated to the very same fortress: http://www.nbrb.by/Natiobank/NBRBCoins.eng/last/last0430_s.html Sure, the hammer and sickle is there because the coin commemorates the "defenders of the fortress", ie. the Red Army. But the emblem above that is the current, official CoA of Belarus ... Christian