US coins in foreign countries

I've been browsing a few days now in Germany's eBay and there seems to be a relatively big market for all types of US coins. For example:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/332164731306

It makes me wonder: are US coins popular world wide?

 

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I think all coins are popular in every country except the USA, where they just seem to collect their own predominantly.
Here in the UK, US coins are as popular as European, Canadian or Russian. IMO

 

Guess it is pretty normal that, when people get interested in coins, they look at - and maybe start collecting - current domestic pieces first. But just as they are likely to go back in time, collection wise, they will also look at what other countries have and had. May not work this way in the US but works elsewhere. Of course it makes a lot of sense to somehow focus on something.

Christian

 

The US in general is much more isolationist than most countries so it makes sense that they would concentrate on their own coins. Even though I am American, US coins just don't interest me that much. I see them every day. I find coins of other countries more interesting because I can learn something from them. I suspect this feeling is also more common in the rest of the world than here. So the posts above do not surprise me.

 

To some extent, "exposure" to coins of other countries also has an influence, I think. When I was young, we would often go to the (nearby) Netherlands, and I always loved the Dutch "dubbeltje", the pre-euro 10 cent nickel coin with a diameter of only 15 mm. On vacation or other trips I would see a "tri-metallic" French coin, or a heptagonal piece from the UK, and so on. Americans basically have two "neighbors", and both can be pretty darn distant. So getting in contact with coins from other countries is just not that easy ...

Christian

 

A Kennedy half is a much-welcomed trade (or tip) in ANY country.

 

A welcome tip for somebody who collects coins, yes. Otherwise, well, at least around here (Western/Central Europe) I would find it odd if anybody gave me a tip in some foreign currency, and with coins at that ...

Christian

 

It's IN ADDITION to a tip, just a friendly gesture.

 

Maybe 50 years ago, not so much now. It has been a very long time, well probably since the Kennedy years that the USA had a president that was very popular overseas.

 

Every Catholic wants one.

 

I went back to Vietnam in '95 & '96. Looking through the shops saw a lot of things we carried, lighters, dog tags, etc. What caught my eye was a 'bunch' of US Quarters being sold as 50 cent pieces. You could not tell the Vietnamese they were wrong. They were real and many pre-'65. I would love to go back and look again. But, ya gotta be careful. The Vietnamese are great at making stuff.

 

I was in Nam in 65/66 and this is his very true. I bought a watch off a young boy that was pedaling his wares .Felt sorry for him and when it
stopped running I removed the back and low and behold there was

Budweiser name on the inside.

 

As others have indicated, geographic isolation has a lot to do with it. We're simply not exposed to much foreign coinage, and I think less familiarity translates into less interest.

For world coin collectors such as myself, that's not a bad thing!

 

...and the person who put the foreign coin in the collection plate last Sunday, may you burn in hell!

 

You aren't the first person I've heard of that found that out. Gotta admit, it was pretty amazing.

 

I spent 18 months in high school working in a grocery store. I kept a pocket full of spare change so I could exchange it for old coins or foreign coins. I was always surprised to find Canadian coins in Central Texas. Especially quarters.

Also when my wife and I were in Ireland we kept most of the Euros plus handed out US coins to other visitors in Ireland. I know one gentleman from Germany loved the US coins we gave him.

 

What @doug444 wrote about giving/leaving a JFK half in addition to an actual tip, now that is a neat idea indeed. A coin collector may keep it, others may give it to a friend or kid ... and that could be the start of a new collection. Or even collector.

As for existing collectors, I think that US coins are actually sought after here in Europe, but that also applies to coinage from other countries with a long continued tradition. As far as I can tell, there are a few areas that are not that popular here, such as collecting every year of the same type. (That is something you usually do when you collect coins from one country only.) Also, error coins, regardless of the issuing country, tend to not be a big deal. (Of course some collect them, just not that many.) And the whole slabbing and third party grading business is ... tolerated but not encouraged.

Christian

 

Collecting in Europe takes on a whole new angle. Frankly I like finding unusual stuff, like Cypriot euro coins, or coins from Slovakia or Slovenia a lot more than finding some state quarter in circulation.

When I find Euros back in the USA they are mostly German- no doubt a reflection on the size of their economy in the EU. A close second is France, then Italy and Netherlands. Lately I have been churning up a bunch of Irish 5c for some reason. And I do find eurocent coins all the time, rolls, reject slots on Coinstar machines etc. The smallest country that I have gotten a coin from in the USA is Luxembourg.

Now if I could find Andorra, San Marino or Vatican City life would be more interesting.

 

Good luck - I don't think I have ever seen a VC coin in circulation here in Europe ;-)

 

I think this is due to the fact that so many young US collectors start out by filling the Whitman folders, and thus are conditioned to see coin collecting defined as striving to acquire every date and every mint mark of a particular type.

Personally, I have no interest in owning dozens of coins that vary from one another only by the year they were minted, but to each his own. I suspect I'm in the minority among collectors on this side of the pond.