What inspired you to collect currency??

This question I pose to you, many of you I have come to know from your postings. Although electronic personalities differ from true personalities, I would like to know your inspiration for currency collecting and the evolution, progression, and special area of interest that you have for this hobby.

Hope that is not too much to ask?


RickieB

 

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If you're talking US currency, it would definitely have to be when my grandmother first gave me a $2 bill in a birthday card. Before then, I didn't even know such a bill existed. For non-US it was shortly after that, when she turned me on to coin collecting, that I collected a few world banknotes; ever since then I've picked them up erratically either from my own travels, others who give me a few, or ocassional impulse purchases at coin stores.

I still concentrate much more on coins than on paper money, and my paper money collecting usually isn't specifically directed (except for US $2 bills), it's pretty erratic and usually just on whatever I see from time to time that sparks my interest. Every once in a while I'll shop eBay for interesting designs.

 

I've always liked old stuff period. Old being a relative term of course.

I'm the guy that, when on vacation, will drive by an old cemetary on a country road and stop to look at the stones. Just wondering what it was like when some person I never heard of lived in "these parts" 150 years ago. Would have been a lot different.

I have collected coins since childhood. When I was in my teens I was running a cash register in various places. Used to see 1934 $20 notes a lot. I'd keep a few if I could afford them.
Brought some to a dealer many years ago and he said they were worth $20.
Od course this was in the 1980s and old style was still being printed. I ended up spending those notes.

Leap forward to the mid to late 90s. I'm working in a truck stop seeing a LOT of cash. I happen upon about 10 nice twenties from the 50s. So I buy them at face.
I know NOTHING about currency or grading at this point so I go to the local coin shop and buy a blackbook mainlty to get an idea as to how to grade.

Next, I put these up on ebay. Big pictures an honest auctions. I flat out tell people I get them at face and if I can make a few bucks I'll keep selling them. Well, they sold and I made a few bucks. Hmmm... I'm on to something here.

Next I see a guy selling circulated star notes. So I start looking. Well, I'm finding up to $100 worth a day. I start trading with this guy.

At this point currency is slow in the Midwest but hot on the West coast and South. I pick up several consecutive 1950D series $20 notes for $24 each and get good money on ebay. I still have a few by the way.

I'm picking up AU funnybacks at $10-12 and they're getting $40 on ebay. I' m putting some of those aside as well.

Currency is hot at this point and I start making new contacts. A group of us from Maryland to Utah are exchanging CU $1 notes for block collectors. We're all making a few bucks this way.

Then, my buddy in Utah asks me if I ever see 295 errors. I have no clue what he's talking about. He explains them and I find them EVERY day. I start selling some but see there are so many combinations so I start hoarding. Hate to sell a rare note without knowing and the field is new at this point.
This turned into a monster. I start tracking them manually then go online with it. Get an email from a member of the Currency Club of Long Island. They've been tracking them and would like to include my list. Go for it I say
Eventually I'm invited to join the club and am still a member.
I also have about 2500 295 errors. Hope they get hot again some day

By this time I'm a lost cause. I'm a 295 "expert". People think I'm some huge dealer and I work in a truck stop. I've made a lot of contacts by now and am always up on what's hot in modern currency. I'm plucking a lot of stuff out of circulation. Some gets sold while other I keep.

Yes, I've found some cool stuff. Webs, 295s, printing errors, rare stars etc. I'm also cherrypicking coin dealers whenever possible. I know more than most of them when it comes to modern or even small size notes.

Eventually I went back heavier into coins. I still love my currency and still look. There is so much to be found if you know what to look for.

Is that good enough for you RickieB?

 

Thanks Dan and Trodon!! Nice job.
Very interesting stories.


RickieB

 

Funny thing about $2 notes....that's what inspired me into currency collecting as well.
When I was 7 or 8 I was given a $2 note at a school halloween function. I was more amazed that it had red ink on it then that is was for two dollars!
Anyway, my mom confiscated it from me telling me it must be fake and I forgot all about them until a couple years ago when I was browsing through a coin store looking for early commems (my first collecting passion.)
I stumbled across a few $2 the shop keeper had and a whole wave of nostalgia rolled over me. After I got over how my mom had snookered me all those years ago I bought a couple of the nicer looking ones. I then went out in search of some books on the $2 dollar bill and was amazed that they had been around since 1862! Well, I was hooked. Little did I know what I was in for.

 

You were my inspiration RickieB! No seriously, I have some paper currency, but I haven't collected a whole lot. Some of the stuff you have posted has certainly got me more interested though/.

 

too old to remember. We are talking 22+ years easy

 

For me Currency as such is a fairly new thing with the exception of Notgeld LOL I started collecting that quite a number of years ago when I helped to run a film & tv memrobilia shop, the guy who had the basement delt in millitaria and had a collection of Notgeld that I got interested in due to the oddity of it all and the history :smile (I allready collected stamps at this time LOL)

 

i got started when i asked my dad to get to keep his eye out for a small faced twenty dollar bill ..meaning one from the 80's early ninety's..that christmas he gave me an envelope that had a 1914 $20 ...the rest is history i have been collecting coins and paper ever since..

 

How ironic! That is the very note that started me collecting Paper!
Please post some pics of it...I just love the transportation theme.

RickieB

 

rickie i have never posted a pic ..i have it on my computer so far...but it is telling me it is to big can you direct me where to go to reduce the file size so i can post the pictures

 

25 years ago I was in high school working part time at a local grocery store. One day someone game me a silver certificate to pay for their groceries. I had never seen anything like and to this day I still have it. When I was in the navy I traveled to a few different countries. Again for the first time I was exposed to something different that I found fascinating! Now, I really didn't start collecting in earnest until recently. Many of the great notes I have seen on this site and a couple others has inspired me but I guess those two 1st experiences were what made me realize that I drawn to notes as much as I enjoy old coins.

I think more people would collect if they were exposed to notes such as yours RickieB!

Best Regards ~ Darryl

 

Well you can use many different programs to resize images...do a google search for resizing and follow the directions. When you make a new post simply scroll down and select mannage attachments.. navigate to your image, click on it and upload you pic. Keep file sizes to 250KB or less....

Lets see that $20!!


RickieB

 

Darryl...thank you, you are too kind! I do not look at my collection as being that good!

Most everyone knows why I collect as I have mentioned it several times, however, there are many other reasons that I collect as well. As with most anything, people have different taste right?

Some of the collections like Clembo's 295 collection is not posted for us to view...I bet it is Spectacular!!
Many members here such as DeOrc, Daggarjon, Scottish Money, Spock1, USS656 (you), Oldbucks, rotobeast...heck the list goes on and on...have made some very nice pick up's and their collections have evolved over years!!
There is something about the Currency of the USA that really attracts me. The artistry of the Large size and Nationals are just breathtaking! The $1 note from 1935 to date is simply a modern marvel of our past forefathers who put a heck of a lot of work into that to leave hidden messages for us to decode!

Some of the foreign notes are just simply stunning as well..this is what makes it fun for me to see your's and all the others who share this passion/addiction and actually display a part of their collecting personalities!

Cheers to all of you..and keep the stories coming!!

Regards to all...

RickieB

 

not sure if i did this right but here is the pic..lol

 

well there it is rickie not quite the shape yours is in..but it means alot to me since my father got it for me...i got to look through your collection today online..very nice i am jealous

 

Hey..way to go on posting the pic!! Just need the reverse as well..LOL

Nice note! I just love them....I hope my son feels the same way you do when that time comes in his life!

Thank you for sharing this special note with us!!

Regards,

RickieB

 

I got into the collecting of currency because US coinage designs suk! Okay, yes, maybe that is a bad overstatement. The desings might not suck, but they certainly are old, stale and yes, boring. I started collecting currency when i was about to drop the hobby altogether a coupel years ago. I was just so flipping bored with my choices. I still collect some coins, and will probably continue to do so on a limited basis. For the time being, my main focus is currency. I would prefer to focus on US notes, but on such a limited budget, what coins i do buy, mostly Commemoratives from the mint, eats up alot of my yearly budget ... so to help keep somethign coming in to keep me occupied froim time to time, i have been buying up world notes. They are for the most part inexpensive (especially when all i get in Ebay lots are currencies that no longer exist lol)

I like world notes, not only because you can get them rather inexpensively, but the histories that stand behind each an every one of them ... the lives lost defending the livelyhood or the very creation of the countries that issued the notes. The politics in place, the people sticking their necks out to push the envelope against a tyrant ruler. And then you have the artwork. As i have recently found the US $1 note is so deeply involved with Mathmatics in its inception .. to me, it is an artform in intself. World notes like Dijibouti for example .. staggeringly beautiful!

Anyone heard of the organization Doctors Without Borders? I am sure everyone has. I was always under the impression that it was a US 'company' or group that was created to travle the world and do what we all know they do. And for the most part they are. Anyone ever hear of a 'country' called Biafra? it was a succesionist state that tried to break free from Nigeria. Well they failed. And with the actions of Nigeria against the biafran refugees, millions dies in the ensuing famine and slaughter. Doctors Without Borders was CREATED for the very specific goal of helping the Biafrans with medical aide. The group was so sucessful in their goal, it blossomed into one of the largest world medical ogranisation overshadowed by the red cross only (i think, i could easily be worng about the size or membership, but NOT how much they help!)

I will never ditch coins for currency completely. But at least for the moment ... i get alot more enjoyment and satisfaction out of currency.

 

http://www.cointalk.org/attachment.php?
ok ..here is front and back..lol..finally


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Meeting Neil Shafer in 1986.