Starting a world coin collection

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by Insomniac, Dec 24, 2009.

  1. Insomniac

    Insomniac Dime Nut

    In the course of about a week, I have gone from having almost no world coins to having them close to outnumbering my American coins (what I consider to be my primary collection. It started with my birthday, for which some friends of mine gave me a great number of coins from all the places they have visited, and continued to yesterday, when I received the prize I won in Coinman's contest, which only served to expand the collection, which now consists of maybe 150 coins from 20-25 countries.

    They are all some very cool coins, but I don't know much about any of them, aside from a cursory identification of what countries they come from, and I'd like to know more. Unfortunately, I don't have much of an idea of where to start, thanks mostly to the fact that my local coin shops have little to no interest in world coins.

    I understand that the Krause Standard Catalog is the world coin bible, but are there any recommended tomes for coins of specific countries? I am particularly interested in German coins from the German empire to date and Polish coins of any era. A search of Amazon reveals more books on German coins than I can shake a stick at, and searching Polish coins often gets me more cleaning products than information on the country's coins.

    My apologies if this is an oft repeated question, but I sincerely appreciate any information you could offer.
     
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  3. Olmanjon

    Olmanjon Member

    Can't off hand think of any books that are for just one country that I would point you to other than the Charlton books for Canada. I would reccomend however that you start by inserting those coins into 2 x 2's, then into vynal sheets and then into loose leaf notebooks. Do this gradual as you acquire them and it won't become an over whelming job. I have over 10,000 in 2 x2's and am picking up another 1000 assorted coins on Tuesday. I mark each one in my Krause books. If you don't do this you will never no if you have one or not and still need it. Welcome to the darkside by the way. Enjoy, Olmanjon
     
  4. charlienorth

    charlienorth Junior Member


    I recommend that you borrow a Krause Catalog from your local library.

    I have had the world coin bug too lately and have had some nice Polish coins in the lots that I purchased

    After you look through Krause, you may have a better idea what you need beyond that.
     
  5. TheBigH

    TheBigH Senior Member

    Sorry, I can't think of any books on Polish coins that would be in English. Welcome to world coin collecting, though! You'll have a lot of fun in this genre.
     
  6. Insomniac

    Insomniac Dime Nut

    Luckily, most of them have been already put into 2x2s, so I'm already halfway there! Next time I go out, though, I know I will be picking up more than a few of them. :)

    Thanks, I will definitely get on that.

    That is another problem I've run into; the few books I have found aren't in English, though there was one in Russian (not that that helps me any)...

    Thanks again for your input everyone!
     
  7. TheBigH

    TheBigH Senior Member

    German is a good language to learn for European coin collecting. Most books seem to be written in that language for some reason. I have a book on Swiss coins called the Münzen Katalog (it's like the Red Book) that's written in German, French and English, so you may be able to find some Polish books that are the same. If I come across any, I'll let you know.
     
  8. Mumbapuri

    Mumbapuri #16443

  9. Spider

    Spider ~

    Polish coins are definitely difficult to research. I have been trying for years but to only some avail. If you have any specifics let me know and I will see what I can do; I am also a big fan of these coins.
     
  10. Insomniac

    Insomniac Dime Nut

    I am fluent in German, so perhaps I will have have some luck finding a Polish coin book that I can still use. Thanks for the heads up :)
     
  11. hiho

    hiho off to work we go

    As Charlienorth said, try your local library. Maybe I'm lucky but mine has most of the Krause books plus tons more. And it's all free! :D

    Also, some of the older Polish coins have gone up in price lately, and are very collectable.
     
  12. De Orc

    De Orc Well-Known Member

    Good luck with the collection, also have a look at the modern Polish 2zl they have some wonderful designs, I am building a collection of them myself but slowly LOL
     
  13. chrisild

    chrisild Coin Collector

    In that case, have a look at the Jaeger for German coins. It covers today's Germany (Federal Republic) but also the Reich 1871-1948, and some other areas such as the GDR and Danzig. Some sample pages are here:
    http://www.gietl-verlag.de/blaetter...n-Muenzen-seit-1871/blaetterkatalog/index.php

    The Schön is less detailed but less expensive, and also covers Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland:
    http://www.gietl-verlag.de/blaetter...tscher-Muenzkatalog/blaetterkatalog/index.php

    As for Polish coins, I only have a few (they issue way too many per year :) ) but from what I have read, the "Katalog Monet Polskich" is pretty comprehensive (18c-today). It is in Polish but has introductions in English and German.

    Christian
     
  14. Collect89

    Collect89 Coin Collector

    Charlienorth's suggestion & the referral to Goggle books for a 2008 Krause is good advice. The book is a wealth of information. It describes the geography, economics, politics, and history of the world and your coins.
     
  15. TheBigH

    TheBigH Senior Member

  16. coinman0456

    coinman0456 Coin Collector

    Insomniac

    Purchase yourself a copy of the world coin encyclopedia. Also what might be very helpful, is to search the auction archives of heritage using the coin search and the keyword "Poland Coins".

    So very happy to start you in a new aspect of collecting, and researching these is very rewarding.
    Also, you will find this book a truly good read: Image, History & Politics, The coinage of Modern Europe by Paul D. Van Wie, published by the University Press of America. I believe there may be an online copy to access.
    Happy Holidays.
     
  17. Insomniac

    Insomniac Dime Nut

    Goodness, I've been away for the holidays, and I come back to so much useful information!

    I've actually never heard of BookFinder, so these links should be a boon. Thanks!

    Ahhh, "Poland coins" what an obvious solution to my searching problems! Thanks for the book recommendation as well; judging by the title, it should be right up my alley.

    All of this information is turning out to be quite handy, too. I got a hold of the Krause catalog from my local library before I left, and discovered that a group of five coins labeled "Russian" that my friends had given me were actually Greek. I'm learning new things every day :D
     
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