I am going to Bogota, Colombia in a few days I am wondering if anyone knows of any good coin shops to visit in the city?
One should be very careful bouncing around Bogota ! Not a town if you don't know the turf to be looking to buy coins in straw markets or shops. You will stand out like a sore thumb. And be an easy target I suggest banks to search rolls of local coinage. Some countries like Mexico do have kiosks that sell silver coins. So if this is your first visit in the southern Hemisphere I would be very careful . Chris is also correct about the Sac dollars down in South America . For two reasons #1 the image on the coin has the appearance of the locals and back by the US, #2 paper money rots in the tropics very quickly . Another place to be careful is Rio one can go from a safe harbor to a very bad ghetto in a blink of an eye. And what ever you do stay away from any Federal troops police. You will know them as they have the automatic weapons ! Just a word to the wise.....
Kolhoznik, Please heed Padyy54 advice when it comes to countries south of the United States. I was deployed many times to countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc. and I can tell you first hand that 1) You WILL stick out like a sore thumb; 2) You WILL be a target as soon as the locals realize that you collect coins. Local police are in the pockets of those who hold the most money or power and they are of NO help whatsoever. We recovered the bodies of (2) Americans that were in Columbia on vacation. Apparently they were looking for diamonds and asked around the towns they visted. Word got out and they mysteriously disappeared; only to surface up in shallow graves along the coast. PLEASE PLEASE be very cautious when you travel. Use traveler's checks and hide your cash. Let me know if you find anything good. Enjoy your trip.
Thanks for all concerned. I just returned and traveled extensively through Bogota and Boyacá. I did find a couple of shops but as it was Sunday, they were not open. I have traveled extensively in Latin America and speak fluent Spanish. The trip was very nice. Colombia has changed much for the better in the last 10 years and I felt as secure there has I have in any other Hispanic country. Here are a few tips based on my time there. 1. A trusted local friend makes a lot of difference: I have a great friend there with decades of experience in country. I let that person make inquiries since he is local and knows where to safely ask. Also there are safe, very nice areas, and bad areas (just like any city), we just avoided the bad. 2. You will be asked for money, treat them with kindness and a polite decline. I have discovered if you do not treat the beggars as subhuman, they just accepted my reply and went on. 3. They police and military seem to have improved and FARC has been pushed into remote areas. Travel is much safer than a few years ago. 4. Colombians as a whole were very welcoming to foreigners and did not seem closed. It is a beautiful country that well deserves a reconsideration from the reputation of 10-30 years ago.
My step grandson 1!/2 years old is 1/2 colombian on this fathers side and they came from colombia som 15 years ago and I know the whole family and I must say they are such nice people......There are even colombians living in Iceland my home country. I even started a Colombian coin collection a year ago and has some nice coins slabed and raw.
