While my previous postings have been about coinage, I think I will change subjects somewhat and talk about currency. Let's start out right away: I Love currency! In fact, when I am thinking about my hobbies, which is what I am doing pretty much any time I am awake, I find that I am thinking about currency more then anything else. While the number of coins in my collection far, far outweighs currency, I find that I am beginning to enjoy currency a bit more. I will never collect only one...I will always collect both...but I can easily see spending more of my money to get currency. When I started into this hobby last year, I had a small collection of coins and a smaller (8 notes- coins were about 500 total, much less different dates IE my mom and dad had pulled over 100 1944 cents from circulation and that wasn't the only date they did that with) and since I had more of them, or perhaps because I knew more about them going in, I tended to focus more on coins and less on currency. But recently, that's begun to change. I've been spending more time on the currency sections of the boards, more time researching currency, and more time thinking about, like I said above. In fact, I've looked through my currency collection in it's entirety three times since the last time I looked at ANY of my coins. Granted, this is all in a span of about a month, and I was away from home for more then one week of that time. Now, I am not going to try and deny that our Federal Reserve Notes, aka FRNs, were pretty darn boring, all monochromatic and the same style. They have, in my opinion, changed for the better in the past few years, although when they were introduced I thought it was pretty stupid. Actually handling them though I guess got me to like them. I grew up on these notes, and now that, aside from the $1, you never see them in circulation anymore, I am actually getting kind of nostalgic for them! In my life, the 1990s were a great time. I won't really go into why- it has nothing whatsoever to do with numismatics, although I will say that a big part of it is the fact that my dad was still alive then. I would in fact say that is 75% of why I like the 1990s so much and consider that the best of times, for me. Don't remember much of the 80s, being born in 84. Anyway....these notes are another thing that reminds me of the 1990s. So there is that factor. And another thing, even though they were somewhat on the boring side, I have realized I actually miss that. You wouldn't think that, but the old adage says: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone" is about the most true thing ever. And as I learn more about notes...the single color designs are actually fairly unique...Most notes have a lot of color on them. That's not a bad thing by any means, but in the grand scheme of things, it sets them apart somewhat. I like that. And then you have to factor in the fact, that I just like them and think they are pretty darn cool. And for me, that's a good enough reason to collect them. Now, it's funny, with coinage I tend to favor the world coins area a bit more then the US. A big part of that is the HUGE collector base for US coinage, which pushes the prices up, way way up in some cases. I find the prices to be outrageous on many items, and I know that once I get into even the early 1900s, I am either not going to be able to afford US coinage, or they will be so worn that you will have a hard time IDing them. With world coinage, while there are some that are pretty pricey, there is a far bigger field of more reasonably priced items I can chase after. Yet, with currency, I clearly, Very clearly, favor US currency. I have 51 notes in my collection. Not a very large collection. Of those notes, 8 were inherited, 10 were purchased, 8 were gifts, and the rest were pulled from circulation. Of those 51 notes, 37 of them are from the USA. That's a huge percentage. Part of it is due to the fact that, yes, I see these practically every day. Hopefully every time I go in my wallet So they are easily obtainable. But a part of that is, I just like them and will purchase them over anything else. World notes are interesting, don't get me wrong. You can really learn a lot about a country, state, what/who ever issued a note by looking at them. (of cource, it helps to be able to read the language on the note). The range of colors on world notes is spectacular. I enjoy that aspect of them. But for some reason, I find it hard for me to focus much of my attention on them. When I think about currency, even when I am making an active effort to learn about world currency, I find my thoughts drifting back to the USA's currency in a usually short amount of time. So, I've been doing some studying of American currency. I've come to find out that most of the modern FRNs sell for very, very little over the face value, even some of the older issues of FRNs you can get for not much more then face value. (double or less) When you live on a very limited income like I do, that is a BIG deal, as it means I can build a pretty nice set of them. And, as I was doing further research, I discovered that pre-small size notes, are almost all uniformly out of my price range. There are some...a very, very select few...large size notes that I would be able to get at the top end of my price range, and I plan to in time. But some of them...I know I will be lucky to SEE in person, let alone purchase for my own collection. Even the small size Nationals are on the higher end of my price range, but luckily for me, it appears some of them, must be the ones that a lot survive on, are fairly reasonable and hopefully will one day make their way into my collection. So, I've formulated a plan. I am going to work on sets of FRNs. Basically, I am going to try and get one example of each denomination from each series. IF I am able, I will go for each district, but that will not be my goal. For example, say there are two different districts of one note, and the same district but a different note. I will get two of the same district, but different series. Of cource, if the price is right, I will get all three notes This task should not be too hard to complete, I forsee that I will be able to finish the $1s in 2010 and make inroads on the $5s, 10s and perhaps even 20s. I don't expect to go higher then the $20s for the most part, after that, while I COULD afford it, at least most of the time, I would rather use that money spent on other things. After all, I am dividing the small amount of money I get into 4 hobbies, as well as bills, food, gas, etc. But I will have more to spend in 2010. After I finish the Series Set, I then may work on districts for each series, and star notes. I know I won't be able to get a complete set of stars, but I will get as many as I can. I've already found a few in circulation. Like my coins, as mentioned in the last entry I made, I plan to collect forever, so it won't take me too long in the grand scheme of things to finish my Series Set. After that, I don't know what I will work on activly. Maybe I will just cruise the various currency sources I am aware of and just buy whatever looks good to me....which is pretty much what I do when I have the $$ to spend. Now, my project only covers the $1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 denominations. FRNs have been issued in higher denominations, but like I said above, I can't forsee that I will ever try to complete them, unless I win the lottery or something like that. With that said, however, I do plan to get a handfull of them. I already have two $50s, one of the new colorized versions, and one of the new design non-colorized versions. To that I would like to add one of the traditional FRN styles as well. For the $100, that will be a tough sell. I plan to only ever get 4 of them. I know eventually I will get a red seal USN, I particularly like them. Besides that, I will get eventually one of the classic FRN styles. I will have to get one of the current new-style non-colorized issues for my collection, and I hear that a colorized version is in the works, though has been for some time. When they do issue that, I will get one of those as well. But that will be it, right now the most I have spent on a note is $25, and it will be a hard sell for me to spend more then $100 on a note, but I know I will have to, unless I can get lucky and nab one from my local banks. I have not actually seen a $100 note in person in more then 5 years. I know that I will never own a $500, $1000 or $10000 note....it'll never happen, so while I can dream about it...that's all it will ever be, a dream. (is it odd that I have dreampt of currency?) One other thing that is high on my priority list is my red seal set. I don't know why but I am really drawn to them. I inherited a $1, and I've since aquired a 1953-B $2, a 1963 $5* and a 1963-A $2. I will work on getting the other series and stars of the $2 and $5. Like I said above, I will eventually get one of the $100s. I can't see ever getting a $1 or $100 star note, though. For the small size silver certificates, while they are very cool, I don't know how many of them I will be able to get...some of them are likely permanently out of my price range. I should be able to get a complete, non-star Series set of the $1s, however, and I will work on that. Who's to say, though, I might go somewhere and see a bunch of world currency, and be totally "taken" by them, and forget my FRN goals one never knows! I also really like obsolete notes and I expect to get more of them for my collection as well, at least by this time next year.
