Almost - see my location tag: North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, EU. The nearest place in NL is about half an hour from here (if I speed a little ) ... Christian
I think the German notgeld coins are pretty cool. Many are inexpensive, there's a lot of different ones, and it's not a straight date/mm series so you can put a unique collection together.
The problem with the German coins that someone suggested is that if you like to really complete the set, that means getting all the mintmarks, and Germany has at least 6 or 7 from every year. That can be quite a project.
No doubt hiddendragon. You are absolutely correct. That is why I suggested a yearly set. Just for the Empire series. Certain years may have a high mintage from some mints, while others are quite rare. Thats what I like about it. If you finish the year set, you can decide to jump into a year/mm set. That is a massive goal to achieve. I started with just the type set, and I believe that is about 40 different coins. yeah Lon, I also like the notgelds.
I have a binder full of world coins but only 20 or so are rare or at least special. Many world coins aren't worth that much so if you're ok with that, then go for it. I have changed my approach when it comes to world coins. If you spend a few hundred you can go rare, it's not that hard and the world is wide open. This half sovereign is so rare I was totally surprised and cautious about getting it off ebay. I had it tested by my friend with a mass spectrometer, 24k solid gold and after that I wrote to the Pobjoy mint. Ultra rare, although they have had a set or two sold on Heritage, you just don't see them around. :thumb: I love showing this off, as you can see.
BTW Chris, I think the coin repositioned the statues of the naked women, proving that not much has changed since the "Venus" of Willendorf
Hello Kirkuleez, I would suggest that you consider collecting one coin from each country (Afghanistan to Zimbabwe). Just buy a coin that you like & then buy another one. It is a great way to enter the realm of World coin collecting IMHO. Get yourself a Krause World Coin Catalog & have fun. P.S. When you get duplicates, just put the lesser coin in a box. (The duplicates box will eventually fill up. )
Germany has four mints and five minting facilities (thus five mintmarks). Each of those €10 collector coins, however, is issued by one mint only, according to some rotation schedule. With the sports coins it gets more complicated, but even in those cases one does not "have" to buy five. (In fact, nobody "has" to buy any. ) Christian
Thanks for all of the advice guys. The moderns are beautiful, just really not my thing. Those Germans sure are cool and I'm not afraid of all of the mints/dated. You ever try to put together an old US gold set? That gets a bit challenging with all of those mints, years and types. Not to mention varieties. I think I do want to do a proof British large cent collection as well though, I just have to support my proof habit. I really need rehab, no way I could quit proof collecting cold turkey.
And that Venus is even fairly young - about 27,000 years. Here is another lady who is roughly 35,000 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Hohle_Fels Here is a fully dressed but dangerous one. Judith and Holofernes, with her being about to chop his head off, on last year's €2 Giorgio Vasari commem from San Marino. Christian