this summer im travleing quite a bit... im going to the domincian republic, st martin, mexico and hati and was wonder what kind of coins i should pick up and if any coins from those countries have silver coinage still floating around... i know nothing about world coins so any information would be great
Cc51,St. Maarten uses the Netherlands Antilles Gulden,but St. Martin uses Euros.Both these entities are on the same island. Coins from Belize,the Bahamas,& the East Caribbean States are of interest to some people.There's a few British Commonwealth numismatists here who would be interested in coins from these countries. You've got to be very careful in both Haiti & the Dominican Republic. As to silver coins,none of those Latin American countries are using them.Mexico was the very last country to use silver in circulation coinage during the early 1990's,but I don't think they'd be using them now. Aidan.
By all means pick up what you can in circulation. But I wouldn't recommend making any purchases, anywhere, without a rock solid reference on the seller.
My advice for the DR and Haiti at least is that you hang on to whatever change is given you, and resist rendering exact change in your payments for whatever goods and services. In countries with devaluing currency it is common that small denominations are in short supply and merchants try to get what they can, but if you give it up you end up with less to take home for your collection. Less of an issue in St Martin and Mexico I suppose at the moment. Of those countries, Haiti is the most interesting for coins, I've kept very interesting pieces from circulation as there is a lack of recent coinage and the old stuff still floats around. I was handed a 50 centimes from 1908 at a store there. Keep in mind Haiti has a complicated monetary system, you may be quoted prices at one of three rates; US $, Haitian $, or Haitian gourdes. To explain, read the following (short article): http://gbgm-umc.org/missionvolunteers/haiti/current.htm Have a good trip.
thankyou this is very helpfull to me.... my sister works as a cashregister and she called me up about 20 mins about about how this german lady just spent a bunch of euros soo i think im allready on my way to a world coin collection lol
You're going to find it very difficult to impossible to pick up silver for less than melt. There are a lot of very desirable circulating or recently circulating coins that might be found. Look for unc if possible.
Acanthite - what is the date of that link you provided? It says the best exchange rates are US Dollars and French francs!
The link was provided to demonstrate the three rates for which prices are quoted in Haiti. Quite simply, a Haitian dollar is 5 gourdes, which has its origins in 1 gourde = 1 French franc, and 5 French francs = $1 US. As of March 2007, $1 was about 36.6 Haitian gourdes. Divide by 5 for a Haitian dollar.
Why limit yourself? Take a $100 or $200 in cash exchange it all into various local coins and keep everything you find! Mark Coral Springs, FL
