What collecting method for your foreign coins?

My collecting method exactly...

Though I might add, if I could afford it.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

There is wisdom in that, but it's more important to not buy coins you don't like.

Having clearly defined collecting goals is extremely important for making your budget work. It's easy to fall into the trap of buying coins you don't like just to fill gaps in your sets. Don't be afraid to customize your sets by skipping coins you don't enjoy.

 

This is a good point. Like in my earlier collecting days I tended to start collecting sets of types of coins I'd see a lot in junk boxes, so one of them was a big Belgian collection. But I don't really like Belgian coins, so why did I spend time and money acquiring them? It was just a mindless thing to do.

 

These are both excellent observations.

I think for most world coin collectors, buying coins randomly and 'willy-nilly' is just part of the process early on. But the universe of world coins is so vast that at some point you have to come to terms with what really floats your boat and then focus your efforts.

I've been into world coins since I was about 7 years old (there's a story there, but better left to another time) and have been collecting them for five decades. Yet I still find myself on a regular basis looking at a coin or group of coins in my collection and asking myself, "Is this a coin I really love?" or "Is this a direction I really want to pursue?"

I guess for some of us the evolution of a world coin collection never really ends.

 

does anybody know of any foreign coin albums?

 

Wizard sells several Ireland books. I will have to look it up but there is a dealer that made a bunch of albums for various Arab countries. Of course there are many out of print ones for Mexico Canada and others.

 

Thank you. do you know where I can find them?

 

Here is a link for a bunch of the Arabic albums:

http://www.arabiancoins.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=33&zenid=j1irl3gq2tkgstpjpvor5vhmp3

I have purchased a few of these. I have trouble getting past the price, not to sound like a cheapskate, but the quality is good.

www.wizardcoinsupply.com currently has some of the Irish ones.

The rest are hit and miss on eBay. The ones for Mexico typically go for big money if you can find them.

 

There must be a 1,001 ways to collect world coins. All of them fun. I started with the "one from every country" and amass a lot of interesting coins but didn't really enjoy it. I then focused on Mexico and completed a type set which provided huge enjoyment and I still work on it today. Next World Silver, circulating, Crown size, and Bullion, which is also fun, but can be very expensive. I have completed several other type sets. Cuba, Ireland, Philippines, South Korea, Euros. I also collected world mint and proof set which allowed me to add a diverse collection of uncirculated coins.

As far as albums, the Mexico and Euros type sets are in Danscos and the rest are digital(virtual) albums.

 

I started collecting when I was about ten or eleven years old. My goal at the time was to check off every "country" listed in the tenth edition of this book. It was a gift from my grandmother. I still have that book but it is in real poor condition. In the last few years I have picked up cheap copies of a few different editions. Today I still like to add new items from different "countries" listed in the various "Standard Catalog Of World Coins" editions.

 

I started out exactly like you - about the same age, trying to get one of every country.

Now, I'm working on two different world sets. The first are prooflike coins. For these, if I see it, and I like it, and its at a good price, I buy it. There isn't really a goal to these, besides "get more".

My second set is the coinage of Morocco. I really like the designs, and I'm trying to build as complete a set as possible. The goal here is well defined, and the set is basically "as listed in Krause."