What countries do you dislike/not collect?

I was looking through Krause the other night and was think how boring the coins from some countries look. I especially felt this way about Costa Rica, since most of their coin denominations seem to have the same design. There are some African countries I don't actively collect as well. I also don't care for Israel's coins, although I've seen a few silver commems that were nice. What about you?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I dislike all countries that do nothing but churn up commemorative coins by the dozen, copy historical designs of coinage, and produce heretical designs such as oval shaped, colored, 3D, and other deformities on their coinage.

The most notable would be all of the useless island nations that do nothing but take up catalog space.

However the US Mint with the curved baseball coins and Kennedy commemorative is definitely an up and coming star of what any self respecting mint should try to avoid becoming.

 

good question. I like most all countries except Liberia and some Somalia guitar coins. coins that have no business being coins with very strange shapes. colorized coins/stickers suck period. coins that add jewels or some other crap on them.

 

I agree with both of your comments. I also hate those ubiquitous NCLT coins issued by those small island nations. Some of these islands have more traditional looking coins with fish and whatnot that have low mintages, which kind of is more appealing from a collector standpoint. However, I tend to see that the Franklin Mint has produced a lot of these coins and I question their worth. Those guitar coins are pretty terrible! Liberia is notorious for making a ton of different stuff. I once saw some silver coins they made that were rip offs of our trade dollars and Morgans. They were pretty, but they we're rip off products!

 

Most Asian coins, I find a lot of them boring.

 

Me too, for some Asian countries. For example, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan's base metal coins, a lot of chines coins, etc. You gotta good point

 

One that comes to mind is Iran. I just don't find the coins I've seen to be very interesting. There are other countries where I like the coins from one time period but not others. For example, I like older coins from China, Belgium and the Netherlands but not the newer coins.

 

Irans definitely notorious
Feast your eyes on this gem

 

thee old dated stuff I find much more appealing. of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. as you get more seasoned as a coin collector you tend to like the older coins. this is what has happened to me. there still are some modern stuff I like but older coins is where it's at. this is my opinion.

 

Yeah there's something about older coins, nostalgia, etc. I also think when you share some ancestry with a country, you might tend to view the coinage there more favorably. Like with Persian coins, I see what you're saying. But I'm actually a quarter Persian so I kinda like the coins there. Mostly the stuff from early 1900s to 79 or so I find appealing. Ultimately, like someone said, beauty is subjective

 

Seems that many Coin Talk members dislike almost everything that has been minted in the past, say, fifty years. Then again I do not have a single problem with collectors from the US not collecting what I (from the EU) prefer to collect.

My focus is on coins from around here (Western/Central Europe), and I also grab/keep/buy coins from places where I go. The US for example, except that here at Coin Talk the country is not part of the "World", hehe. I don't really (as in: actively and systematically) collect coins from Africa, Asia or Oceania. Does not mean I dislike them* but they are not actually on my To Do list.

* What I do dislike is over-prolific issuers such as Niue, Liberia, Cook Islands, Somalia, Palau ... but that has already been mentioned here.

Christian

 

Only things I avoid besides ultra modern commems is the coins of Israel, due to their boring designs and most of them being NCLT.

I love older Iranian coins though... I would disagree with dragon that they are not interesting. The 19th century and earlier copper falus coinage, as well as the later silver pieces, are actually very interesting and offer a wide range of designs and varieties.

 

I can't say that I dislike the coinage of any particular country. In order to collect a coin, that coin has to spark my interest for one reason or another, and I can never predict what that reason will be.

For instance, in the last month I've collected some important coins that pertain to my set of Arabia Bostra Roman provincials. I'm sure some collectors would see that as "serious" numismatics.

But I've also collected a few handfuls of cheap Communist aluminum "junk" from various Asian countries. Why? Because that coinage also has something interesting to say about its makers. I'm an avid amateur historian, and acquiring any sort of coin spurs my reading and research into that coin's provenance. That still sounds pretty legit, right?

So why did I also buy a handful of American Colonial replicas, made in China of course, at the Colonial Williamsburg gift shop? I'll tell you why: because they were there. I found it highly ironic that MOST of the crap in the gift shop was, according to the stickers, "Made in China for Colonial Williamsburg." And since I have no interest in pewter spoons and snow globes, I got coins. Well, they're not coins of course - they're no better than the colorized guitars.

My point: don't ask me what I like or dislike in general. I don't even know myself.

 

Let's see, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Liberia, Shawnee Nation and all that other nonsensical NCLT crap being defecated out on the collecting community.

 

I have a grand total of two Israeli coins in my whole collection. One is an ancient Herodian Prutah that I purchased out of a junk bin for a quarter and the other is a 25 Prutah from ca. 1949 from the birth of modern Israel. I don't have any dislike of Israel or it's coins - just not on my radar collecting wise. Thought I have to admit there are a couple of Israeli banknotes I want sometime, and a Jacob and Rachael gold coin in the future too.

 

The earlier Liberian coinage is actually interesting to me. A collection of types issued until, say, the 1940s would make for a very attractive set.

 

The only Iranian coins I have are from the 1960s and 70s, so that's what I'm basing my opinion on. I can't speak for older coins from there.

I also tend to shy away from coins that I have trouble reading/identifying because of their script. I don't think they're not valuable as coins, but it is hard for me to look through a dealer's junk bin and identify Thai, Israeli or Chinese coins without a guidebook. Some if I like them enough I'll puzzle through, but others aren't worth it for me.

 

I forgot about middle eastern coins. Ive owned some over the years and found them pretty boring.

Gotta go with 20th century canadian coins too. Maybe its cause I would get them in change alot & got sick of them like I do our current u.s. stuff, but a maple leave, beaver...eh.

Now the canadian bank tokens of the 1800s and queen vickies, I love.

 

The "problem" with coin collecting is there is never enough time to adequately collect everything. I am pretty sure, given the time and inclination to properly research the series, I could find nearly all coin series worthy of collecting. I simply do not have that time, though, so have to pick and choose what I choose to research.

So, I don't have my nose up in the air about any coins, (except, yeah, maybe the guitar shaped and other "beanie baby" crud others have mentioned), but simply have to choose my battles. As such, I really do not collect much in the way of modern coins anymore, (to me anything past Byzantium), with th exception of Medieval to modern Thai coins. My wife is Thai and therefor my sons half Thai so I wish to give these to them for them to learn of their heritage. That does not mean I do not find all other coins unworthy of being collected, and trust me as a hoarder I would love to have the time to collect EVERYTHING, I just don't, like most people.

 

Agreed. I've lost interest in the US coins post about 1998. Too many varieties! I also don't like collecting some Asian coins, China specifically, because it's so darn hard to tell the differences in some of the coins. That and I can't read Chinese.