I was sitting down thinking about the differences between a coin collector and a banknote collector. I believe nobody have thought or discuss about this before. Do they diff in the way they collect their items ? We all know that they collect items for their collection. How devoted are they to their hobby ?

My lighter side of both of these collectors is one is into the heavy-metal industry while the other one is into light-weight wood industry. This is an original humour which I sat down and pen.

Contribution from everyone.

I think that coin collectors and banknote collectors are basically the same. Except for the obvious difference in what is being collected.


Both types of collectors have the same options in terms of what the individual collector specalises in. Such as coins/notes from a specific country/region/continent, coins/notes with a particular image and other things like that.


The only real difference is that coin collecting has been more popular than note collecting, even though note collecting is growing in popularity. Coin collectors seem to have a little more variety in their choice of coins. Things like dates, mint marks, etc etc etc....



I like to collect banknotes, and Im just starting to get back into coins once again.....



KFC

If notes were around in England in the 1140s i'd collect them too, as they weren't i don't. I finally got round to specialising.

Actually I see banknotes and coins to be two different things, especially when it comes down to MAINTAINING them!

Banknotes in my opinions are all unique because of the serial numbers and is easily identifiable. (except for some printing press hiccups and print the same serial numbers) On the other hand, coins are pretty much difficult to tell apart unless you start to go into details, like scratches on the head, die clashes, inique features, but this almost difficult to do so on freshly minted coins, unless they all get slabbed and given unique IDs.

I personally find maintaining banknotes to be very difficult. Firstly, if one accidently stored them in PVC folders, well for coins you have acetone, but there isn't a solution for banknotes! Banknotes are fairly sensitive to folds etc, and to protect a banknote, well it's long, thin, and has to be stored in a flat place doesn't it?

And lastly, coins and banknotes are two different objects! One's generally struck in metal and the other is printed on paper. And for such, storage is two amazingly different story. My coin collection usually has some sort of silica gel packs but for the banknotes, I have to watch out how dry it gets, else the paper will start to crumble!

You are right on that GX... I was looking at it from a rather broad spectrum. Just from an overall difference or similarity in collecting as a whole.




KFC

Great opinions on this topic from everyone so far.

Visually, banknotes are much more attractive than coins especially those large and well designed ones. Coins are small unless they are commemorative ones which can be quite large and contained elaborated designs. Over the years, there are colourful commemorative coins appearing on the market. One of them is the Chinese lunar series with the Chinese horoscope.

As some have already mentioned, coins are much easier to maintain than banknotes. So far, over the past 20 years, i do not have much problem with banknotes. All my banknotes are sealed in non-oil based plastic ( german lighthouse brand ), they are well protected from moisture since I am near to the equator which have a tropical climate. If banknotes are not properly protected from climatic condition, they will deteriorate in condition and thus in value.

Most collectors started with coins and then branch to banknotes. As the smallest denomination starts with coins, coins collector chose to start with coins first as they are relatively cheaper than banknotes collecting.

Coin collectors usually started quite young with those left over coins from foreign countries especially relatives or parents who travel overseas for both leisure and work. It is also possible that banknotes are left over from a trip overseas.

As a hammered coin collector i must say that hammered coins are all individual.

Don't you find that all collectors have a history of amassing all sorts. I know, as a youngster, I collected shrapnel (during the war), stamps and even buttons! I've been through lots of 'specialisations'! Victorian pennies, "empire" stamps, old silver (when in Malta, there was still a lot of very old silver coins in circulation), and, now, hammered silver. But! I still manage to have a lot of Roman, Byzantine, Saxon, Commemorative crowns, foreign........... You get the picture!

What do you think if I say I collect Banknotes, Coins & Stamps? ........looked like i had a general interest.......but........i only specialized my hobby to old stuff......just imagine to put a 1941 banknotes, 1941 coins and 1941 stamps.....all were used in the same era......and the most important, from the same place.......isn't that interesting?

But on storage method.......I need to improve....otherwise.....they all will damage.......

As a former stamp collector myself i know whee you're coming from.