Hello all,

I'm new to Banknote collecting and would love to collect every single "1" currency banknote for each country in the world. I know some countries don't have a "1" currency which I will skip for now, and once I finished collecting the "1" currencies I would move up to the next number, 2, 5, 10 etc...

My question is how do I start? Or purchase cheaply. For now I would probably want to collecting from countries who have "1" currencies in circulation (like USA 1 dollar, China 1 Juan) to keep cost down. Also how do I find out which countries still have "1" in circulation as some countries haven't printed 1 currencies in decades.

Is this type of collection possible?

Thanks

Welcome to Coinpeople.

Your collection is quite possible. Once you have been here for 30 days and made 25 posts, you can buy, sell and trade here at coinpeople. That is one way you might be able to get banknotes in the denominations you are looking for.

Another way is to look at online auctions, like Ebay. I have had good luck with it, but you do need to be careful with some sellers though.....

A third way is to keep an eye out for coin shows, and even antiques shows..... Sometimes you can get lots of good stuff there as well.....

Such a collection is definately possible. It can be easy or hard depending on the guidelines you set to determine what you'd like to have included.

Some examples of what to collect could include:
- only currently used notes.
- only notes which are for 1 "unit" (ie. 1 yuan and not 1 jiao or 1 fen)
- 1 per country regardless of when the date of issue was

There are so many possibilities!

What is a Jiao or Fen? Is it a fraction of a unit?

Also, are there starter kits for something like this? Do currency exchanges have foreign money to trade?

There are no starter kits that I know of. Currency exchange centers usually don't carry anything but the larger bills from a 5 and up. Most of the time they try passing off 50's to people and most places in other countries don't accept them.

Your best bet to buy 1's from other countries is a local coin shop, a coin show, here on CP if anyone is selling or trading any(after the waiting period), or eBay.

Yes! Basically,
Yuan=Dollar
Jiao=Dime
Fen=Cent



Probably not, unless you requested a dealer to make one for you. But it'd probably be more fun to assemble it yourself!



Yes, but most carry only
-larger denomination notes
-commonly traded currencies
-currently used notes

This would mean that many would be impossible to do, as many countries have switched their 1-unit (dollar, pound, or whatever else) to a coin. Also, you will probably encur a service charge on each currency you buy, resulting in the notes very expensive.

As Brett says, your best bet would be to buy from a dealer, and if you're willing to wait around long enoungh to participate in the advertising forums, there are likely people here who can help you out!

There are a million ways to collect notes, and that's the beauty of this hobby. If you are doing it just for fun, you can save a lot of money if you don't care about condition. If you go to a banknote show, you'll often find "junk money" boxes with circulated, low-value notes that dealers will be happy to sell you for almost nothing. If, on the other hand, you want to get uncirculated (UNC) notes, you'll most likely have to trade with other collectors or buy from dealers, either in person, mail order, or eBay.

As for knowing which countries have 1 notes, your best bet is to buy a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money (SCWPM). It shows modern notes and values and is the "bible" for the hobby, tho the info is sometimes wrong and the values are just a guide.

If you are OK with well worn notes, email me your postal address and I'll mail you some 1s that I have kicking around.

If this is true, how many countries still have their 1-unit in bank form? I'm very excited I brought a few already on eBay.

Also found these 2 sites that I think of purchasing from..

http://banknotesandmore4less.com/depot/index.php?cPath=21_53

http://www.banknotes.com/ISOcodes.htm

I will defintely checkout the site from Owen!! Thanks! Oh I prefer UNC.

Welcome to coinpeople. Congrat on your start of denomination 1 of the world banknotes. It should be an exciting start. I can send you a piece of the last Singapore Ship Series $1 for free to mark the beginning of your collection. Just need to send me your mailing address. I shall send it over. It will be in mint condition.



www.notepassion.com

Dear Friend,

I am a collector from Bulgaria and I also collect "1"-s as and other banknotes of all types - regular, specialized, local, notgeld, POW, military etc. issues.

There are many ways to start but without a catalog(s) it is a little bit hard as many of the notes offered for sale or swap by dealers and collectors are described with their catalog numbers only. The catalog(s) also will give you a approximate pricing of the banknotes - not exact but almost in some range.

For your information almost all countries issued a banknotes with denomination "1" - some of them in the past, some of them are still issuing.

As a beginner you can start with the cheap notes and after to proceed with more valuable banknotes. You can buy some from a dealer or other collector or to buy from e-bay, but be careful as there some times you are paying more than it actualy costs or it is offered from somebody at direct sale as on the e-bay it is auction type sale.

Meanwhile do not worry that you complete the "1"-s and you will start 2-s, 5-s etc there are thousands of banknotes with "1" (believe me). I mean not the regular (official) issues only, I am including the local and the private issues also.

If you have further questions or you need some further information send me a e-mail and I will try to help.

Best regards
Radoslav


P.S. To all collectors - If anybody does also collect "1"-s I will be very glad if he/she contact me

So what do you folks do about the countrys with out a 1 note. . . . .

We use coin to replace the $1 note. Heavy...

Any catalogs you recommend? Do you mean books?

I recommend the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Volume III.

As the market prices of the banknotes published in this catalog book changes on every edition, they get outdated very quickly. Moreover, there are new banknotes which will not be included in the book. If you are not just looking at the prices, but would like to know about the notes in the various countries, or would like to know the pick number as a reference, you can visit Ron Wise link at :

http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/notedir/mappage.html

They should be quite updated with new notes as collectors and dealers post their banknote scans into this site.

Some of the country banknote issuing authority do not allow their currency to be displayed in any websites. They may need special permission to do so. One of the country is Canada. Some countries banknotes were thus not available in the Ron Wise webpages.

In addition, I read somewhere in the publisher website of these catalog books, they have come up with some sort of subscription whereby they have the latest prices, latest banknote scans, pick numbers for subscribers. Books are problematic as they are heavy, expensive and always get outdated very quickly. As these thick catalog books are published by American publisher, overseas collectors like me will pay hefty price for the book. In fact, the cost of postage to a foreign country can be higher than the price of the books retailed in USA. I am not sure whether they are easily available in any American bookstore such as Border. If you also visit ebay, there are also quite a few sellers selling them at competitive prices. Good for US buyers but not for foreign buyers.