This is one of the commonly discussed topic in a number of matured banknotes forum. I am raising it here in case we have not discuss it before.

If you look around, you will notice that only men will love to collect coins/ banknotes as a hobby. Women usually are not interested. They may accompanied their husband, boyfriends to coin and banknotes show, dressed and looking attractive. They may asked the value of the banknotes when their men are seriously considering to purchase the note. If the value is on the high side, they will exclaimed. Wow...are you going to buy that ? Dear, it is expensive. The men will have to explain why it is a good piece whether it is going to be for one's collecton or investment.

It's true even in South-East Asia ( where I came from ). Coins and banknote collecting are mostly male dominated hobby.

Luckily, my wife is supportive over my hobby but she is not overly interested. She sometimes get excited whenever I purchased something new and whenever I sold my earlier pieces. . She will always ask this question. Do you really have to sell this nice old piece which you have kept for so many years ? Why not keep it for our son and daughter ? I will always answer her. It's not part of the collection and moreover collection direction changes as we move on with our hobby

Actually money collecting is essentially a male dominated hobby.

Yes women like to spend theirs on shoes, handbags, clothes they never wear

And a whole wardrobe of clothings, lighted glass cabinets showcase of handbags and a room of shoes. Now that's what I termed it as investment on personal grooming

i had a girlfriend that collected keychains, and another that collected unicorns- but i've never been with somebody that shared an interest in numismatics. the closest i've been with a woman that had even a remote interest in paper was a scrapbooker.

heheh...i remember once having to explain what the big deal was about spending $300 on a one-dollar bill with a red seal. i turned things around to where she had to explain what the big deal was about spending $300 on a small purse with a 'coach' logo.

You beat me to it

The only women I know who collect things are my Mum & Aunt who collect fridge magnets from around the world and one of the girls at work collects novelty lighters

No DON'T!!!

If you ask women to collect coins and banknotes, the next thing they will do is to make it into PROCESSED art form!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine these sceanrios for coins / banknotes:

"If you can't use these coins / banknotes, why keep them? Change them with real money in the bank"

"Oh wow what a beautiful silver / gold coin! That should be made into jewellery!"

"That is silver / gold isn't it? Let's melt it down and make a new pair of earrings from it!"

"Oooooooooooh pretty! Let's laminate the notes and hang them on the wall"

... when Tiff gets here she's gonna kick several butts, methinks ...

I think you're right on that one. But overall collecting of things does seem to be far more a male thing. Coins, banknotes, cars, motorcycles, banks, musical instruments. Now if you get into fine antiques and such, I think you'll find the ratios reversed.

In Singapore and Malaysia, early traditional Nonya women made silver coin belts as costume jewellery and wear them on their waist. That's one way of doing two things at one go ( silver costume jewellery and coin collecting ).

Well that was MY personal awful experience that I had when I was with my girlfriend. I virtually had to hide them so remote that it had to be hidden in the attic

Leaving that aside (well Tiffy is so going to kill me later ) my mom used to buy some USD notes and gold coins, jewlleries. A fair amount of them were bought during the cold war era as currency values were relatively unstable back then.

The disappointing bit is that due to storage issues, the notes are in relatively poor condition - if I remember right, there were a few 1970s (don't know if there were any 60s notes but don't think so) 100 dollar bills.I don't know if there is anything in there worth checingk out but I do think they should be converted SOON or they will start crumbling!

Virginia Cluver and Dottie Dow are two who come to mind without much thought. I won't bother going through the membership of this list and counting, but many of the most active members are female. There are lots of reasons why one might see more males than females at shows, etc., but I would be very careful about over generalizing why that might be.

My first coins came from my grandmother and she encouraged me as my hobby developed. How many of you have encouraged your daughters or granddaughters?

I realize much of this post is tongue in cheek, but it does present a moment to stop and think about the hobby, attitudes, and what includes rather than excludes people.

Now, if you can just keep the males and females away from my collecting interests until I'm ready to sell!

BITE ME!

Yeah, about money-collecting in general being a male dominated hobby:

1. It definitely is.
2. You boys need to be less condescending when it comes to female collectors. Every time I walk into a coin shop the owner talks down to me. How annoying! I guess looking like a 14-year old doesn't help, either.

And by the way, women can invest in "personal grooming" and coins at the same time. I do, and it's a blast!

I have bought a lot of paper money from female dealers, Jane White of banknotes4sale.com, and Pam West of Britishnotes.co.uk and have never had problems with any of my orders, I cannot say the same for their male competition!

I sold my note to Pam West. As for Jane White, I have not dealt with her before.

If the coin shop owner is professional, he or she will treat everyone including a female customer equally. Anyone who walks into a coin shop is a potential customer or a potential seller. I know of a coin shop owner for the past twenty years. He treated his customers like friends. During the early years of my collecting, on every Saturday afternoon, collectors used to gather at his little shop. It's like a mini get-together in a coin and banknote club. I enjoyed the chat with fellow collectors. One thing is that the coin shop owner have excellent customer and personal service. That's what draw everyone to his shop. Every Saturday, there is alway some exciting new items appearing. They were acquired during the weekdays. And it will be sold off on Saturday. His items are fast moving and always sell. I am glad that I started my coin and banknote hobby with him. With his foresight, collectors benefit from his experience. Even today, I still visit him once in a while.

There are certain inate differences between males and females in general

That's all I'll say.

Care to enlighten us here ?

Ooh, touched a nerve.

I've never know of a female collector of coins/banknotes before, normally it's old men, although I'm only 23!

Actually most of the paper money I collect lately has females on it, attractive ones at that. So it is my female hobby

Nah, no nerve touched.

I have been a collector for almost 8 years now. I started with coins and moved into currency. I didn't start collecting until I was in my early 30's (so, yes, if you do some math you may be able to figure out my approximate age). I have found that coin and currency collecting is predominately a male hobby and if I have my husband with me at shows or shops, most of the dealers tend to talk to him rather than me. I don't think it has anything to do with me being female or with the dealers being sexist. I just think it is because it is primarily a male dominated hobby they assume the guy is the collector. When they find out I am the collector and not my husband they shift gears and address me instead.

hahaha, interestingly, my Englsih teacher in college, who is awriter but also a female coin collector. And she is the big collectore too. Most of her collection are US coin in Mint package and Proof. I heard from her that she collect with her father since she was about 15 or something. What an amazing experience when you see the "first woman" collect coins. Hahaha

If my daughters are any indication, I think they will both be collectors and serious ones at that. They love money in all forms. They both especially like big money, like silver dollars, hundred dollar bills etc.

i have never ever seen a female coin/currency collector in person. that's one of the things i'm hoping to see one day. just like ghosts, flying saucers, unicorns, nessie, and bigfeet.

my father-in-law tried to get my now wife to collect coins, in fact she has a collection of silver dimes still. But alas she was more interested in spending money on important things like clothes, purses, etc instead But she is still my favourite collectible

Interesting collections that include coins, banknotes, wife, daughters and father-in-law.

I too have never seen a true female collector so far but I have dealt with one from UK- Pam West.
But I am sure I have not met a true female collector. Interestingly, there is this female collector / dealer from my country who sell banknotes in yahoo and ebay auction. She buy banknotes but immediately every banknotes purchased will be put up for sales in the online auctions. I don't think she collect any banknotes as a collectors. She is a true banknote dealer.

Most dealers do not expect a female customer but once they are aware that the customer is a female, they will still give the same respect, courtesy and professionalism engaging the female customer.

Once I was in my dealer friend shop. a female customer came in and brought out some old rare Straits Settlement banknotes to sell. She said that it belong to her late husband. She intend to sell them. At that moment, I thought this scenario may happen to my collection if I am no longer around in this world. Obviously, the female customer do not have knowledge about the pricing of these banknotes. Her late husband did not tell her about their values and other information about these rare banknotes.

Therefore it is important to write down what are values of these banknotes. At least we should record down the purchased date, cost price etc. Alternatively, you should inform your wife or husband about them and if there is a need to sell them away the collection, it will be better to list them in well-establised auction houses such as Spink or any local established auction houses. This ensures that the collections are sold at market values.

I started serious collecting coins and banknotes at 22. It is true that in the early days, all the collectors are old men. I was one of the youngest around to collect the rare and expensive Straits banknotes. I will sit down with these old men and listen to their interesting stories. I enjoyed those early days of collecting.

I guess I lucked out, my wife doesnt even carry a purse let alone spend money on them. I spend far more on coins than she does on....anything. She is so far from the stereotype of women put forth in this thread...to be honest, I dont know any women who fit the stereotypes. Not to say she gives a rats ass about coins. because she doesnt.

Hey try to propaganda the Coin collection hobby at home and at work to everybody. That will make more people get involved, right? Such as put the coin posters, with some rare coin with expensive price on the posters. Thus will attract people who think collecting coin are wasting money. hahaha

Might also attract thefts by petty theives, and cause coin dealers to have to repetitively answer questions about the value of a circulated 1958 wheat penny, etc.

Men and women are different. Period.

Why do women typically spend more money on shoes? Why are many more males obsessed with cars?

I believe that coin and note collecting is simply yet another example of something that men and women are for the most part, different from birth. Of course there are always exceptions.

I like your answer on this. Thanks.