Hello everyone.

I've decided to start collecting banknotes, after having a family member bring back some unique notes from a cruise.

My first note is a very circulated Haitian 100 Gourde note.

Having read several pages of this forum, I realize that "collecting in general" is a huge scope and that being the case, i've decided to start with collecting currently circulating issues.

My question is this - where best to find obscure but currently circulating issues? (besides ebay)

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to coinpeople banknote forum.

You can start (1) visiting your local coin and banknotes shop. (2) Attend coin convention, you will be able to find lots of foreign banknotes in bulks and in bundles. (3) Exchange or buy from members in coinpeople. (4) Try buying from Yahoo auction. (5) Do a google search on banknotes dealer with their website. They do list down the price and banknotes for sales (6) start join more coins and banknotes forum, get to know more collectors and...

great choice of collecting area, i must say.

current issue world notes are easy to find, relatively cheap, and they make for an extremely enjoyable hobby! there's plenty of different colors, sizes, materials, histories, languages, cultures, and other reasons to stay hooked. it's always interesting to find out what people and places other countries find important enough to put on their money. there's many different ways to go about collecting your notes, and i'm sure you'll learn plenty in the days to come. the hunt is part of the fun! what countries do you consider obscure?

does condition matter for you? if it doesn't, the easiest place to find circulated notes are at money changers. most airport currency booths will charge a nominal fee of $5, but the rest is face value. hotels are even better. the front desk will exchange your money for free if you're a guest. otherwise, follow see323's advice. most coin shops have loads of world currency they throw in "junk boxes". the last coin shop i went to had a box full of bills selling for 50 cents per note. most coin dealers don't have the time or interest to catalog circulated world currency, (unless they know it's rare), so they just lump them all together and try to get rid of it.

if condition does matter to you, the internet is full of world note dealers that sell uncirculated notes. the only drawback going this route is cost. the going rate for uncirculated notes is around twice face value. unless you go on vacation yourself or have friends that can check different countries for you, that's what you're looking at. the good news is that coinpeople is international, and we have members living all over the world. i remember one of our members vacationed in estonia and was able to pick up a few new notes directly from the central bank. but his next vacation was in sweden, and perfectly uncirculated notes were a little harder to track down.

anyway, have fun on your new hobby, and welcome to coin people!

p.s. - here's a good reference site that lists most of the world's currency: Ron Wise's World Paper Money.
i think the concensus was that it's a good place to figure out which notes to hunt for next.

Welcome to CoinPeople. I hope that you enjoy your hobby of collecting banknotes. Perhaps you'll move into some world coins as well. Have fun.

Just like to add my own welcome to the forums here at Coin People & of course good luck with the new endevour

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and advice. I have a few more questions, though.

1. Can I use scans from other sites to display a note, so long as it's attributed? (forum ettiquite question)
2. I don't have many (actually, any) shops near me (call it an hour's drive). Anyone want to recommend web shops online to buy the UNC stuff?
3. Anyone have any recommendations for the circulated stuff? I'm near an airport, but they don't actually have this service. Banks can do this, but it's 25 bucks worth of the stuff at a time.
4. Are there rules for trading on this forum? I know you have to wait a month and post 25 times, but any other rules?

Thanks again in advance!

Actualy there are also members from Sweden here to, as yours humble truly . If anybody is interested in getting old or new banknotes from Sweden you can always email me.
// Joakim

Welcome to CoinPeople !!!

I've purchased from this guy and have been pleased with his service and prices. Mostly common stuff, but it's all been nice so far.

I know you said that you would like to start collecting circulated notes but what types are you thinking about? International or American or a little bit of everything?

Mainly foreign stuff that is currently circulating. I've thought about old US currency, but theres too much of it to wrap my head around right now, and I want to try and focus on 1 subset at a time.