pooky Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 does anyone else collect coins as a souvenir? i have only started buying coins in the last year (out of 15 collecting). I love the random way a coin would fall into my lap - travel, relatives or simply finding them on the ground. i understand it is big business in America but surely some people are less worried about sets and more about discovery. I hope i am not a dying breed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 does anyone else collect coins as a souvenir? i have only started buying coins in the last year (out of 15 collecting). I love the random way a coin would fall into my lap - travel, relatives or simply finding them on the ground. i understand it is big business in America but surely some people are less worried about sets and more about discovery. I hope i am not a dying breed... Welcome to CP! No worries, my friend. This thread: Latest Circulation Find, should be very good evidence that at least this group of people still are excited even by a wheatie! I'd value a buffalo nickel found in circulation over my choicest coins and notes any day! One I can buy, the other is an absolutely mind-boggling bit of luck. By the way... as I make clear over and over again in that thread. I have never ever found a non-circulating design/series in circulation! Never an indian head, never a buffalo, never anything. And it seems like my fellow CPers find a standing liberty quarter or a barber dime every week in change! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowly but surely Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 Great topic. I've always liked picking up a coin or two on my travels. This summer I hope to take it to the next level. I've never been too big a foreign coin collector, but I'm going on a three week swing through Europe and I want to pick up some pre-euro coin sets. I love coins as history and I hope to take a little history home with me this time I still kick myself for not bringing home some Hungarian Forints (spelling?) on my last big Europe trip. When I left Hungary I tried to exchange them for euros and was laughed at! Not the strongest currency at the time. I was backpacking and trying not to accumulate too much so I just left them somewhere... oh well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
De Orc Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 I allways try to pick up a coin or two of any country I am visiting, usualy not modern though LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted May 3, 2007 Report Share Posted May 3, 2007 I've started watching for elongated coin machines when I travel/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 Like Mark, I watch for elongated coin machines when travelling. They make great souveniers. I keep coins and currency from every trip to a non-US locale. It's a fun way to remember the trips and the interesting places I visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted May 4, 2007 Report Share Posted May 4, 2007 If anybody is interested here is a couple sites which list elongated coin machine locations. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 Got a great elongated cent in today's mail. It came from Old Tucson and was sent by our own Dads Stuff. Thank you very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captaincoffee Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 Every time I travel/live/work in a new country, I try to get hold of all the coins/banknotes that I can. It's a great way to combine my coin/banknote hobby and collect souvenirs of the place. 9 countries in Asia, 4 in North America, and 6 in Europe so far. Unfortunately, only repeat visits coming up in the next year. I generally don't collect any coins/banknotes from countries that I haven't visited. Somehow, it just doesn't mean as much unless there is a memory attached to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleBobo Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 When I went to London in 2005 I got me a 2005 proof set as a momento Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crystalk64 Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 I try to find elongated machines when I am out and about but there are not many around here! Have had collectors send me a few thru the years. Many times I will, while on a trip or vacation, look for medallions that have been struck for many of the tourists destinations as they make a great momento and most are reasonably priced unless you get into precious metals. I will say I can remember spending the Indian/Buffalo Nickel, Franklin Halves, Mercury Dimes and the Standing Liberty quarters while a small child. If only I had known!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted May 5, 2007 Report Share Posted May 5, 2007 Interesting topic. I thought I was the only one who was concerned about the way coins and collectibles came to me. It's not only the randomness of circulating coins that seems so intruiging but also the way purchased and traded collectibles come. While randomness and chaos tend to rule there is also a degree of providence sometimes in the way they are found. You can find an item you've never seen before and then suddenly find several more pieces that constitute a set. It's almost as though you're following someone dispersing a set piece- meal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooky Posted May 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 i love the randomness of it all. i also much prefer used circulated coins as nothing is greater than holding something that you know has been around and in so many hands before you. many of my coins are from my family's travels but some are purchases i made whilst travelling. i never thought i would find an 1924 CCCP 50 Kopeck in a market in Cape Coast, Ghana. nor did i imagine i would find a Bolivian silver 3 (sols? i think) in a Polish antique shop. there is a shop i know that sells coins frome every place and every time, but it doesnt interest me cos i dont know what i want until it falls into my lap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted May 7, 2007 Report Share Posted May 7, 2007 If I collect as momentos, then only the coins I save on my foreign forays would qualify, since I rarely ever spend coins overseas but only save them for the hoard. So as a result I have large accumulations of coins from all the countries I have traveled in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just carl Posted May 8, 2007 Report Share Posted May 8, 2007 Never been out of the country and really never collected foreign coins. However, my type of work in Engineering allows me to meet people from all over the world and I constantly bug them for coins from thier homelands. Many Engineering students come here to learn, get temp jobs in firms and then go back to thier own countries. All of them I meet I always ask them to send me coins from wherever. Over the years I have accumulated virtually thousands and thousands of coins from probably every country that uses them. I've been putting them in 2x2's if they fit and the boxes they're in are getting really heavy. I have no idea where about half of them are from, what they are, how much they are worth, but I did write the name of the person that gave them to me on the 2x2 with that date and company where I got them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marianne Posted May 8, 2007 Report Share Posted May 8, 2007 I kept some coins as travel mementos before I was interested in coin collecting per se. When I dug them out of a box recently, I was surprised by how well they'd held up (some of them were in my backpack for 3 months) and also by how much they reminded me of those trips. The coins I inherited are mementos, too. My dad's collection included some from a long visit to Europe our family took in 1964, when I was 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trantor_3 Posted May 8, 2007 Report Share Posted May 8, 2007 It's actually one of my two collections : trying to get type sets of all the countries I have visited. I always try to get as much different coins as possible when visiting a "new"country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pooky Posted May 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2007 Well, at least I know that this kind of hobby is alive and well. keep up all the random collecting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 Great topic. I've always liked picking up a coin or two on my travels. This summer I hope to take it to the next level. I've never been too big a foreign coin collector, but I'm going on a three week swing through Europe and I want to pick up some pre-euro coin sets. I love coins as history and I hope to take a little history home with me this time I still kick myself for not bringing home some Hungarian Forints (spelling?) on my last big Europe trip. When I left Hungary I tried to exchange them for euros and was laughed at! Not the strongest currency at the time. I was backpacking and trying not to accumulate too much so I just left them somewhere... oh well... Hello! You must be exaggerating/joking. True, HUF was very weak some months ago (due most probably to some financial gurus' manipulations) but even at that time there wasn't the slightest problem about changing any currency to any other...if this is what you mean...sorry if misunderstood you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottO Posted August 1, 2009 Report Share Posted August 1, 2009 i do, even when i wasn't buying at home, i would try and get some circulations or buy some older bits, bulgaria was nice as i got some nice early 20th century russians there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just carl Posted August 4, 2009 Report Share Posted August 4, 2009 WELCOME TO THE FORUMMMMMMMMM. There are those people that collect coins, hoard coins, place them in sets, place them in all sorts of holders. Some collect coins with errors on them. Some collect ones from other countries. Some just collect coins with animals on them. Not sure of how many coin collectors there are in the World but possibly 1/4 of the World collects something. Lately it's coins. Here in the USA people go through crazes for a while and then subside back to nomalacy. For example at one time there was a mad craze for something called Beanie Babies. Then of course baseball/football cards. Of course many collected those little Match Box/ Hot Wheel Cars too. And don't forget the US postage stamp craze some years back. Now there are those fanatics that collect any and every coin type, variety, origin, etc. So that is a discription of me. I collect anything in the way of coins. Around me there are now 4 coin shows a Month within 15 miles of my house and I try to make as many as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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