Coins of the Globe

Welcome to the wonderful world of foreign coin and banknote collecting. If you are new to , or just exploring the field of world coins, let me try to make some helpful suggestions.

There is an old saying, "Buy the book before the coin." Let me strongly encourage you to do this. There are four excellent catalogs which cover world coins, century by century, from 1600 to the present. The title of these catalogs is Standard Catalog of World Coins by Krause & Mishler. The catalogs are broken down by century: 1601-1700, 1701-1800, 1801-1900, and 1901 to the present. They may be obtained directly from the publisher:

I would recommend that you pick up many other different books, on coins that suit your specific interests. I have many different "lightly used" books available for you to gain insight and depth of knowledge about your collecting area. You may want to subscribe to World Coin News, a monthly newspaper devoted just to the collecting of world coins. In it you will find many interesting features, articles and advertisements from many of the outstanding world coin dealers in the United States. World Coin News can also be ordered from Krause Publications at the above address.

"Where do I begin?" or "What do I collect?"
Let me make some suggestions that would help you narrow your field of interest as you are beginning. There are three basic ways to collect coins: by type, by series, or by denomination.

Type collecting consists of collecting one of each type of a denomination minted. For example, to collect English crowns by type from 1800 to the present would consist of collecting the 15 different crowns minted between 1804 and 1965.

Series collecting consists of collecting every date and every mint mark for a given denomination. For example, if you want to collect German Reichsmark, you would collect one of every date and mintmark A through J, minted from 1933 to 1939.

In denomination collecting you might decide to attempt to collect silver-dollar sized coins of the world, 1/2-dollar sized coins of the world, or penny coins of the world etc.

Many people, when they first begin collecting coins, often start in the area of their own ethnic background. If your family comes from France, you might start by collecting french coins; if from Japan, Japanese coins, etc. This narrows the field of interest and gives you a manageable area to begin collecting.

Other forms of collecting could consist of focusing on a few or many countries, but within a given period, such as 1900 to date. Many beginners like collecting one coin or banknote from each country. I even have one customer who has nearly completed collecting one coin of each year from 1500 to the present!

Another area in which there is a lot of interest is topical coin collecting. Coins and banknotes can be collected by many varius topics such as: Olympics, sports, animals, birds, boats/sailing, other transportation such as planes and trains, famous people such as authors, composers and statesmen... Your collecting choices are up to you. Collect what you like and enjoy organizing and learning about your collection!