Sorting Through My Coin Collection!
It’s been about five months since my last post here (sorry about that!), but I’m thrilled to share that I’m still deeply involved in the fascinating world of coins and currency collections. In fact, just recently I embarked on two new collection projects that have truly reinvigorated my passion for this hobby! For me, having a clear goal makes all the difference; otherwise, my collection ends up with all sorts of random pieces scattered about, haha. Focusing on specific goals gives me a real sense of accomplishment.
Let me tell you about these two new projects, starting with the one I’m most passionate about.
Obsolete Currency from Charleston, SC – It’s not my hometown, but this note is truly stunning!
This idea came to me during a presentation at one of our coin club meetings. The speaker shared his journey of collecting notes from his hometown, particularly focusing on National Bank Notes. While these notes are rare and often expensive where I live, I’ve had some luck finding old merchant tokens, canceled checks, advertisements, and especially obsolete currency. There’s nothing like holding a 150-year-old note that once circulated through your hometown—possibly even touched by your ancestors!
To say I’m thrilled about this niche would be an understatement. My big dream is to gather one example of every type of item linked to my hometown (I recently stumbled on two tokens not documented anywhere before!), and then donate or loan it (probably loan it, haha) to our city’s museum so others can enjoy it too. Maybe I’ll also enter some coin show exhibits along the way!
This project will likely take decades and a good chunk of money, but all in the name of the hobby, right?
And now for the second collection!
I’m not quite as committed to this one yet as the hometown project, but while sorting through my scattered foreign coins, I realized it could be an interesting venture. Plus, foreign coins are some of the cheapest to collect—people often give them away!
So last month, I dedicated about six hours over three days to gather all my foreign coins from jars, boxes, and baggies into one place and start organizing them.
And organize I did. And organized some more.
I ended up with three main categories and, importantly, a nice, decluttered collection. I went through EVERY SINGLE FOREIGN COIN I HAD, sometimes multiple times, trying to decide which to keep! Haha.
It turns out this is a popular theme among collectors. When I mentioned it at my coin club, many raised their hands saying they collect foreign coins too. One person even claims he’s on a mission to collect coins from every country—can you imagine?!
I now have each coin in 2×2 cardboard holders neatly sorted in a binder, with extra slots for future additions. Rearranging them when I get new coins is a bit of a hassle, but it’s worth it. I had to redo the entire layout after the first hour to accommodate this – oops.
Another challenge is deciding which list to use to track countries. Some lists include only modern countries, while others include former countries, areas of special sovereignty, and those recognized by groups like the United Nations. I chose one from Numista, as it was easy to print and “only” had about 400 countries. Good enough for now!
If you’re interested in starting a similar collection, a quick Google search can guide you in the right direction. There are even online groups focused on this topic. I’m also keeping an eye out for world notes—they’re always fun to explore!
I’ll try to get back into the habit of posting here more regularly because I genuinely enjoy sharing my thoughts and experiences. I have lots of pictures and ideas lined up, so maybe I’ll just spill them out here to motivate myself to take action.
It seemed to work for this post, right? 😉
Happy collecting!
