Collecting World Coins: What to Collect
The Standard Catalog of World Coins 1901–2000 contains more than 2000 pages of coin information! Wow, that is a lot of coins! Not to mention 18th, 19th and 21st century catalogs. So out of all of these coins, which coins should you collect? Well the short answer is, what ever you are interested in and makes you happy.
According to an article by Erik Martin in August 2007 CoinValues magazine, more than a 107 countries issued one or more coins in 1971. So just putting together a birth year set would be a very nice collection of world coins.
Do you have interest in thematic content like floral or fauna, well there are coins with flowers, trees, plants, birds, fish and mammals depicted on them. Then there are coins of many different shapes; square coins, triangle coins, round coins with square holes or with just holes. Choosing a theme would make a very interesting collection.
Some collectors collect world crowns. The term crown comes from the British coin denomination Crown and is coins of the size of the American silver dollar.
Personally, I collect type coins. Krause Publications publishes standard catalogs of world coins and these are the acknowledged sources of identification and values for world coins. Numbering systems started by R. S. Yeoman (Y#) and Chester L. Krause (KM#) used in the Standard Catalogs determines the criteria that myself as well as other type collectors use to specify a unique coin type.
The Standard Catalog of World Coins 1901–2000 contains more than 2000 pages of coin information! Wow, that is a lot of coins! Not to mention 18th, 19th and 21st century catalogs. So out of all of these coins, which coins should you collect? Well the short answer is, what ever you are interested in and makes you happy.
According to an article by Erik Martin in August 2007 CoinValues magazine, more than a 107 countries issued one or more coins in 1971. So just putting together a birth year set would be a very nice collection of world coins.Do you have interest in thematic content like floral or fauna, well there are coins with flowers, trees, plants, birds, fish and mammals depicted on them. Then there are coins of many different shapes; square coins, triangle coins, round coins with square holes or with just holes. Choosing a theme would make a very interesting collection.
Some collectors collect world crowns. The term crown comes from the British coin denomination Crown and is coins of the size of the American silver dollar.
Personally, I collect type coins. Krause Publications publishes standard catalogs of world coins and these are the acknowledged sources of identification and values for world coins. Numbering systems started by R. S. Yeoman (Y#) and Chester L. Krause (KM#) used in the Standard Catalogs determines the criteria that myself as well as other type collectors use to specify a unique coin type.
You should collect what ever is of interest and especially, something that makes you happy and fulfills you desire to collect. Yes, by all means, select a focus for your collection, as this will allow you to make it the best that it can be.
WorldWide Coins Magazine - Magazine for world coin collectors
Krause Publications - Source of books and magazines for collectores
