Coin Shopping Around The World

To me they have value and that's what matters to me. They're the only 'souvenirs' I take from a country I visited. Anyway, any general 'numismatic value' depends on what you take home and who you ask, right?




That's sort of beyond the point of traveling and taking home a souvenir, isn't it? It certainly won't cut down my work travels if I tell my boss that I got a number of coins from a certain country anyway via a junk bin. He won't say 'oh, that's ok, then forget doing a project there and stay here instead.'




Simply not true. This forum is in English. I already wrote that a lot of Germans don't speak that language (and the same goes for a lot of other European countries where the local language and for example Russian is spoken). I visited 4 coin shops and a precious metal dealer yesterday: in one shop one attendant spoke perfect broken English and the rest I had to do in German. Those people will not be found on this forum and as such, so that will make Germany look like a country without any numismatic interest or activity.
This forum has grown to be mainly for Americans and Canadians, people with an interest in coins from those countries, and for a few Australians and Brits, as they also have their own sub fora. The 'world coins' forum is mainly filled with 'I have this coin from Indian Princely States, please identify' (I mean, of course you don't post such requests in the 'Coin Identification' forum). Anyway, as I do also have a nice collection of 'Murican coins, that's all fine with me, but you shouldn't consider it cheating if you also find me on other fora with a different focus and perhaps even communicating in a different language.




I've seen enough of the world to know that a lot of people in a lot of countries need every coin they own to get food. Saving money is usually already a big challenge. Collecting coins from circulation for the point of collecting is way out of reach, let alone use money to buy money with the intention of not spending it. Such things simply don't come to mind for a lot of people.

The only person I met in a poor country who had any numismatic interest was in fact in Iran. A baker shop attendant spoke a bit of English and made clear that he was interested in collecting coins. Foreign coins can't be obtained in Iran, only foreign banknotes for trade (euro notes are preferred). This is mainly due to the worldwide banking ban on Iran that has been in place now for over 35 years. I gave him some small change in Euro and Kroner (just over one euro worth in value) and probably made a friend for life. I got some wonderful super fresh cookies with fig filling in return: just out of the oven and still hot. So he found a way to get a coin collection. A collection which hasn't much numismatic value, probably, according to most standards, but means a lot to him. Or maybe it can be considered one of the most interesting collections in the world, due to the fact that foreign coins are generally not available in Iran.




Bavaria is one of the most beautiful pieces of Germany, according to my not so humble opinion. Anyway, better learn some German and just let us know when things get more serious. I'm pretty sure we have enough knowledge here to help you get a smooth numismatic landing in Germany.

I love your posts, it's like reading someone's diary

Nice job Rant!

Excellent post.

See also my previous thread regarding Vilnius, Lithuania.

(that was in August 2012 though - might have easily changed since then)

I see that it's already been a while since the last post. So time for a new one!


Republic of China

Not to be confused with the People's Republic of China. I'm talking Taiwan here. I'll refer to the latter for the rest of this article to avoid confusion and to mainland China when I mean the People's Republic.


General Information

Taiwan is the last leftover of what happened to the republic of China, founded in 1911 and governed by the Nationalist Party, before being put in exile on the islands a few decades later. The country is very easily accessible, has lots to see and do and is also very, very crowded. And very, very safe and well-organized. Oh, and cheap: you get a lot of value for money. The capital is Taipei, which you may remember from the Taipei 101, once the highest building in the world and the first building in its class, the ultra high skyscrapers. Due to an ever ongoing conflict between the two Chinas, Taiwan isn't officially recognized as a country by a lot of other countries and is therefore not a member of the UN.


Taiwan Dollar

The republic has been issuing coins since 1911 and has used this year as 'year zero' in the current coinaige. If you get change, you may get a coin issued in for example the year 104, which is 2015 in our calendar. The currency used is the Taiwan Dollar, also referred to as Yuan (like in mainland China) and usually abbreviated with either $ or TW$. There are about 30 Taiwan dollar in a US dollar.

Taiwan has issued a lot of coins. Currently the TW$ comes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50, where I have to say that the 20 is not used in everyday life (probably because it was introduced much later than the rest and people simply aren't used to it). Coins of 1/2 dollar are no longer in circulation.

In addition, a lot of commemorative coins for circulation and a lot of commemorative silver (and a few gold) coins have been released.


Coin collecting and numismatics

Coin collecting is actually a hobby here. Taiwan has dedicated coin shops and a small numismatic community.


Coin shops

Let's have a look at the places where we can give in to any numismatic cravings.


Taipei

Taipei has at least three coin shops. They can be found right next to each other in Futai Street (apparently this is a historical name, as Google indicates it as Yanping Road). They do not only sell coins, but also grade them and do assessment on collections. Futai street is just south of the Northern City Gate and about 5 minutes walking distance from Taipei Main Station. The coin shops are very close to the old city gate.

These coin shops have just one disadvantage: no one speaks English. This is quite common in Taiwan: only the young generation (20 years and younger, I think) masters this language at some level. Everyone older doesn't, unless required for job purposes (and then usually just at a basic level).

This doesn't stop me from entering and trying to figure out what they have to offer. It seems that they all offer the same kind of coins: a lot of commemorative coins from mainland China, a lot of old / ancient Chinese coins (including spade money, for example), a few oddities like American or Canadian coins and usually a small section of Taiwan circulation coins and commemoratives. This is probably the best place to shop for uncirculated circulation coins.

Prices are remarkably high compared to the rest of the country, meaning that this is really an elite hobby here.

If you want to get an impression of how things are: I managed to get the web address of one of the shops: http://daquan-coin.com.tw/ The website is in Chinese only.


Outside Taipei

I assume that there's a few shops outside Taipei and mainly in the biggest cities like Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, etc. I haven't visited all of those so I can't say for sure. I do know that your chances of finding anything in the 'small' towns and outlying islands (like Kinmen and Penghu), your chances are about zero. I've been to a few and haven't found anything, despite these islands being quite 'touristic'. I think the main difference is that the kind of tourists it usually attracts consists of Taiwanese families, not of foreigners or 'rich' business people: so not exactly the crowd that collects coins.


Other places for coin shopping

And now for the remarkable twist of this post. The best place to get hold of (Taiwanese) coins isn't in coin shops, but in souvenir shops. For example, directly under Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, you'll find a few souvenir shops. They are well-stocked on coins and stamps. In fact, they have a much better choice than the coin shops, as they also have all the commemorative silver and gold coins in stock.

The main disadvantage, though, is that they also are quite expensive: it's profitable to look around, as prices between the shops vary, but generally it's not cheap. Especially the commemorative coins won't come cheap. You can buy a complete type set here, nicely packed in a Dansco-like album, for about 5000 TWD. This album contains many more coins than you'll find on Numista. Unfortunately, I didn't have that much money on hand there and then, so I had to settle for a smaller touristic set (800 TWD). Coins are delivered in a small coin book and are packed in 2x2's. You'll get some stamps as well in the package.

For what I understood and found out, a lot of souvenir shops at touristic hot spots do have these sets for sale: not just in Taipei but also outside. Also mainland Chinese coins can be found here, and paper money (bank notes, etc). And lots of stamps (but we're into numismatics here, not philately).

Conclusion

Taiwan has a numismatic community, but coin collecting seems to be quite an elite hobby here. Your best shot is not necessarily in coin shops, but in souvenir shops. You can best come here for coins from both the People's Republic and the Republic of China.

I'm Lithuanian, living there, I'm in numismatic about 20 years,so ask me about, I'll try to answer about Lithuania more.
january1may
Shop „at the third floor of the mall at Gediminas 9 (coincidentally almost across the street from the Money Museum)" closed, unfortunately.
But the new flea market near Karolina center (Sausio 13-osios st. 2) opened. Working on Saturdays 8.00-12.00. It's near the Vilnius TV tower.