Curious As To How Many Members Collect American Coins

I have many collections, really too many. As far as US coins are concerned, they include a nearly complete set of Lincoln cents by date and mintmark, complete for Jefferson 5 cents (both until 2017 only), and complete for Franklins. World coins by type of the 20th century (excluding gold) and one per country for all ages are the collections I am most serious about.

Liver in US. Collect US, British Mandate of Palestine, and then, once in awhile, I will simply find a coin in nice condition or attractive design from the foreign coin box or foreign junk silver offered by one of my local coin dealers. This particular dealer doesn't have a huge bin of low value foreign coins but small ones which are easy to search. SO although my non-US collection has a focus on British Mandate of Palestine, outside of that area it is eclectic with coins from Iran, Belgium, Canada, etc.

I too am a Canadian now living in the States. I grew up collecting Canadian cents, I still have those coins I collected as a little girl. I only collect coins I've found "in the wild" or that I have traded for. To me, buying coins is too easy, haha.
I do collect US coins as well. It's a lifelong hobby that I love sharing with others.

I inherited my Dad's collection of coins he mostly saved from his service in WWII. I travelled extensively for business and kept coins from all over the world and my Mom was born in Canada. Most of these coins are of low monetary value, but sentimental value. My current focus is mostly modern varieties, but I'm really just a random collector. Nice to know I'm not the only one!

I like to complete series and I'm currently working on 7 different ones. I prioritize Morgan and Peace dollars. Mine is 95% US but I am currently working on Canadian silver dollars too. I love the voyager design and they are a lot less expensive that a US classic silver dollar. Beyond that I have just started looking for Philippine US minted Peso's. These get pretty pricy once you get past the most common 3 dates. I want to collect Mexican silver dollar sized coins as I love the design. I don't know much about them yet.

I collect strictly American coins and some Canadian . I also have a bunch of world coins thrown in a box loose with no holders .

I don't know how I missed this thread when originally posted a few months ago. Perhaps because I usually just skim over the " US coins" sections of the forum...


I am a world coin collector, living in Australia. As such, my "US coin collection" is just a part of my "world coin collection". In my main coin album, American coins are filed under "U", wedged in between United Arab Emirates and Upper Canada.

America may be "just another foreign country" to me, but it's a fairly significant country. Having visited there myself when I was a child, and having relatives visit there all the time, I have a fairly extensive collection of "pulled from circulation" American coins. American coins are also usually found quite extensively in bulk world coin lots, which I have occasionally acquired in the past. Because I have so many American coins, they take up more than their fair share of space in the albums. They take up more than half of album "U", and I have an additional "North America album" for the bulk coins (date/mintmark variations), about 2/3 of which is American coins with the remainder Canadian.

Being from Australia, Australian coins of course make up the largest contingent in the collection, having a near-complete set. In terms of numbers, America comes in at number 3, after Australia and Great Britain.

I have purchased some early, valuable US coins, with the goal of assembling at least a "type set". It's not a major goal or focus though, as the American series has two major drawbacks: it is simultaneously both rather boring and ugly, from an artistic perspective, and they are much more expensive than equally rare and desirable non-American coins. This combination means I can usually get "more bang for the buck" buying non-American rarities.

You will find me rather typical of non-American collectors. Nobody living outside the US - with the exception of American expatriates living abroad - specializes in collecting only US coins. The only "US coin specialist" I have ever met in person was a member of my coin club who was an ex-US-Marine who retired to Australia; he only collected US half dollars. The parochialism of US coin collecting is a two-way street: most coin collectors in America do not find non-US coins interesting, and most coin collectors living outside of America do not find US coins interesting.


My collection is "extreme generalist" - I collect the entire world, by type, date, and mintmark, with no time limit - ancient, mediaeval and modern are all included. I currently have 14211 coins in the collection, and I don't have a hope of ever even coming close to "finishing" it.

I find the whole concept of specialization, of narrowing down my field of interest to a point where I might reasonably be able to "finish a collection" within my lifetime, an uncomfortable restraint.

I live in America, and I mainly collect US coins. I also dabble in Japanese coins.