Worldwide Type Coin Collectors

my 2010 Krause says over 50,000 illustrations and if you say two per coin type, that comes to 25,000 coins. I suppose it really matters what you count.

I collect 20th (and 21st) century, circulating, non-PM world coins by type as well, and I thought I was a weird one for collecting "common" type coins .

I don't think I'd ever be able to come close to collecting all the KM numbers, but since I catalogue my coins by country code and KM number, it is a very pleasing feeling to have a whole sequence of KM numbers. For example, I have the complete current and previous set of all currently circulating Indian coins, and the complete latest set of all currently circulating Turkish coins, so it is a big sequence of consecutive numbers .

I use numista as well, it really is a wonderful resource. I wish it output more information in the excel sheet it creates, though. I'd love to be able to sort by weight or coin diametre and such.

Thousands of coins don't take up as much space as you might think. I have almost everything in a 2x2. On the 2x2 I list the Country and government (i.e. Germany, Third Reich) or the Country and City (i.e. Worms, German City). Top right is the date in the Anno Domini system, then under that the date is the system the coin uses (i.e. Yr. 8 for Japanese coins, Islamic calendar for Arabic coins, Jewish calendar, etc.). Bottom left I have the denomination and the bottom right has the KM catalog number (or other system if applicable). On the back I list the metal composition. If it is precious metal I have the fineness and weight.

After everything is labled it goes into a binder. I have pages with pockets that hold 20 2x2's. I start with 'A' and go on alphabetically. I get the 3 inch three ring binders and I can easily hold 30 to 40 pages in them. With 40 pages that holds 800 coins. I have three binders. One with regular coins, one with silver coins and one with Crown coins (coins that have to go in the 2.5x2.5 flips). Admittedly the crown pages only hold 12 coins but you get the idea. In a space 9 inches high I can hold a little over 2000 coins.

You could even save more space and get the 1.5x1.5 flips as those hold 30 coins a page. I would say that a large chunk of my collection could go in the smaller flips if I wanted too. That is 1200 coins in one 3 inch binder. Or 3600 in three of them.

I also have the little red card board coin boxes to temporarly hold coins before they get in the binders. My entire collection takes up less space on the shelf than a couple of folded towels.

Thank you to all the responding group members for their nice comments and suggestions.

I finished the task at hand and my total 20th Century type coins by KM# w/o NCLT, Proofs and Gold comes to>>>>>>>>> 11647 coins. Not to shabby but not as scary as the 16,000 I first thought. I know I did not include the Indian States, but that is outside of the KM realm, I'll need a specialized catalog for that (can anyone recommend one?)

9% of the countries accounted for 35% of the types. All China had 318, India Rep. had 220, Russia 209 and Egypt 200. What really blew me away was that Nepal had 197, Thailand 232, an get this............. San Marino had 249 with the Vatican coming in with 296!!!! These eight countries almost had 2000 type coins on their own.

Wow! That wasn't as tedious as I thought it would be.

My next step is to start on a very simple google docs checklist, Country, denom., KM# date range. I may use Numista for my duplicates, posting a little at a time, hopefully getting some trades out of it.

2"x2" holders will probably be used though I may use the 1-1/2"x1-1/2". I'll have to see. The crown sized coins will get larger sized holders.

Let's see how many I already have? As I do the checklist I'll pull the coins. I'm guessing about 1200-1500, or at least 10%.

I'll keep the group informed.

Ken

So... are you thinking about sharing the check list?

I have about 120 pounds of world coins from my old flea market and coin show days that are just collecting dust as the cost to ship them in bulk is most likely more then what there worth...

It would be nice to hear updates to this topic. Personally I have slowed down a bit and don't actively search new coins. I have just a little more than 2350 coins in my binders at the moment. Majority of them are from 20th century, but some are older or recent issues.

I am collecting worldwide type coins as well, but limiting it to my birth year - 1969. Only circulation strikes - no commemoratives unless the coin replaces the regular design issue for that denomination and the denom. series must not have been interrupted (an example being our current Canada 25 cents coins - I want the caribou design, not the coloured/non coloured comms), no FAO, and no proofs (I find that makes it a slippery slope into lots of silver and eventually gold.. ;) ) Luckily, being born in 1969 takes me out of the silver era for a lot of circulation coins - helps keep the cost down!

157 obtained out of 370ish possible..

(so if anyone has any of that year in nice quality to trade, I have profiles by this name on Numista and the other big name global coin trading site..)