Reasons For Collecting

I collect notes.. mostly Canadian .. the reason I collect notes..? It's easy.. I love 'em.. I think currency is like a diplomat... each note has a story and says something about the country and what they value and wish to portray.

It's why the $50 note from the multicolour series is my favourite... and why I love the '37 issues ...

Certainly making money b/c of the money I collect isn't one of them.. and to be honest I don't think I will ever make anything off of this collection... it's more like a labour of love.

I collect anything that circulated, coins and banknotes. But in the future I will collect to make a profit. But will still collect some for fun.

I like circulated coins that I get in change. I don't noodle or buy premium specimens. Just as they come, often in change, usually when traveling.
Example 1. In Vietnam where banknotes are used almost exclusively due to depreciation of the currency, coins have all but disappeared. On my last day there I caught a government bus to the airport. The bus fare was 4000 dong. I tendered a 5000 d note and received a tiny 1000 d coin for change. The coin is worthless but I was so happy to obtain a Vietnamese coin in change as my only numismatic souvenir of that country.

Example 2. I recently received a common Australian 5 cent piece in change that is flawless, not a dent or scratch - effectively a Mint specimen. It is now in a 2x2.

I think all collectors have their own peculiar weirdness and mine is coins I come across in change.

It's FUN, besides being educational of numismatics and one's country.

I believe that one can learn more from looking at a banknote than one can from a coin. A coin is all shiny and distracting, but a banknote is like a document or a contract; one has to read it in depth to get the meaning. It has a promise and it has 2 signatures, and tons of anti-counterfeiting technology.

World banknotes are fun to collect because there are so many variations; one can get lost collecting a single nation's currency, let alone all of them at once. Hyperinflation notes never cease to astound some people. Banknotes much more fun to show off than coins are, in my opinion. And they're a bit trickier to conserve, I believe, so a certain level of collecting experience is required to keep them in Gem Uncirculated states of preservation. It's a different breed of animal.

^My opinion only.

I only seem to collect one from each country I go to, and anything that appeals to me and isn't pricy. Kind of a nice memento of a country I've been, I'm not really serious, coins are cheaper and easier to get series (I can't afford a 50 euro banknote, let alone 500 euros), but I am building a small lowest denomination collection of countries I've been to.

I started collecting when I came to Canada last Summer, for my last year of high school, and was interested in the quarters having so may designs. I used to hoard stuff so when I see something that catches my attention that habit just comes back again. In Indonesia older money is withdrawn from circulation, so you never see those.

At the beginning I just kept what quarters I can get from change, then I asked my school office if I could look through their change jar and guess what, I can! I found some pennies including two with a man's head on the back (they were in fact 1938 and 1940 George VIs). I've never seen pennies before so I kept those too.
And as I found more stuff looking through other people's change, including a 1963 silver quarter, I got a few questions and this forum was always on top of Google search and it is very informative I joined. And that's the beginning. I began to roll hunt too after reading the successes.

Then my paper money collecting started. I started asking banks for old money when I get the chance to because I read people occasionally get lucky and find some. Soon I did, and my best find so far is a Devil's Face one dollar bill! It's in EF condition but it can trick you into seeing it as a higher grade note since it's handled so little. I didn't bring enough cash that Friday to get all the 1973 $1s, and when I came back tomorrow they had been sent off to be destroyed. It was very lucky because I usually go there on Saturdays! This is the starting point of my serious note collecting, before this I just put them in an envelope, never to be seen again (now I pick the best ones to keep, and get rid of the rest).

So that's how I got into collecting, it interests me and makes me happy.

I like notes with historical associations. I like the German inflation notes from after the First World War and also the Japanese occupation notes, they even had notes in pounds and shillings made which was our currency of the time, most interesting