What To Do With Foreign Coins

Trade them for coins you want,give them to a non collector and get them started,start your own dark side collection.
John1

One From Each Country (OFEC) is a remarkably popular sideline among collectors, and a specialty for many. You can easily accumulate a huge number of countries - almost 200 is a reasonable goal - and it's cheap and easy to get into while still offering advanced goals for the serious collector.

Here's your start.

1. Giving some or all to another young person interested in coins might be very good.
2. At a garage sale, you might get about 25 cents a coin and maybe meet another collector.
3. Anything from the mid 60's back has a decent chance of containing some silver. At a coin show, you might get about 90% of melt value. For example, a Canadian quarter from 1966 or earlier has about $2.50 worth of silver.

Some time ago I used to work in a place where there were many people from other countries. As I talked to them and explained I was a coin collector, many would bring me coins from their countries. I couldn't get the point across that I only collected US coins so they kept on coming. Eventually I ended up with a few boxes of those coins. So I put them in 2x2's and attempted to write on the flip what it was. About half I never could figure out what they were but still some fun. I still have those boxes of those coins. Doesn't hurt to collect other STUFF you know.

The "cheap" part of this might really appeal to you since you are a youngster. As Dave said, for very little money you could amass quite a collection. That money for rolls of halves you referenced in another thread would go a LONG way filling out an OFEC collection!

Had the same problem a couple of years ago. Took about 80, put them in 2 x 2's, labeled them and gave them to a Social Studies teacher at an Inner City school. They were gratefully received and were a hit with the youngsters. Have been advised by the teacher that none have gone astray!

150 coins or countries? 150 coins is easy with those Canadians floating around.

BTW- I just throw the foreign coins into a zip lock and find myself flipping through them often. Sometimes I'll just drop a magnet in the bag and see how many stick or I'll see how many I can connect in a row.. I've acquired the majority for free from coin counter at CU or brought them back from vacations. I do look at them quite a bit.

Disclaimer: I research every foreign coin I find before they go in the bag. Most have limited value over design coolness