How Did You Get Into Banknotes?

How did you get into collecting banknotes?

For me, it was a combination of several different things.

First of all, I already collected stamps and was accumulating coins, so in some ways it would have been a natural jump.

Second, my grandfather had an accumulation of foreign notes, sent to him by one of his nephews, who was a Doctor of Agriculture working for the Rockefeller Foundation. Everytime he would go to a different country, he would send my grandfather a postcard from there, and make sure to get a specimen of the local currency for him. I was familiar with my grandfather's accumulation, because I had shown an interest in it, which was enough for him to keep me appraised of whenever he received any new notes for it.

Third, after the above, I one day came across small packs of ten different notes at a department store's coin and stamp department. They were reasonably priced ($3.98!), so I invested $20 in them. Instant collection!

From then on, it just continued to build.

And the rest, they say, is history...


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