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 Replies: 16 / Views: 3,536 |
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Valued Member
United States
244 Posts |
As Americans, coin collecting is a popular hobby. So to, I believe, in Canada, Australian, and the UK. But what about non-English cultures? Do Spaniards collect Spanish coins? Do Japanese collect Japanese coins? How about Egyptians?
That is, is there something particularly English about coin collecting? Or European? Or is it really a worldwide thing?
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Valued Member
United States
447 Posts |
Isn't coin collecting the "Hobby of Kings" ?
Just as horse racing is the "Sport of Kings"
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
As a general rule, a coin will usually bring the most in it's home country. (one exception to this is in countries with strong antiquites laws because the government is liable to conficate your collection as a "national treasure". And coins found belong to the state and if you can't establish an airtight provenance chain then it must be stolen state property.) And Yes the Japanese are serious collectors of Japanese coins. Since the break up of the Soviet Union collecting Russian coins is becoming popular over there as well.
Edited by Conder101
09/23/2010 11:44 pm
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Valued Member
South Africa
169 Posts |
Maybe one of the many reasons why people collect coins from their own country apart from patriotism etc is the fact that it is readily available, and in general cheaper to obtain (Less Shipping). I am South African, and I do collect South African coins as well(ZAR Series), but I get them from USA and UK mostly as I live in another part of the world, UAE, so everything I buy gets shipped in, at a huge price normally, I pay up to $16 shipping.Coin price $2. - shipping ~$10. Total  is way to much to be able to resell and make a profit. Anyway starting now on Morgans  . |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Coin collecting is also popular in Germany and Austria. Evidence of this is that their mints sell collector coins into their home markets. Nevertheless, there are coin dealers throughout Europe.
The biggest market by far in the U.S. one, and American coins by far are most collected. Perhaps I just have a remarkable grasp of the obvious in this case.
It is somewhat surprising to me that the U.S. Mint has been a relatively latecomer to selling collector coins in large numbers. European mints have been doing this from much earlier times. Perhaps someone more erudite than me can explain the history of U.S. Mint marketing policy of recent decades.
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Moderator
 Australia
16806 Posts |
Coin collecting is a cultural thing, and it's stronger in some cultures than in others. It's very strong in America. Somewhat less strong in Britain, Germany and Japan. Even less strong in Australia, New Zealand, France and Latin America and basically nonexistent in sub-Saharan Africa.
It's not something you can easily predict from general observations of the culture, either. America is a prosperous republic, has been mostly at peace since 1945 and has a history they can be mostly proud of, and coin collecting is immensely popular; France is a prosperous republic, has been mostly at peace since 1945 and has a history they can be mostly proud of, yet coin collecting is not common; Japan has been in recession for a decade and has a recent history they'd rather forget, yet coin collecting is extremely popular there; despite everyone in the Persian Gulf area being filthy rich due to oil money for decades now and despite recent renewed interest in Islamic history, the market for early Arabic/Islamic coins is still pretty dead.
Wherever you go, coin collecting is a highly parochial thing - collectors are always much more likely to be interested in collecting their own country's coins, wherever they are. So prices for coins from a country do depend to a large degree on the level of coin collecting extant in that country, since they're usually the ones that are prepared to pay the highest prices for them. US, British, German and Greek coins are expensive. South African, Latin American and Indonesian coins are cheap.
And the coin-collecting culture can change over time, or under pressure from outside influences. China used to be full of collectors of old Chinese coins, then the triple blow of the Japanese invasion, communist takeover and Cultural Revolution saw the hobby evaporate to nothing; time will tell if their rising prosperity sees the return of the middle-class coin collector in that country. Russian coins surged in popularity after the collapse of communism. Europe generally saw a revival in coin collecting with the introduction of the euro.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
Cyprus
349 Posts |
Hi I thought the Germans were mad coin collectors.
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Valued Member
Israel
423 Posts |
Looking at the list of members on this site I have found the following
rough totals
Total members 10,200
United States 7450
Canada 650
Australia 480
United Kingdom 430
India 150
Rest of the world 1,260
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Valued Member
United States
380 Posts |
Since the invention of the internet, (especially ebay and sites like this) coin collecting has changed from a mostly "collect your country" to "collect whatever you want". IMO |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
539 Posts |
Quote:
China used to be full of collectors of old Chinese coins, then the triple blow of the Japanese invasion, communist takeover and Cultural Revolution saw the hobby evaporate to nothing; time will tell if their rising prosperity sees the return of the middle-class coin collector in that country. I thought we all thought they were too busy counterfeiting them...  Quote:Since the invention of the internet, (especially ebay and sites like this) coin collecting has changed from a mostly "collect your country" to "collect whatever you want". IMO as bad as we all might believe ebay is (and there are moments), this medium has opened up the ability to get coins that were just not readily available. In my area, I would have suspected many coin shops but that is not the case if you collect 'common' foreign (non-US) coins. For me I have been able to greatly expand my collection because of ebay and have many more countries that I could not find elsewhere. Online dealer, like ebay, has changed the supply as well. I know there are trust issues but quite honestly I'm not sure I recognize a counterfeit even if I bought it person. |
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Valued Member
United States
380 Posts |
As for the counterfeits... knowledge is power. If you WANT to learn to identify the difference, the information is available.
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New Member
Switzerland
46 Posts |
Coin collecting is also a popular hobby in Switzerland. Many collectors here like to collect mostly Swiss coins. I have found that coins are not valued as high as they are in the US.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
539 Posts |
I'm certainly open to learning. I haven't found a lot in the area I collect but on the other hand, not alot of folks are going to spend time counterfeiting what I collect - not enough profit in it I suspect. But if there are some additional resources on the topic, I'm going to go look at them. thanks
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Pillar of the Community
Thailand
1509 Posts |
I don't think it's as big in South-East Asia but then most people here are more concerned with making a living. When I first arrived here on Koh Samui - Thailand over six years ago I stayed at a resort and to pass some time I'd take out and go through my limited collection (stuff I'd picked up on my travels since leaving England). A young Thai waiter brought along a tin of his world coin collection given to him by tourists. He really thought he was the only person in the world to have this strange hobby. I assured him that he was not alone and we had many happy hours together discussing what we had. He unfortunately died in a motorcycle accident shortly after we'd met (an all too common occurence here).
I have since got to know another Thai guy who collects. He prefers notes but we've helped each other out with our respective collections. I get first pick of anything we get but I pass on any duplicates I get that he doesn't have.
So that's my experience here. I can't see the possibly of starting a club/society in the near future but one never knows.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I suspect that coins are collected everywhere on Earth if the people there can afford to collect them. In many places people probably collect them due to them being shinny. Sort of like some birds that collect shinny stuff. Kids everywhere also pick up shinny stuff and most coins are shinny so the big reason for so many being collected. Possibly if the first cave people found a coin they would either collect it or put into a vending machine.  More than likely many people start collecting coins when they are kids and mostly due to them being shinny and pretty. Ever notice that even people that collect knives, swords, spears, etc. mostly want them to be shinny? And think of the big craze for Stainless steel or Nickel plated guns. And those don't shoot any better either. We prefer high polished utensils for cooking, our shoes must be shinny, our cars must be shinny, so obviously our collections must be something that shines. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
Coins used to be like stamps, where if you had friends in other parts of the world you would write them and naturally get a stamp, or trade pocket change when one came to visit. Nowadays it's all internet....hardly any social interaction except to argue about a refund... So to an extent, I agree that collecting has become about what one wants to collect, instead of just grabbing anything and everything that came your way. If this is behaviour is true, then think about how that drives prices up.
Edited by Libertad
09/26/2010 09:48 am
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Replies: 16 / Views: 3,536 |
Posted 09/23/2010 11:40 pm
