For the most part, is Coin Collecting pretty much just an American hobby?

braddick

Thinking how, as Greg set me straight, PCGS does NOT slab coins of Iraq- do you think there are foreign collectors who wish they would? Are there tons of collectors worldwide or is Coin Collecting mostly just favored in this Country?

TheNumish

I think people collect coins all over the world. I know European collectors think were nuts the way we emphasive grading when talking about the difference between a MS-61,62,63... I don't think the grade is as important to them. To them an MS-62 is worth about the same as an MS-65.

Lakesammman

We stayed in a agri-tourismo in Italy near Orvietto, north of Rome (basically a B and B run by farmers...helps them to make ends meet). Over dinner we discussed coin collecting. The couple couldn't believe that Americans bought coins. I asked them how they acquire theirs. Simple, he said. After a good hard rain, he takes his metal detector and snoops around Roman ruins and the castle districts, seeing what has become exposed. He has a collection of several hundred Italian/Roman coins and has never purchased one.

TheNumish

He ever find anything good? Any gold ones?

shirohniichan

I had a hard time finding coin dealers in western Japan, but I saw coins for sale in the older department stores (like they used to be in the US).

copperhead

I really don't believe any other country take coin collecting to heart the way Americans do. When we were in England I had a hard time finding any coin shops what-so-ever.
AL

toyonakataro

Collecting coins was a very popular hobby in Japan about 25 years ago......now it's a hobby for old retired man

shirohniichan

Collecting coins was a very popular hobby in Japan about 25 years ago......now it's a hobby for old retired man

No wonder I like it.

mdwoods

I thought coin collecting was very big in the United Kingdom. I think a lot of the nice early US coppers that were saved made their way back from merry old England. mdwoods

stujoe

There are a lot of collectors in the UK and they seem to uniformly make fun of our lenient grading in general and slabbed coins in particular.

EVillageProwler

Coin collecting amongst the general masses tends to happen when the society has been politically and economically stable for a while. America has been the latest recipient blessed with that good fortune.

Otherwise, numismatics has been with us (the human race) long before America was a twinkle in Jefferson's eye!

EVP

jamesfsm

I was in Bombay, India last year. There is a nice coin shop across from the train depot. The dealer told me that proof sets are widely produced and collected there. He had tons of them. Morgan Dollars (all white) are also popular there and the dealer had alot of them in 2X2's. There are a bunch of coin dealers in Manila, Philippines too, but they tend to polish all the coins to a beautiful shine! I was there in Manila one day at a coin shop. The dealer put a bunch of his best coins (tarnished by the humidity) in a box. He said "watch this" and sprayed a substance on them and the gunk washed right off- the coins were good as new again!

Libertad

I was in Italy last summer, and found a stamp/coin gallery in Venice in San Marco square. Older Italian and German coins, as well as Roman and Greek coins. The ancients were polished up to shine like chrome.

I think the term 'gallerie' means 'shop through the window' as the prices were set for 'objets de art' rather than for coins as such.

I found a street vendor at a local Italian square on market day, with much better stuff, and looked through his good sized inventory. US coins are dark-side there, but nothing remarkable on hand.

barney

Coin, stamp, and currency collecting seems to be rather popular in Germany. There were several large shops at the Hauptbahnhof
in München-and I bought a few items while I was over there. Also, there were many shops in Budapest-and a large flea market that
had nazi, communist, and newer hungarian money. Lots of history there-good and bad, bad, bad. Thus the link with numismatics-philately.

Oh, a few other things. NO SLABS! and they charge too much. Know your grades and your Krause if you plan to spend serious bread.
I just bought some souvenirs!

barn

ClausUrch

Check out this LINK. You have one in each country with thousands of collectors.
Click on any catagory and you'll be surprised at the specialization.

Conder101

I think coin collecting it a moderately popular hobby in almost all affluent first world countries. Slabbing on the other hand is almost strictly an American obcession. There is a little bit in Canada from ICCS and a very little bit in Australia from ACGS but that's about it. (Saw a blurb about a company starting up in England in the Coin World week before last so the disease is spreading.)

coppercoins

I lived in Germany for four years and never had trouble finding a coin shop while there. There seemed to be one in every town with a population of 10,000 or more, and sometimes as many as four or five in the larger cities. There were even coin and stamp shows there. On one such occasion I remember the bourse chairman getting up on a chair, asking for everyone's attention, and announcing in German that the Ayatollah had died...everyone cheered.

So yes...many stamp and coin shops in Europe, a popular hobby, and profitable for the American who goes there knowing what theyare doing...there are some American beauties over there sitting in the showcases with no local interest that caould stop hearts in the USA. For instance, the EF45 1794 large cent I bought in Pirmasens, Germany for less than $100.

cladking

Collecting is also popular in New Zeeland and Australia. Some Central and South American
countries have large collector bases but the collectors tend to be poor and not have large
collections. For most countries there are more collectors of their coins in the US than dom-
estic collectors.

The same situation exists in many of these countries as in the US; people stopped collecting
the current coin when silver usage was discontinued. In some of these countries the new
coins have since been withdrawn and destroyed.

Bikingnut

Being in the navy, I have been fortunate enough to visit quite a few countries. While I was in Sydney, I came across three different coin shops selling not only Austalian coins, but also many American coins. Even in Singapore and Hong Kong I saw coin shops with American coins. So I would say the answer is no, there is interest in coin collecting where ever you go.

dldallen

In my travels around the world, I would say there is a considerable coin collector base. Here in Brazil, I would say there is a rather large collector population and some very nice coin shops to support it along with online auctions by Yahoo, MercadoLivre (an eBay connected auction), and several others. As CladKing pointed out, expendable income to support the hobby is in short supply so most average collectors go for quantity over quality.

That being said, there are a few sharp collectors here, such as our own Eddy Santos who owned/owns several high quality Registry Sets. But overall, slabbed coins haven't made the inroads into the collecting mainstream yet. Dave

09sVDB

Many years ago, I spent my junior year of college in Valencia Spain. While there, I pulled coins from circulation and bought them in flea markets. Valencia was spain's 3rd largest city at the time and I believe I only found one shop. The family I was living with thought I was crazy for saving all the "money." I still have all the coins today.

danglen

About twenty percent of my winning bidders are located overses. In November alone I have shipped coins to Singapore, Japan, Australia, South Korea, several European and South American countries. The most interesting shipment was one I did a few weeks ago, when I sent some silver certificates to Shanghai, China. The payment came in a Registered Mail envelope, with a lot of brightly colored stamps. I took the envelope to my local stamp club where I sold it for $2.00 at auction Who says recycling doesn't pay?