Foreign Coins & Notes

The hobby of kings! Coin collecting is nearly as old as coins themselves. Hoards of ancient coins are commonly found throughout Europe and Asia, indicating people were accumulating and hiding their wealth. Occasionally, these hoards would have many varieties, suggesting it was more of a collection. One of the earliest known collectors was Caesar Augustus (27B.C.-14A.D.), who collected old and exotic coins and gave them out as gifts. Since coins were typically made of gold and silver, their intrinsic value made collecting prohibitive for common folk. Thus, it was a hobby for the wealthy.

The Renaissance Era saw an explosion of coins and collectors. The nobility and upper classes collected coins as pieces of art. By the 17th Century, numismatics became a scholarly endeavor, with written works to study and catalog coins. In modern times, the largest and most famous collection was accumulated by King Farouk of Egypt, who amassed a collection in the 1930s and 1940s, including over 8,500 gold pieces, and some of the U.S. and world’s rarest coins.

Coins are a small window into history, art, culture, politics, and economics of a country, making it a holistic endeavor that can suit many interests. There are infinite ways to collect world coins. You may collect countries you visited or nations based on your ancestry. You can collect coins from you birth year, or various themes (animals, monarchs, obsolete nations, colonial issues, emergency or wartime issues, etc.). There are many “one coin per country” collectors, but more ambitious collectors may collect every type from a nation or region. We even have a client that collects all modern world coins by type, year, and variety!

Unfortunately, images are not available for most types. Images can be found for the type in the Krause world coin catalogs or the Numista website. As a result, we list nice, problem free coins (unless otherwise stated), and use conservative international grading standards, so you can feel confident in the identification and grading of our listings. Our world coin expert has over 30 years of experience, with proficiency and interests in many areas, including modern coins from minors to gold issues, ancient Chinese, Indian, Roman, Greek and medieval coinage, world tokens, and world paper currency. Since catalogs are having trouble keeping up with a rapidly changing market, our prices reflect a more accurate market value (or less), often 20%-50% under current Krause catalog values. Please come back often, as we will be continually adding to our inventory.