I have been collecting my whole life. My collection has taken many wandering paths to arrive where it is today. For years I built sets of U.S coins because that is what I thought you were supposed to do. The few dealers that I had access to (pre-internet) had no interest in foreign coins or really anything that they didn't have. In fact they tried to steer me away from anything other than US coins. They lead me to believe that world coins were junk and not worthy of being collected seriously.

In recent years I have had my eyes opened. It started when I got bored with the coins in my collection. I decided I wanted to build a set of large cents by date. That was quite an eye opener. This set is still a work in progress and will never be truly complete. Large cents introduced me to collecting by die varieties. I know, not my original intention, but there has been so much research done on these that it is a natural progression. I fell in love hard with my large cents but as the set grew the pieces needed became increasing pricey so I started looking for alternatives to our large cents.

When I first started dabbling with world coins I kept hearing in my head all the reasons I have been given not to do this. Larger world coins were my first interest. There are so many different examples in all price ranges. My favorites are from the 1700's and 1800's but I do not limit myself to these areas.

As I said my collection has and still takes a meandering path. My feeling is that you shouldn't avoid an item simply because it doesn't fit in your collection. I have said many times, buy a coin you like and if it doesn't go up in value you will still have something you like. This goes against the advice of a lot of well known collectors. They say you should be more focused. Sorry, to me focused is boring. I am excited to spend time with my collection as often as possible. Collect in a way that excites you, whatever that may be. Don't let anybody tell you what you should like and how to collect.

Photos:

1) German States 1705 2/3 Thaler NGC XF45 ex Eric Newman

2) Angola 1814 Macuta NGC MS62BN