Many coin collectors purchase collectible currencies based on value and potential financial return, and this is a perfectly fine way to curate a collection. You can, however, craft a currency collection other ways. If you’re interested in other ways to curate, here are five themes you can use as you decide what to include and what not to include in your own currency collection.

1. Focus on a Time Period

First, base your currency collection around a specific time period that’s of interest to you. This could be an era of history, such as the Civil War if you’re an American history buff or the Greco-Roman period if you studied Classics in school. Alternatively, the time period could be something more recent — like your birth year or your children’s birth years.

As you consider what time period to collect from, keep in mind how much coins from that era will cost and what your budget is. You’ll need discretionary income to purchase coins from Ancient Greece and Rome, but you can find coins from recent years by just perusing the change you’re given at stores. 

Also, consider how readily available coins from your time period are. If you choose to focus on a time period from long ago, you might need to cover multiple centuries. Ancient coins cover a span of 1,200 years, from 650 B.C. to A.D. 500. Alternatively, a collection that includes new currency might need to be limited to just one or a few years because you’ll find many more available options.

2. Focus on a Geographic Region

Second, you can base your currency on one or a few geographic regions. 

In some cases, this may coincide nicely with an era-based curation method. Many historic collections are necessarily limited to a certain region, country or realm, and a particular region might help further define an era-based collection. For instance, a Greco-Roman collection may focus specifically on coins from Rome or specifically on coins from Palestine.

You can formulate a geographic currency collection in many other ways. You could collect currency from the places:

• You were born (home state or country)
• You’ve lived (all regions or countries)
• You’ve visited on vacation (all countries)
• You wrote a dissertation on (region or empire)

If you’ve lived in San Francisco, Denver, Philadelphia, or West Point, you could collect coins minted in the city during the time you were there. These are the cities where the U.S. actually has or currently produces coins.

As is true with the era-based curation method, a geographic focus similarly allows you to choose a region that’s within your budget, whatever that budget might be. You can find both expensive and inexpensive ways to collect coins from different regions.

3. Focus on a Favorite Person

Third, a person-based approach could serve as your selection guide. This is an especially good option if you have a favorite famous historic figure, such as Abraham Lincoln or Emperor Hadrian from Rome.

Once again, the person you choose will dictate both how easy it is to find coins that meet your criteria and how expensive those coins are. If you choose Lincoln, for instance, you can get more pennies than you want for only 1 cent each. A collection of Hadrian coins, however, will be harder to come by.

No matter who you choose, however, a person-based collection is always interesting. You get to not only learn about the different coins and bills themselves as you collect, but your collection will also show how that person was viewed over time.

4. Focus on a Group of People

Fourth, you can base your collection on a group of people rather than just one person. Well-known leaders, such as the U.S. Founding Fathers or British Royalty are perhaps the most readily evident groups to focus on, but you can find other groups to focus on as well. A collection of minority figures on currencies, for example, could reveal a lot about how these groups of people have been viewed through history.

As one example, the United States has minted several coins featuring African Americans in recent decades and has a few coins with African Americans on them from further back in the country’s history. These coins could be contrasted both with European coins that feature minorities and with coins from Africa.

You can use any group as a guide for your collection. Women, people form your ancestors’ country, and pioneers are just a few ideas you could use.

5. Focus on Color

Finally, you can choose to focus on the aesthetic appearance of coins and bills rather than any other properties. With an artistic eye, you can use differently colored currencies to create a mosaic. This is an unusual collection, but it’s a beautiful way to bring together a variety of currencies.

If you have an idea for a currency collection, check out the coins and bills in stock at Rocky Mountain Coin to see whether any fit your theme.

Colonial paper currency was circulated in the American colonies during 17th and 18th centuries. Paper currency from the period was issued in a variety of forms and denominations. Here’s a quick guide to the first paper money traded for goods, debts, and services in the colonies.

Paper Money Issued by the Colonies

Before the individual American colonies began issuing paper currency, the Colonial economy relied on foreign coins issued by Britain and European countries. Massachusetts was the first colony to issue its own paper money in 1690.

Soon, all of the original colonies produced paper notes of their own. Since the young colonies had no mutual treasury or gold stores, colonies generally based the value of their notes on Spanish dollars and British pence, shillings, and pounds.

You can collect Colonial paper currency from the following colonies and young states:

• Delaware
• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• Georgia
• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• Maryland
• South Carolina
• New Hampshire
• Virginia
• New York
• North Carolina
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Louisiana

Each of the original colonies operated with its own individual and independent government, so the currency valuations and forms were unique to each state.

Paper Currency Issued by the Continental Congress

To finance the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress began issuing paper notes known as Continentals. The first Continental notes were issued in 1775 with a total combined value of all notes equaling $3 million dollars. When redeemed, the earliest Continentals were paid in Spanish dollars or the same value in gold or silver.

The notes were not backed up by gold or silver. The value of Continentals was based on tax revenues the Colonial Congress expected to receive from the individual colonies. The Continental Congress issued the initial 1775 paper notes in several different amounts.

Continentals, like all Colonial paper notes, were easy to counterfeit by unscrupulous printers. Devaluation affected the paper currency almost immediately after the notes were issued. Today, some Continentals fetch a tidy sum that would have stunned the colonists, since they considered Continentals in their day to be nearly worthless.

Continentals were issued until 1779. Notable printers including Benjamin Franklin produced the notes as part of the war effort. Modern collectible values of Continentals, as with the values of printed Colonial currency in general, depend on the rarity of the paper currency and the signatures made on the notes by notable patriots of the period.

Some counterfeit Colonial notes are worth more than the originals. The British attempted to disrupt the Colonial economy by issuing tens of millions of dollars of Continental notes. Today, the British counterfeit notes are rarer than authentic Continentals in some cases and may fetch double the price of originally issued Continentals of the same denominations and dates.

Reasons to Collect Colonial Paper Currency

There are several compelling reasons to collect Colonial-era paper currency. The paper notes serve as historical documents and reveal the people and institutions that were instrumental in developing the young America. As historical pieces, the Colonial paper notes make wonderful gifts for educators and history buffs.

People who have deep love and pride for their states collect their individual states’ Colonial notes for sentimental reasons. Collectors can choose from notes issued by colonies and by some of the growing cities of the Colonial period. Individual or grouped Colonial paper notes are wonderful decor enhancements in restaurants and businesses that emphasizes individual state or Colonial themes.

The lettering and illustrations on Colonial paper currency make the notes pieces of art in their own right. Colonial currency features depictions of buildings, patriotic vignettes, and people of the period. The notes make interesting conversation pieces as well as prime examples of early printing methods and illustration styles in the colonies.

Some collectors of Colonial paper currency enjoy collecting a note from each of the 13 colonies. Other collectors seek out signatures from individuals they admire or about whom the collectors have a fascination. Notable persons including Paul Revere engraved and printed many of the Colonial notes. A collector can concentrate on acquiring one of every note issued by an individual colony or one of each denomination issued on a certain date.

Ways Experts Help Find and Verify Colonial Currency

Collectors of Colonial paper notes sometimes unknowingly purchase reproductions of Colonial paper currency. Numismatic experts can help you research the serial numbers of paper notes to check the authenticity of the currency before you purchase the notes.

Your rare coin and currency dealer is the best source of expert knowledge on Colonial notes, Continentals, and British counterfeit notes. If you’re searching for a particular denomination or issue of paper currency from the Colonial period, the coin and currency dealer will be on the lookout for the note. The dealer has many contacts to help you source the currency you wish to add to your paper currency collection or present as gifts to loved ones.

Start or add to your collection of Colonial paper currency by contacting Rocky Mountain Coins today. We have store locations in Denver and Greenwood Village, Colorado, and our helpful, trained staff are always happy to answer your questions about all types of paper currency.