Is it just because paper money is more fragile, so there’s not so much of it around?
Personally, I’ve always found paper money more interesting to look at. I have a wad of the “spirograph” Canadian notes from the 70s.
oops - title should have said “collecting” not “saving” - if a mod wanders by, please fix?
I’m not a collector but there’s a coin/banknote shop across the road from my office and I sometimes go in there for a browse. Lots of the stock is banknotes (both Australian and foreign) so I assume that there are people out there who collect the notes too.
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Fixed title for ya.
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I collect both coins and paper. I have many Silver Certificates, some United States Notes, and some paper from the Civil War era.
Coins are simply more durable.
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My grandfather collected paper money from around the world for many years. He has a massive collection of it. Every time I look at it I feel shitty that the US has fairly boring currency compared to so many other countries.
People do collect paper money. I’ve done business with a company in London called Intercol (I think they have a web presence somewhere) that deals in lots of ‘flat’ things, including prints, cards, maps and paper money of all kinds.
That having been said, I think the OP is right, you hear about coin collecting far more often than bank note collecting, and I think it’s a much commoner activity. A few possible reasons: coins are older and have been around longer than mass-circulated paper money; they are more durable and easier to store safely; they offer a more satisfying ‘look and feel’. The last point is subjective, obviously, but bank notes are, at the end of the day, just another kind of printed document, whereas coins have that ‘bright shiny objects’ appeal. And they go ker-chink.
Thinking it over, it’s the ker-chink factor. Bank notes make no sound.
What strikes me is that starting a coin collection is cheap. Any child can start collecting coins and get a big, if not particularly valuable or interesting, collection in a short time. Collecting paper money is relatively much more expensive. Sure, you could collect only low denomination bills, but then you’d have a tiny, boring collection. This in addition to the aforementioned reasons. Paper money wears out fast. You can find coins in circulation that are decades old, but still good enough for an amateur’s collection. Not so with paper money, neither will you have as many bills passing through your hands as you have coins. And when you start collection out of circulation coins you can gets lots of them, cheap. Maybe that’s true for paper money too, but I bet you won’t find roman bills sold by weight.
Conclusion: There are millions of coin collectors out there, most of them hobbyist who might not even know the word numismatics. There are lots of collectors of paper money out there as well, but the numbers are insignificant compared to coin collectors…
People definately collect paper money. Check eBay and you’ll see lots of auctions for interesting notes. The Where’s George (www.wheresgeorge.com) forum has a section for currency collectors and there’s always something going on over there…
I do agree though with the previous poster that with coinage being more durable it is more collectable to most people as it is around longer…
Collection of banknotes and paper money is called notaphily. Collection of stock certificates (and scrip) is called scripophily. Collection of tokens (and other coin-like objects) is called exonumia.
These are all subsets of numismatics. Although the purists (and I’m lookin’ right at you Sam Clem) will make the distinction that numismatics is really the study of money in all its forms. Persons simply assembling a mass of any of these means of exchange will be called a “collector” by the purist.