What is Exonumia? And is it Worth Your Time to Collect In Arizona?

When you start to buy coins for your new collection, you may focus on rare mints or coins from a certain year or time period. You may make regular visits to your local coin shop to find just what you need to expand your collection. What you may start to notice on these visits is that your local coin shop doesn’t sell just coins. Especially if you live in an area like Peoria with historic ties, you may notice items known as exonumia. Here’s what you need to know about them:

What is Exonumia?

Exonumia includes items that are related to coins and that may even look like coins. These can be tokens that were considered “good for” certain items and traded. Exonumia can also include medals, badges, dog tags, gambling chips, counter-stamped coins or even coins that are oddly shaped. It can also include encased coins and wooden nickels.

Some paper items like scrips and cheques are also considered to be examples of exonumia. Different coin shops and collectors will have different opinions on their inclusion.

Should You Collect Exonumia?

The question of whether or not you should collect exonumia is a more complicated one. The answer really depends on what you find valuable and what your goals are for your collection.

Typically, exonumia is seen as a complement to a coin collection. Most people do not collect it on its own. Therefore, it does not have as wide a market as many coins that you might want to collect. So even if you find it valuable and fun to collect, you may not get much for it when you are ready to sell. That also means that exonumia can be more affordable to collect, making it a nice diversion from your coin collection.

One reason that people do collect exonumia is because it has either sentimental or historic value. For example, someone who served in the military might enjoy collecting dog tags or war tokens or badges. Someone else might collect exonumia that came from a time or place significant to the person’s family, such as wooden nickels from their grandparents’ time.

Just like with your coin collection, the main criteria to consider when collecting exonumia is whether or not you want to collect it. If there is some personal value or enjoyment in it for you then you should collect it. If there’s not, you should focus on collecting something else.

Arrowhead Coin & Jewlery not only sells a wide selection of collectible coins, but we also have a range of exonumia that you might find interesting. You can explore our selection to get acquainted with these materials, or you can start a fun new side collection. Our North Phoenix coin shop will also buy coins and exonumia, so you can bring down the items you want to clear out of your collection to raise some money for those harder-to-find items. We can help you create the collection you want.

Published By:

Arrowhead Coin and Jewelry – Jeff Wuller

20165 N. 67th Ave, Ste# 122a-111
Glendale, AZ 85308

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