Leather Currency - Paper Money Collecting As A Hobby - Trades

Trades

For years, the mode of collecting banknotes was through a handful of mail order dealers who issued price lists and catalogs. In the early 1990s, it became more common for rare notes to be sold at various coin and currency shows via auction. The illustrated catalogs and "event nature" of the auction practice seemed to fuel a sharp rise in overall awareness of paper money in the numismatic community. The emergence of currency third party grading services (similar to services that grade and "slab", or encapsulate, coins) also may have increased collector and investor interest in notes. Entire advanced collections are often sold at one time, and to this day single auctions can generate millions in gross sales. Today, eBay has surpassed auctions in terms of highest volume of sales of banknotes although the risk of counterfeit is extremely high. However, rare banknotes still sell for much less than comparable rare coins. This disparity is diminishing as paper money prices continue to rise. Many rare and historical banknotes have sold for more than a million dollars.

There are many different organizations and societies around the world for the hobby, including the International Bank Note Society (IBNS) which currently assert to have around 2,000 members in 90 countries.