Famous Coin Collections

As a hobbyist you may be interested to learn about some of the most famous coin collections in the world. Some of the most famous coin collections comprise numerous coins struck in antiquity, while other famous coin collections include coins that were minted as recently as the late 20th century.

While some famous coin collections are owned by private individuals, those that are well publicised are either in the safe try, Museum Display Cases hands of museums or mints, others have been sold via auctions, or ironically they have been stolen and publicised in an endeavour to find them.

The Hermitage Collection - one of the most famous Error Coin Collection

One of the best known is the Hermitage Collection that is made up of an incredible 63 600 ancient Greek coins. These can be seen in a well guarded museum complex in Petersburg, Russia, which was once the former state residence of Russian emperors. Coins in the Hermitage Collection were minted over a period of 12 centuries, from the 7th century BC to the 5th century AD, and they show us much about money, coinage and early minting thousands of years ago.

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England houses also see, RC Boats - General Roman coins and some unique copper , Tamiya RC Models tokens, a golden rupee and various other ancient, medieval and also modern coins.

One of the largest and most valuable assemblies of coins in the world is housed at the Smithsonian Institution in the United States of American. Known as the National Numismatic Collection it contains an incredible variety of rare coins and currency, starting with coins minted more than 2 700 years ago. But there are also examples of relatively recent monetary innovations in electronic exchange, providing a visible history of numismatics, much of which was supplied by the US Mint itself.

There are also some exceptionally rare coins in the Smithsonian collection including the 1849 Double Eagle, which was the first of the gold $20 pieces circulated in the USA, one of only five 1913 Liberty Head nickels known to be in existence, three types of the world famous 1804 dollar, and two of the three known 1933 Double Eagle coins, described as the most world's most valuable examples coins - the third having been sold to a collector several years ago for US$7 600 000.

The Perth Mint houses why not visit, Large Display Cases one of Australia's most famous coin collections.