Notaphily
From Free net encyclopedia
Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes.
It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has been in use. However, people only started collecting paper money systematically in the 1960s but the turning point occurred in 1970s, when notaphily was established as a separate area by collectors.
At the same time, some developed countries such as the USA, Germany and France began publishing their respective national catalogues of paper money, which represented major points of reference literature.
In 1961, The International Banknote Society (IBNS) was formed as an international association of banknote collectors. Nowadays it has thousands of members from around the world. The IBNS regularly publishes the IBNS Journal, the "Newsletter of the IBNS" and regular auctions, lectures and congresses.
The major contributor to this study has been Albert Pick who published some of the earliest catalogues of paper money and through them explained the objective of collecting paper money and the definition of it. Albert Pick is also the author of the capital part of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, which consists of thousands of pages of almost the entire collection of the world paper money that has ever existed and is constantly updated. Almost every note of every country and many special and regional issues are cataloged following a unique format for each entry: [Country Name]P[unique number for the banknote edition]
So, we have something like: Yugoslavia P-117.
Image:Yugoslavian banknote.jpg
An important aspect of collecting banknotes is the condition of items. Banknotes that haven't been issued and circulated are rated as uncirculated (UNC) and that is the highest classification for a value that a banknote can have. In addition to that, the value for a specific note in the world paper money catalog is listed for UNC condition.
People usually collect paper money by:
- Topic (wildlife, ships, famous people)
- Time Period
- Country (native or favourite)
- Serial Number
- Grade