Quote: "leoolkh"Hello,
I'm relatively new to banknote collecting but I don't have that many duplicate banknotes for exchanging. I'm wondering how I can increase my collection. Is it common to swap coins for banknotes on Numista?
Leo
You look as if you have a fairly decent collection already started. What you need to do is get info on grading so you can tell what type of condition each of your notes is in & then label them to your best ability. If you're still learning how to grade than just let the person know (& that you may want to swap for FV if the note is very circulated). If you scroll down to the bottom of my
Collecting Banknotes page you will find a video on Grading banknotes.
I started swapping banknotes about 20 years ago when I started collecting again (but with other collectors in person). My suggestion for you is to get creative in order to expand what notes you have to offer. You can either go to your bank or an exchange house & ask if they have any perfect UNC (some might respond to 'mint' condition since many people don't know the correct term for "pristine uncirculated" banknotes, or you could just ask for Euros, US, Pounds or whatever they have) for world notes. But the idea is you want notes that are "collectible," so the better the condition they are, the more leverage you have trading/swapping with other collectors.
You can also ask a bank teller to order you a bundle (= 100 notes or 2-3 bundles) of new Tens, Fives or whatever you can afford (CDN notes). Some tellers may do this (put in an order without issue) others may be a bit resistant. Each bank is different so try not to get discouraged should they get you old circulated notes or mess up your order (I've had this happened countless times). The old notes could have a scarcer prefix so my advice to you is to educate yourself in that regard.
The key to successful banknote acquisitions is you must develop a decent rapport with whoever you bank with in order to keep getting decent service. I've bought some tellers donuts from Timmies (who've been great with me) but the same ones can be awful the next week (bad day) & you gotta get used to "rolling with the punches" (so to speak).
You should have whatever money you need in order to exchange the bundles with higher denom cash (like $50) & not debit your account (most tellers prefer this). I call exchanging bundles (100 notes) for cash, "recycling money" since that's essentially what you're doing. Once you get the bundles it's also a good idea to take them to another branch to deposit (& start the process up again) after you've inspected them. Don't over patronize the same branch. You can get some nice repeater serial number or maybe even a radar. You can always pluck a few of the best serial numbers (or prefixes) and keep about 10 to swap at a later date. I have also made a few videos about doing this on my site (link above).
A collector from CPMF has posted his old series of notes he has been accumulating from his local bank branch merely by asking if they have any old "to be destroyed" notes & I have linked some of his finds
here.
It would be advantageous for you to register with
CPMF so you can get used to the
SNDB & get an idea what prefixes to look for.
Good luck!
