The Journey to Building a Strong Numist Collection...Part III

What is systematic collection? How come I never heard of this, you may ask....

Well no one has because it is a term that I created myself to refer to an approach in which collectors collect their numismatics items.

Not all collectors started collecting with a big chunk of money in their pockets. Most of them, including me started as a small time amateur collector. 

Some of the banknotes are already way out of my capabilities such as Straits Settlement, Solid Numbers or even Specimen/Contoh notes. So I only go for what I can afford and so should you.

For me, systematic collection involves 1st narrowing down the range of numist collectibles according to the years of issue or series, and concentrate on the notes you wanted, in the conditions you can afford. For example, one can choose to collect from Malaya KGVI 1941 all the way to Malaysia pre Wawasan series. One of my friend who is a newbie in numismatic decided to collect from the Aziz Taha 1982 Blindman series onwards till Ali Abul Hassan Series. Those who are financially able may hunt for the much earlier series such as the Straits Settlement, Malaya, British North Borneo or Sarawak earlier series.

Secondly, once you have narrow down your range of collection, you can start getting your notes already in the price and condition according to your financial ability. When you have acquired your notes, you have a choice either to move on to another range of notes for collection, or you can then choose to upgrade your notes condition by buying better and higher condition and slowly disposing your lower condition notes to other newbies.

In the process of accumulating your collections, you will get the opportunities to realize things you will never do with daily transactions of paper money you use. For example, you may want to study the differences in the embossment of each note. You may even want to study the security features of each series as you go along.

All in all, it is a very exciting experience as you go around hunting for your notes to make it a complete set. The despair of unable to get the notes, or the feeling of great achievement when you completed a set of notes are just part and parcel of numist life...



To be continued....