Searching for Obscure World Currency

January 24, 2007 9:56 PM

Traveling MeFites, what is the best place (online or in person) to purchase the widest amount of available currency from various countries?

I've searched and searched, and only found that a few places even offer exchange on stuff outside Euros, British Pounds, Swiss Francs, and Canadian Dollars. Anyone out there know of a place I can order the more obscure stuff that's out there (think Serbian Dinars, Madagascan Ariary, etc..) ?

Bonus points if the rates are really good, or they gear towards collectors.

posted by richter_x to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 comments total)

Ebay is your friend.
posted by lee at 10:13 PM on January 24, 2007

Where do you live? If you live in the UK you can purchase a wide variety of currency online from Currency Express, which is operated by ICE (offline at this exact moment). ICE has offices all over the world.
posted by RichardP at 11:47 PM on January 24, 2007

Are you talking about collecting paper money, rather than buying it with the intention to trade/spend it?

http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Antiques_and_Collectibles/Paper_Money/
posted by Leon at 6:08 AM on January 25, 2007

2nd eBay. I know a famous (in certain circles) person who buys money collections off eBay and hands out individual bills to people rather than business cards. I've never seen the same bill twice. I have several from countries I still haven't found. (And possibly don't exist any more.)
posted by Ookseer at 6:40 AM on January 25, 2007

Almost any regular ol' bank can order you (almost) any currency. They only keep the 'popular' currencies on hand, but a service to their clients is the ability to order.

Some countries don't officially allow you remove their currency from the country (Hungary, for example, used to do this), so you would need to get it from a someone who's travelled there. Ebay is probably a good place to start; also try fishing around for this kind of info on travel-specific message boards, such as Lonely Planet's Thorntree.
posted by Kololo at 8:49 AM on January 25, 2007

Bank of America customers can order all sorts of currency (online even). Minimum 100 USD value, or 25 USD of each type if you are getting multiple types.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:32 PM on January 25, 2007

lee/ookseer - EBay rocks...for obsolete stuff. New but hard to find stuff, huge markups.

Leon - thanks for that link! I found some interesting stuff there, but not what I am looking for here, though.

Kololo/Rock Steady - BofA can order me stuff, but only about 30 different kinds, none of which i'm looking for.

I really just want to find some sort of outfit like a bank or Travelex, where I can order at slightly above the market rate. Any ideas?
posted by richter_x at 3:52 PM on January 25, 2007

Hang out at the International terminal of your local airport, and offer to buy small amounts of currency from people returning from overseas?
posted by QIbHom at 9:09 PM on January 29, 2007