900 Coins from 150 Countries

900 coins

Two mythological creatures plus two "riding" animals make up the latest Coin Zoo acquisition, putting the collection count at 900 coins from 150 different countries.

From left to right are the first Greek Phoenix in the Coin Zoo collection, another Sudanese postman riding his camel, a rider upon a Libyan Horse, and a strange winged ox from the Vatican.

80 coins have been added to the Coin Zoo in the first four months of 2014 (compared to 117 total for all of 2013). Add to that the ongoing project of re-photographing each and every coin in the Zoo as well as checking all entries for accuracy, and it all adds up to a busy year.

There are also another 28 coins incoming, some of them quite hard to find. Still, that leaves approximately 400 coins still to be found in the wild. A coin dealer once told me at a show that this collection was impossible to complete. He's probably correct, but I think I can probably get 90% of all the circulating -- or previously circulating -- animal coins on the planet. Maybe. The trick is to acquire more animal coins each year than get added to the Need It list.

Of course, it really is the journey that provides the joy, so "completion" of the Coin Zoo colleciton is not really part of the plan.