This wonderful collection of coins was sent as a gift from friend and Coin Zoo patron Maria, from St. Petersburg!

Last week I was very happy to discover a package in the mail containing a gift for the Coin Zoo: Five coins that tend to be hard to acquire in this part of the world. They were sent to me by Oleg from Siberia, by way of the Netherlands.

A Brief History of Daniel's Coin Zoo

On October 14, 2005 Daniel's Coin Zoo went live with a grand total of 41 animal coins on display. Over the next 100 plus days I worked diligently to get most of my animal coin collection photographed, researched, and added to the Coin Zoo -- bringing the total to 600 world animal coins on display -- then I quit for almost four years. (Except for a few blog entries.)

Eighteen months ago I started a project to re-photograph all of my coins using new techniques I have developed over the years. Actually, I started about a year before that, but in January 2014 I basically changed everything again, and re-did it all from scratch.

The new images are better lit, and highlight all the engraving details. In particular, highly-reflective coins now look much more realistic, instead of dark (almost black in some cases). This can be seen in the before and after images above. Also, the colour is now more realistic.

This past weekend I attended a coin show in Toronto and pictured above is (most of) the loot I scored for my Coin Zoo. Isn't it beautiful?

Today, animal coin number one thousand landed at the Coin Zoo!  It's from Greece, and features a horse being ridden by the Greek Moon Godess, Selene.