New additions week 7 - 2013

Saturday I visited the Nieuwemarkt in my home town of Rotterdam. If you want to pay a visit as well, check for the square with the statue of the Virgin of Holland. The statue wasn’t the reason I was there: I came for the market where people were selling stamps, coins and banknotes. It turned out to be a very, very small market with only three sellers but they told me it was because of the cold weather.

When I looked through their books I had a bit of an argument with one of the dealers. When I aksed for the price of a banknote he gave me the price for a UNC grade. I pointed out to him it wasn’t a UNC grade because one of the corners had a little fold. He told me it was nothing and started vigorously ‘smoothing’ the fold with his thumbnail to make it flat again. “Well, now it’s DEFINITELY not uncirculated anymore!”, I told him. But he insisited he was right and he wasn’t planning to lower his price. I don’t like those types of dealers: acting like there’s a moron standing in front of them and ruining the banknotes they sell out of sheer amateurism.

Luckily for me there were also good dealers with good merchandise so I got away with four new banknotes from four new countries: