Collecting Coins and paper money- starting to collect Chinese coins

Collecting coins and paper money makes interesting stories. I started collecting as a young child, but I didn't really get interested in Chinese coins until I was attending University. A Chinese friend gave me an old Chinese coin. I had no idea what it was, so I went into the Main Stacks of the library, and down to the bottom floor. I found a book by A. B. Coole, a prominant collector of Chinese coins and paper money (his library is now the foundation of the ANA's wonderful East Asian Numismatic Library) , called "Coins in China's History." After about an hour of searching, I found the coin was from the time of the emperor Kang Hsi (1662-1722), and the Beijing mint of the Board of Revenue. It was a very common coin, in nice condition, but with a story to tell.
A month or two later, I was looking through a 25 cents junk box, and found an old Chinese coin. It had a colour, a patina, that just spoke of ages of use. I purchased it, and after most of 2 hours of research in "Coins In China's History," I found it to be from the Sung dynasty, and the reign title Hsi Ning, dating from 1068-1077. It certainly was old, although not very valuable- under $4.00. It was a different style of writing, and a different metal than the newer one, but most definately a Chinese coin.
As a collector of coins and paper money, with some unusual tastes, I had been helping some dealers to attribute and price some World Coins. I told one dealer my story of the two Chinese coins, and he reached under the counter, took out a 1 Pound box of Velveeta Cheese, and said, "Here are a bunch of Chinese coins. No-one is interested in them. If you would like them, they are yours." The box was full of Chinese coins, of all ages. I had a great time cataloguing them, and most of them are still part of my collection. This was enough to really pique my interest in the area of Chinese coins. Collecting coins and paper money has led me into different areas, with this one giving me over 35 years of interest, knowledge, and stories- that of East Asian coins and paper money.
Collecting Coins and Paper Money can take one into very interesting areas.