Dear California Exonumist Society Members!!

Welcome to the internet! 

Thanks to our colleagues in collecting; the Vallejo Numismatic Society, Fairfield Coin Club, Solano Silver Round Club and Northern California Numismatic Association, we can be accessed electronically!

Now, what does that mean for our membership?  Well, for one thing, perhaps we can recruit new members electronically to the study of Exonumia, a term coined by Russ Rulau, meaning the study of all things akin to money, but not actual currency in all its forms. 

Therefore, tokens, wooden nickels, silver rounds, scrip, medals, casino chips, elongated coins, counter-stamped items, beads, wampum, skins, shells, even bit coins, can  be described as “exonumia.”  Did I leave anything out?  Of course I did; the field is as wide as there are collectors who collect “things” that resemble money or can be used in place of money.  And it is wider still as medals are not used as money substitutes, but are widely collected.

Two fun things that I have started to save are the fake “checks” and fake “credit cards” that appear all too often in my mailbox.  After the economy went sour in 2008, the flood of solicitations to acquire a new credit card or cash an unsolicited massive check diminished but did not end, so to this day I have about 1,000 credit card fakes and perhaps an equal number of checks.  Who wants to be a millionaire!!

I am sure most of you reading this have a “hidden” collection of some sort that is numismatically oriented, but not coins or currency, exonumia!  Exonumists are a small but dedicated part of numismatics, so welcome aboard and let’s start collecting!

For more information contact: Herbert Miles hmiles10@comcast.net or Michael Turrini EmperorI@juno.com