65,656 Banknotes on Colnect!

We are already reaching a new milestone - 65,656 Banknotes! So, now we are taking a moment to appreciate all the new items that were added, as well as the catalog in general.

"50 Florin" (Aruba), from the Colnect catalog

As the catalog is very popular and is one of the veteran Colnect categories, it experiences rapid growth every year. Our last milestone was in late June, marking 60,006 banknotes, and now, after 9 months, we have added more than 50,000 collectibles. 

"50 Dinara" (Croatia), from the Colnect catalog

The catalog includes 290+ Countries, 6 Compositions, 300+ Printers, 300+ Years, 250+ Face Values, 700+ Currencies, 17 Catalogs, as well as, Newly Added, where you can browse new banknotes added 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days ago.

"100 Kroner" (Norway), from the Colnect catalog

Banknotes category is taken care of by two co-coordinators Vidami Istvan [mozistv] and Imre Csendes [SethChimera]. Thank you for your devotion and help!

In addition, we thank our 900+ Contributors and almost 200 Editors for adding so many collectibles every single day.

"20 Hryven" (Ukraine), from the Colnect catalog

And now, we would like to show you some special banknotes from all over the world, as well as some interesting facts about them.

For example, to deal with hyperinflation that reached the crazy level of 231 million %, Zimbabwe's government issued a $100 trillion note (1 with 14 zeroes — making it the note with the highest face value in the world). It is one of the most favourite and popular items in every banknotes collection ;)

"100,000,000,000,000 Dollars" (Zimbabwe), from the Colnect catalog

Another interesting fact is that Queen Elizabeth II’s portrait has graced the currencies of 33 different countries. Nobody has beat her record yet. Canada was the first to use the British monarch's photo, in 1935, when it printed the 9-year-old Princess on its $20 notes.

"20 Dollars" (Canada), from the Colnect catalog

The Queen is frequently shown in formal royal attire, although Canada and Australia prefer to depict her in a plain dress and pearls. And while many countries update their currencies to reflect the Queen's advancing age, others enjoy keeping her young.

"1 Dollar" (Australia), from the Colnect catalog

And finally, the world's largest single banknote is the 100,000-piso note created by the government of the Philippines in 1998. Designed to celebrate a century of independence from the Spanish rule, the note was offered only to collectors, who could purchase one of the limited-edition notes for 180,000 pisos, or about $3,700.

"100,000 Piso" (Philippines), from the Colnect catalog

Are you a Banknotes collector? Make sure to subscribe to our World Paper Money forums (for collectors, about the catalog updates, a marketplace) and always be up to date with catalog news and interesting discussions.

Thinking about becoming a contributor? Don't hesitate and read this page - start making a difference now!

Happy Colnecting!

2 years of Milk Cup Lids on Colnect!

There is a milestone to commemorate! Our Milk Cup Lids catalog has been on Colnect for 2 years :)

"Yogurt with blueberry-raspberry flavour" (Russia), from the Colnect catalog

The catalog currently has almost 16,500 items from all over the world!

"Boy with Sheep" (Iceland), from the Colnect catalog

Milk Lid Cups catalog includes 50+ Countries, 625+ Companies, 2 Uses, 20+ Foods, 400+ Brands, 40+ Years, 190 Themes and Newly Added (1, 3, 7, 14, 30 days ago).

"Siedenstrasse" (Switzerland), from the Colnect catalog

Thanks, Els Van Gastel [leeuwin], the Milk Lid Cups coordinator, for making this catalog so pleasant and diverse :)

"Roses" (China), from the Colnect catalog

Another thank-you to all Colnect's contributors, who help the catalog grow, and editors, who help the catalog to stay in order.

Want to contribute too? Read the Guidelines here.

56,565 Cards on the Trading Card Games Catalog Now :)

Good day Colnectors, we have got a new milestone - 56,565 Trading Cards from the Trading Card Games catalog!

"UFOroid", from the Colnect catalog

Trading Card Games category has been on Colnect for more than 3,5 years and it has seen a rapid growth from the very beginning.

"死体の交易商人", from the Colnect catalog

The category is taken care of by Frens Bosman [Digger], the current category coordinator. Thank you for devoting your time and attention to developing the catalog.

"You Remind Me Of Something Grand", from the Colnect catalog

Trading Card Games catalog offers several sub-categories for collectors, like 107 Games, 15 Languages, 782 Artists, 30 Years and Newly Added.

"Lenesa", from the Colnect catalog

Another thank-you is being sent the contributors' and editors' way for all their hard work. Keep it up!

Want to join the team? Read the Contributor's Guidelines and choose the category or categories you want to add items or information into.

See you in the next post and, as usual, Happy Colnecting! ;)

Yay, 27,272 Sports Cards!

Dear Colnectors,
Today is a special day, today we are marking 27,272+ Sports Cards on Colnect :)

"#10 Roger Clemens (1992)" (The USA), from the Colnect catalog

Though the category doesn't have that many collectors, it still holds an impressive number of collectibles! 

"#1 Frank Patrick (1910-1911)" (The USA), from the Colnect catalog

The catalog includes several sub-categories for easier search: 2 Regions & 4 Countries, 7 Sports, 10 Leagues, 225+ Teams, 7,340+ Players, 15 Brands, 9 Special Features, 2 Set Types, 70 Seasons and Newly Added (1, 3, 7, 14, 30 days ago).

"10 Parri (2004-2005)" (Spain), from the Colnect catalog

We are saying thank you to the Sports Cards co-coordinators [neweden] and [nzexchange] for all the effort and time devoted to developing Colnect's Sports Cards catalog!

"#24 Denis Marshall (1965)" (Australia), from the Colnect catalog

Thanks to all our contributors and editors, inspiring us to help the community :) Willing to make a change too? Read the Contributor's Guidelines for Sports Cards Catalog.

Happy Colnecting! ;)

Marking 33,333 Transportation Tickets

It's been a while since we marked our Transportation Tickets catalog's milestones. Today we'd like to celebrate 33,333 Transportation Tickets on Colnect!

"Tram 1908-1960" (Luxembourg), from the Colnect catalog

The catalog includes several sub-categories for easier browsing: Countries, Companies, Transportation Types, Systems, Years, Face Values, Currencies and of course Newly Added. At the moment the catalog presents tickets from 114 countries, 140 currencies and 14 transportation types.

"Man and Woman" (Japan), from the Colnect catalog

We are sending a huge thank-you to the category coordinator Gary Hoff, [gazzaoz] for making the Transportation Tickets catalog full of wonderful collectibles from all over the world.

"Ua-don-001" (Ukraine), from the Colnect catalog 

In addition, we'd like to thank all 900+ contributors and almost 200 of editors, who added and edited all of the tickets to the catalog throughout last 7 years. 

"Belgrano 2" (Argentina), from the Colnect catalog

Want to become a coin catalog contributor? Read How Can I Contribute to Colnect? page and the Catalog Contributor's Guide for Transportation Tickets and start helping Colnect now!

"Tram and Bus" (Algeria), from the Colnect catalog

You are also welcome to participate in the Transportation Tickets poll!

555,555 Stamps

It has been almost a year since our previous stamps milestone. Now there are 555,555 Stamps on Colnect!

"Palace" (Abu Dhabi), from the Colnect catalog

Stamps have proven to be one of the most popular categories of our community. Out of 124,000+ colnectors, more than 27,720 are stamps collectors :) Are you one of them?

Being one of the oldest categories on Colnect, it has been loyally supported and lead by hard-working coordinators - Guido Fußhöller [footy68] and Klaus Jochimsen [Lola22].

"Costume of Motalskiy region" (Belarus), from the Colnect catalog

Colnect is also constantly updated by our 915 contributors and almost 200 of editors. We are thankful to all the colnectors devoting their time to increase our Stamps catalog and making it globally accessible.

"New model of electric locomotive" (Georgia), from the Colnect catalog

Right now the catalog has many detailed sub-categories: Countries, Emissions, Formats, Printings, Perforations, Colours, Years, Face Values, Currencies, Themes and Catalogs.

 
"Peaceful Visions" (UNO New York), from the Colnect catalog

For this blog post, we decided to brush up collectors' knowledge of philatelic history. The Royal Mail of the United Kingdom was established in 1516. The first stamp was issued on May 6th in 1840. It was issued by Britain and it was called "Penny Black", which we, of course, have on Colnect ;)

1st stamp in the world - "Penny Black" (The UK), from the Colnect catalog

 
The first perforated stamps, though, saw the light of the world in 1854 in Great Britain too. In the next years other countries issued their own perforated stamps.

People started collecting stamps, or philately, right after first stamps went into circulation.

Impressive fact: in 1841 there was an ad posted in a newspaper about a woman seeking other philatelists to help her decorate her bedroom's wall with stamps.

"Nordic Food Culture" (Denmark), from the Colnect catalog

Interestingly enough, The UK is the only country in the world that does not mention its name on stamps. In addition, the first non-royal face on British stamps was William Shakespeare's portrait.

"Balcony Scene in Romeo and Juliet" (The UK), from the Colnect catalog

Another unique stamp is the Banana stamp issued in Tonga! :)

"Banana" (Tonga), from the Colnect catalog

Do you have a favourite stamp in your collection? Do you have suggestions for our Stamps Catalog? Leave a comment and share your thoughts! 

And finally, if you want to contribute to stamps catalog, follow the instructions here.

Happy Colnecting! ;)

Wanna play a game?

One of Colnect's newest categories is Holy Cards. Do you collect those?
Because it is high time you started ;) The catalog currently has 1,500+ cards and it keeps growing!

The Holy Cards catalog is probably the most detailed catalog there is on Colnect. It has 17 sub-categories, including 20+ countries, 350+ subjects, 240+ places of worship, 180+ issuers, 100+ artists, 15 languages, 45+ years, 75+ themes, as well as numerous shapes, orientations, borders, corners, colourations, materials, printings, typologies and characteristics.

To add some interest and about Holy Cards, we invite you to try your intuition in a quiz below!
All you have to do is try to guess a card's country origin. :) Have fun!

If the quiz does not work, try the link here: https://www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/177293/5ff6d0ef-79c7-419f-a3e2-dee398d21e45

When Collecting and Connecting Creates Love

People can meet each other at any place and situation, never to know what relationship can develop from that one chance meeting. Though love is famously blind, and can spark between people of different interests, the love that grows between two collectors can be made especially strong by this common passion. The couple we'd like to introduce you to is just such a couple. Please welcome Mariola [eowyna] and Mirek [bacenty] :)

Mariola and Mirek, please introduce yourselves to the community!
My name is Mariola Chutkowska nee Pyka and my husband's name is Mirek Chutkowski. We are collectors from Poland. I am a court jury and a cosmetic consultant. Mirek works as a security officer.
We got married in 2002, but I decided to change my name on Colnect only a couple of months ago.

"Kisses", from the Colnect catalog

How and when did you meet? 
We met at the local collectibles fair in our town, Jastrzębie-Zdrój in the summer of 1998.

What do you collect and for how long?
I collect Polish phonecards, tea & coffee mugs, books and beer glasses. Also shoes and handbags.
Mirek collects worldwide phonecards, chipcards of all provenance, books, beer glasses (and some other beerophilia), as well as various collectibles related to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

 

"Bananas. Love", from the Colnect catalog 

Was there anything or anyone that inspired you to start your collection?
I was inspired by my late father who had collected stamps for years, also beer glasses. The albums are still at my mother's apartment in memory of him.

Do you have some favourite items in your collection?
Yes, there is the 1-liter volume beer mug of our collective favourite beer "TYSKIE" that was given to me by my father years ago.

 

"Valentine's Day", from the Colnect catalog 

Do you have some favourite items in each other’s collections?
I like some phonecards from Mirek's collection. Especially the ones with flowers and landscapes.
Mirek likes my beer glass collection - our collections complement one another.

Do you have any other hobbies?
I like to embroider, love good books and music. I like movies too, but books are better.
Mirek likes to play billiards and is an amateur archer. He also reads lots of books and likes music.

"Symbol of Love", from the Colnect catalog

 

How do you store your collections?
We both use some kind of albums (like for business cards) A4 or something similar. Beer glasses are stored in a multi-shelved cupboard.

Do you exchange collectibles between two of you?
Not really, but sometimes we make each other some presents.

"I love you", from the Colnect catalog 

How did you get to be on Colnect?
Mirek found Colnect surfing the net and he liked it so much he registered the same day. Later he convinced me to join Colnect too.

What is your advice for collectors only starting the hobby?
We wish them to enrich their collections, to meet nice and helpful people, to swap a lot with other colnectors. And (of course) may the force be with them ;)

"Tea Bag: 11 Schönen Feierabend Bio-Kräuterteemischung", from the Colnect catalog

It is always great to find your soulmate that shares interests with you, whether it is art or politics, languages or video games, sports or puzzles. From Mariola and Mirek's example, we can see that not only can you collect collectibles, but also collect memories and experiences with each other.

Happy St. Valentine's Day! 

We hope each of you have an amazing significant other :)

May your home be full of love, laughter and happiness!

"Valentine - Peace", from the Colnect catalog