The Official Euro Collections International Blog

Hello and welcome to "Numismatters", the official Euro Collections International weblog. The purpose of this blog is to provide news and information on all matters relating to world coins and coin collecting, on a regular basis and in an easy-to-digest manner.

What is Euro Collections International? For those who have simply stumbled across this blog, Euro Collections International (ECI) offers a huge array of modern world coins and collectables from all corners of the globe. ECI was born from a desire to service the needs of a growing North American coin collecting market who, until the late 90’s, found it difficult to purchase modern world coin issues.

A Brief History of ECI
Up until 1998 there were only a handful of North American coin dealers offering the occasional world coin issues – meaning coin collectors’ in the US and Canada who wanted to buy modern world coins would, for the most part, have to correspond with the individual foreign mints directly, which often took a good deal of time and effort.

With the active support of the Austrian Mint who was looking at greater exposure for their products in the North American market, Euro Collections International, Inc was established in 1998 in Victoria, Canada, with a view to dealing in modern European issues and making it as easy as possible for US and Canadian collectors to acquire European numismatic products.

ECI started with nothing more than a vision to become the leading company in North America selling modern European coins to North American collectors. By 2008 that vision had been realized with almost 10,000 collectors on its roster of names, not only from the US and Canada but from a number of other countries as well.

2008 also saw the purchase of ECI by one of the largest and most well-respected numismatic companies in the Southern Hemisphere, Downies Ltd. This opened the way for ECI to sell more than just European issues, and the business was expanded to include modern coin releases from all over the world, including the competitive United States coin market.

ECI is the Home of World Coins and Collectables.
ECI is proud to be official distributor for a number of world mints including Monnaie De Paris (France), Mint of Finland, Austrian Mint AG, Mennica Polska (Poland), Perth Mint (Australia), Royal Mint (UK) and more – not to mention having the confidence of many major dealers, coin associations, publications and trade organizations - which means we’re in a unique position when it comes to offering the very best in world coins and collectables to our customers. Our office in the United States and our direct access to the European market has given us an even greater opportunity to bring our clients a vast range of the latest and finest international releases.

The Purpose of the ECI Blog
The ECI blog was created to provide news on the latest coin releases across the globe, special announcements from various world mints and information on all aspects of coins and collectables; from the design and manufacturing process, to rarities in the market, tips on collecting and storing your coins, and much more.

Coin collecting is a very personal activity where one's own opinion and taste count for a lot. The articles you'll read in this blog will often contain personal opinions, but tempered by some 75 years of combined experience with coins and collectables, both as dealer and collector. All in all, we hope you'll enjoy these articles and that they'll enhance your enjoyment of the coin collecting hobby, no matter what level of collector you are.

	Whether you've been collecting your whole life or are thinking about buying your first coin, ECI is committed to providing the best in world coins and collectables. New products are uploaded regularly so be sure to visit our online store often. To keep up to date on the latest arrivals, back in stock items and other ECI news you can also subscribe to the ECI Newsletter.

Thank you and Happy Collecting.