By Topics and Themes

[mmarotta]

Though I am not an active collector, I do have material ogranized by topic and theme.  As a writer, I have to see the material in order seem halfway intelligent about it.  Also, apart from collecting, I made good use of these for school, sometimes making school assignments into the basis for an "Internet Connections" column or another magazine article. 

Among my categories are: Literature, Science, Aviation, the Americas, Polymer, Japan, China, Russia, Germany, Hungary, community currency, private issues, fantasies.  Typically, a few in each, just to show the range.  ANA President Clifford Mishler called collecting "a gene you do not inherit."  In other words there is a collector "type" of person.  That's not me, oddly enough. 

Themes and topics follow.

[mmarotta]

The nation with the highest literacy rate is Iceland.  Next comes Estonia.  Measured how?  By the number of books published per capita in the native language.

France 50 Franc Pick 157a Antoine de Saint-Exupery (error) and The Little Prince.
Iceland 10 Kronur: Face - Arngrímur Jónsson the Learned; Back - Home scene of people listening to an old man reading.
Iceland 50 Kronur: Face - Guðbrandur Þorláksson (or Gudbrandur Thorlaksson); Back - Two men at printing press.
Slovenia 10 Tolar: Face - Primoz Trubar, creator of the first Slovenian grammar and ABCDarium.
Central Bank of China - 20 Fen - printed by Chung Hwa Book Company
Czechoslovakia 20 Korun 1988: Face - Jan Amos Komensky (considered the founder of modern education (!); Back - Boy and Girl reading a book
Romania 1000 Lei: Face - Mihia Eminescu, national poet
Bulgaria 50 Leva Face - Christo G. Danov; Back - Bulgaria's first printing press.
Greece 200 Drachmai 1996: Back: Krypho Skoleio (The Secret School) Scribe, children and warrior listen to priest teaching from Bible.
Brazil 50 Cruzados Novos: Face - Carlos Drummond de Andrade; Back - Him writing his poem
Hungary 10 Forint 1969: Face - Sandor Petrofi national (nationalist) poet.
Estonia 10 Krooni: Face - Jakob Hurt, Estonian linguist and folklorist
Estonia 25 Krooni: Face - Anton Hansen-Tammsaare, Writer; Back - farm of his birthplace

[mmarotta]

UK 1 Pound Sir Isaac Newton
UK 20 Pounds Charles Darwin
Italy 2000 Lira Galileo
Italy 2000 Lira Marconi
Croatia 1 Dinar and 100,000 Dinar -- Ruder Boskovic (1711-1787, polymath who first proved a restricted three body problem)
Serbia (Masquerading as Yugoslavia) 100 New new new Dinars Nicola Tesla
Greece 100 Drachmai - Democritus and His Atom
Poland 1000 Zloty - Copernicua
Poland 20000 Zloty - Marie Sklodowska Curie
Armenia 1998 100 Dram: Face - V. A. Ambartsumian, astrophysicistl; Back - Observatory and Telescope
Slovenia 50 Tolar 1992: Face Jurij Vega, astronomer and mathematician; Back - Planets
Iraq 10 Dinar (new): Face - Abu Ali al-Hazam al-Haythan, Baghdad polymath 966-1031 AD, book on Optics, attempted dam at Aswan.
Iraq 1/2 Dinar (old): Face - Astrolabe; Back - Ancient observatory tower.
Israel 5 Lirot: Face - Albert Einstein