Saturday, January 2, 2016

Poll : Does our hobby needs another name ?

While NUMISMATISTS are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, this discipline also includes the broader study of paper money, tokens, and related objects. In the 1970s collectors started using the term NOTAPHILY for collecting paper currency and banknotes. 

Anyone knows the meaning of the word EXONUMIA ? Some do. Exonumia is the hobby of collecting numismatic items (such as tokens, medals, or scrip) other than coins, paper money and bond and share certificates. 

What's in a name ? Scripophily stands for the study and collection
of securities and related items, such as this certificate for ordinary
shares of 10 Rupees in the Jodhpur Commercial Bank Ltd., issued 1946.

For bond and share certificates, including related securites, there is the term SCRIPOPHILY (see also here). The word was introduced in the 1970s and it took a decade for the word to become more widely known. I just googled the word and the search engine told me it had found more than 350,000 results ( philately yielded 820,000 results).

From my pre-Internet periode I still remember discussions between dealers on the correctness and suitability of the term scripophily. Some said the word didn't cover the full meaning, or it could not easily be pronounced. Others were happy with it and argued just the opposite. Forty years after its introduction, the word scripophily has been translated into many languages (see here again) .

This is a test note specimen from Nixdorf Computer. Started as
a computer manufacturer, the company specialized into the production
and servicing of  self-service transaction systems (such as ATMs).
The company eventually became Wincor Nixdorf.
Is this an example of scripophily, notaphily, or exonumia ?

A recent online discussion between IBSS members, brought up the question again whether or not scripophily should be replaced by another term. 
What do you think ? Tell us by participating in the poll. 

Poll information :
  • You can locate the poll in the right margin of this blog. 
  • Answers are anonymously and will be kept that way. 
  • The poll will be closed on 30th March 2016. 


Thank you for your participation.

Happy New Year 
F.L.

P.S. 
The word PHILATELY, used for collecting stamps, was introduced in the 1860s. Its inventor, Georges Herpin, coined this word as a better alternative for the term timbromania (source: Wikipedia).




Update (2016 July)
The poll result can be viewed here .

2 comments:

  1. Too late to change, but at least we didn't start out with scripomania. That would only apply to a few of our collectors!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahaha ! Hey, wait a minute, are you saying that I ... 8)

    ReplyDelete