I've been mourning Peter Jennings' death all day. Talk about a world traveler. I was watching ABC's tribute to him a little while ago. One of the clips showed him talking about differences in outlooks and he used the example of being sure to look at both sides of a coin. That made me think of the coins I am sure to bring back from all my travels. Little works of art. Some simple, almost primitive. Others, intricate, ornate. My favorite is the US penny, for sentimental, spiritual, and private reasons.

What's yours?

I always thought the Mercury dimes were cool.

I'm quite fond of the Italian €1 Vitruvian man coin.

http://leonardodavinci.stanford.edu/...day/italy.html

...but as fond as I am of the V-man, owning any one of Saint-Gaudens coins would be the ultimate for me.

http://www.sgnhs.org/Augustus%20SGau...sAndMedals.htm

From a practical point of view, whenever I travel to a country that uses the one or two dollar coin (I'm talking generically, it could be the Euro or Pound), I find myself liking it and wonder why it hasn't developed into wider use here at home in the US.

kjosker--too heavy and bulky to carry many coins in one's pockets comfortably. Paper money is much lighter and easier to carry.

Of the Euros, I like the Greek one with the Athenian owl.

If you want to see examples of US coins from 1800 to date, take a look here:
http://w2up.home.mindspring.com/dans...0/type_set.htm
Bet most of you didn't know there were 2, 3 and 20 cent coins at one time.

Well, this is the Europe message posts, but I love my square coins from Aruba. We traveled there in 1980, so I don't know if they even have them anymore. But, they are unusual and fun to have!

A 1930 Australian penny would be nice: they are worth about $30,000+, which would make one very poular with a lot of people.

I like the tiny coins. My memory isn't great, but I remember getting change back in France which included this tiny coin worth a French cent or maybe half a cent. Of course, that was maybe 1/100th of a Franc, which was then worth only approx. 20 cents US. And we (in the US) think pennies are worthless!
When traveling abroad, for some reason I like the coinage, especially for all of the vending/ticket machines, but they really isn't practical as noted by Rufus. I got a bunch of gold colored Sacajawea (Sp?) us dollars at one point, but reallized what a pain they were to carry around.

...but not nearly as much of a pain as having to dig out your wallet for trivial payments. Or as trying to get a well-used dollar bill to work in a vending machine.

While not a coin, the Bank of Scotland commemorative five pound note just issued to honor Jack Nicklaus is very special.

Jinx Hoover

I really like the Swiss 5 franc coin... don't know why, I just like it a lot!

The Mexican $10 peso coin, with the gold rim and the Aztec calendar is pretty cool, too.

My favorite would have to be the Netherlands Antilles square 5 cent guilder coins I have collected. They are no longer minted so I hang to to the few that I come across now and then.

Mine might be the same as MrsKiss stated since Aruba used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles.

I love copper one cent pieces from the Bahamas--one side is a large starfish.

Mine would have to be the Peace silver dollar. I remember visiting Montana as a kid in the early ‘50s, where the silver dollar still circulated. I had a 10 dollar bill, I walked into a corner store in Miles City, bought a pack of gum, tightened my belt a notch so my jeans wouldn’t fall down, walked out with 9 silver dollars and some small change jangling in my pocket. So cool.

My favorite would be a five-sided gold coing from Belize in 1984. It has a beautiful butterfly on one side, and I'm not sure what on the other. It was so pretty that I had it made into a pendant for my wife, and she wears it all the time. She has one other pendant that we had made from my travels, a gold Pahlavi coin from Iran in the 1970s -- something that is probably pretty rare now, and is my other favorite.

I'm partial to the British one-pound. The heft of the things is just so cool.