People from countries with ‘boring’ central banks, what do you usually do?

Hi everyone!

This title is a bit weird - I wanted ro write ‘how do you keep yourselves entertained’, but it was too long.

Anyways, I live in Bosnia, where the Central bank has issued a grand total of 0 commemoratives - both circulating and not. There were some very limited issues for the Banks’s staff, which I don’t think count. 
 

Whenever I go to the Eurozone, I find it thrilling to look through my change for commemoratives and coins I don’t yet have - and that’s something I can’t replicate back at home. I tried collecting all Bosnian mark issue years, but I finished that in about a week, since there aren’t that many varieties on our coins. I do look through my banknotes for some old issues, but any denomination above 20 marks (10€) is too much for me to keep in my collection (add to that that the old issues are really, really rare).

So, are there any other fellow numismats who live under similar circumstances? I’d love to hear your experiences!

Well in Bosnia, you are a little weaned from varieties of circulating or commemorative coins but... if you look at all of this with a historical eye, you are lucky to be at the center of a very important numismatic set. I have two binders full of coins and banknotes from Yugoslavia and what I call the Yugosphere with all new countries. It's a term that I invented because I didn't really know what qualifier to give.
When at the historical level, I say luck, it is also of course bad luck. It is indeed the drama of the fall of Tito, who was not to be a saint either, but who succeeded year after year in maintaining a semblance of unity before the chaos and drama arose.
In the Yugosphere I do not include Albania which I visited recently and whose youthful liveliness filled me with enthusiasm and yet they have come a long way. Well 1990 is already far away, I'm rambling :)

Frenchlover

Well in Bosnia, you are a little weaned from varieties of circulating or commemorative coins but... if you look at all of this with a historical eye, you are lucky to be at the center of a very important numismatic set. I have two binders full of coins and banknotes from Yugoslavia and what I call the Yugosphere with all new countries. It's a term that I invented because I didn't really know what qualifier to give.
When at the historical level, I say luck, it is also of course bad luck. It is indeed the drama of the fall of Tito, who was not to be a saint either, but who succeeded year after year in maintaining a semblance of unity before the chaos and drama arose.
In the Yugosphere I do not include Albania which I visited recently and whose youthful liveliness filled me with enthusiasm and yet they have come a long way. Well 1990 is already far away, I'm rambling :)

That is a good point - that variety really does compensate for the dull modern period.

Something that could be an alternative to looking through my change is reading about the monetary history here, and I always end up with some (sometimes quite obscure!) knowledge

The mechanism of hyperinflation is always a surprising subject of study. In Hungary, Zimbabwe or Yugoslavia, these are different mechanisms but always intimately linked to the history of these countries and more generally that leads us to countries which have not been able to keep a national currency such as Montenegro, El Salvador, Venezuela nowadays. It's like on Youtube, you watch a video then you switch to another one and after a while you enter an unknown world.
But it is absolutely necessary that you write to the central bank to tell them that it is not only in the United States that there are national parks and that it's obligatory to issue a commemorative series about this magnificent country  that Bosnia and Herzegovina is for lovers of still wild and unspoiled nature.
You have a numismatic mission of prime importance that you must complete successfully!
Your country whose biodiversity is incomparable, from mountains to translucent rivers. From Strbacki buk, the Kravice Falls to this little heart-shaped lake at the foot of Mt. Maglić that just waiting your visit!

Frenchlover

The mechanism of hyperinflation is always a surprising subject of study. In Hungary, Zimbabwe or Yugoslavia, these are different mechanisms but always intimately linked to the history of these countries and more generally that leads us to countries which have not been able to keep a national currency such as Montenegro, El Salvador, Venezuela nowadays. It's like on Youtube, you watch a video then you switch to another one and after a while you enter an unknown world.
But it is absolutely necessary that you write to the central bank to tell them that it is not only in the United States that there are national parks and that it's obligatory to issue a commemorative series about this magnificent country  that Bosnia and Herzegovina is for lovers of still wild and unspoiled nature.
You have a numismatic mission of prime importance that you must complete successfully!
Your country whose biodiversity is incomparable, from mountains to translucent rivers. From Strbacki buk, the Kravice Falls to this little heart-shaped lake at the foot of Mt. Maglić that just waiting your visit!

 

What an inspiring text! Who knows, maybe I do contact them one day…

Frenchlover

 @Vaše země, jejíž biodiverzita je nesrovnatelná, od hor po průsvitné řeky. Od Štrbského buku, vodopádů Kravice až po toto malé jezero ve tvaru srdce na úpatí hory Maglić, které čeká na vaši návštěvu

Hello colleagues.

    Really beautiful country, beautiful waterfalls, beautiful blue rivers - wild nature.

Ivan