Dear coin collector, dear visitor,
My name is
Peter Degroote and I am
living in the neighbourhood of Bruges (West-Flanders, Belgium). One of my biggest
fields
of interest is collecting coins. I am collecting coins from when I was
twelve
years old. I have two main arrears of interest. First of all, I am
collecting
the coins of the Kingdom
of Belgium from
the very
beginning (1832) to the last Belgian Franc that has been minted (2001)
just
before the introduction of the Euro. My preference goes especially to
the coins
minted under the reign of king Leopold I and II. I also love the
patterns which
are minted in the same period. Next to my Belgian collection, I also
have a
collection of coins from the Austrian Netherlands
(which corresponds roughly with modern Belgium). This period runs
from
1711 to 1797. I however only collect the coins from Maria-Theresa
onwards and
only those coins that are minted in what is currently Belgium, being the coins minted in Antwerp, Brussels
and Bruges.
This site only
has an educative purpose.
This however doesn't take away the fact that through this site I am
trying to
attract people to start getting into the wonderful world of
numismatics. This
site contains three different parts. First of all there is the part
about the coins of the
Austrian
Netherlands.
This period is not well-known by many people and there are hence few
collectors that are targeting this period. I hence thought it was
useful to put
a catalogue on line. The second part contains the Belgian coins.
There is however plenty of information available on other sites about
the coins of this period. The Belgian part is hence limited to an
overview of the different coin types and a
pattern
section where I show rare patterns that are otherwise almost never
seen. In the
Belgian section I will also address numismatic issues such as the
determination
of the quality of a coin and the mistreatment of coins (read cleaning
of
coins). In the third part I will provide you with the necessary links
to other
numismatic sites. Each part opens in a separate window.
I hope that you as a visitor will enjoy
this site. If you should have any question or remark, please don't
hesitate to contact me by clicking on contact
me.
© Peter Degroote, August 2004
Disclaimer
