An interesting sidebar in the December 20th edition of The Economist made mention of Venezuela's alternative currencies. While alternative currency is in itself a fascinating subject, the part that caught my eye was the off-hand mention that these "circular cardboard tokens," of which there are no less than 10 different types (known as cimarrones), might someday become prized ephemera collectibles. According to the article, "The cimarron, a curious, circular cardboard token illustrated with a picture of a runaway slave, seems destined to end up as a collector's curiosity."
Currency and paper money collectors take note.
I'm a big fan of paper currency ephemera. I've spoken with collectors of paper money, Civil War currency, funny money, and stock certificates. But none of them mentioned Cimarrons. My question to readers of this blog: Is anyone collecting cimarrones as The Economist suggest? If so, please leave a note and tell us about them.
