EUCOPRIMO: PRIMITIVE MONEY ORGANIZATION

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 18, May 6, 2018, Article 25

EUCOPRIMO is the European Association for Collecting, Preserving and Exploring Original and Exceptional Forms of Money (European Union to search for, COllect and preserve PRImitive and curious MOney). At my request, member Jim Bulmer kindly provided this overview. Thank you! -Editor

EUCOPRIMO is an organization I was invited to join while we lived in Germany the past two years. It is boasts over 200 members from the European Countries and North America. Meetings are twice a year, I have been to four meetings so far, Friday night to Sunday morning, always at different locations in Germany so as to visit as much history as possible each time.

It truly makes for a refreshing weekend, seeing such a variety of weird and wonderful things and talking with experts about them. We came home with some Ethiopian Gold Jewelry and a Meso-American Jade-stone necklace. There were few coins, but many Trade Beads, Gold Weights, Bride-Price items, Weaponry and more.

"The Association pursues the objective to explore the cultural heritage of exceptional forms of money and to spread and exchange professional information among members. It aims to promote knowledge of original and unusual forms of money...The Association pursues exclusively charitable purposes through the selfless promotion of this topic."

EUCOPRIMO issues a bi-yearly magazine "The Primitive Money Collector" in conjunction with the meetings. This is a platform for the dissemination of knowledge and information and is supplemented by collaboration with Universities, Museums and Connoisseurs of countries of origin. The magazine has a wide range of topics, from Pacific Coast Shell money to African Knife money, to Carved Stones and Jewelry.

The Organization was formed in 1978, and its members come from diverse backgrounds: Numismatists, Ethnologists, Art Collectors,and Jewelry collectors. At the meeting last month, there were about 65 members who spent a very enjoyable weekend together, seeing the local museum, participating in the Borse (private Coin Show) and Auction and discussing learned and unlearned topics...And a good time was had by all.