About the organizer
Jos F.M.Eijsermans / Photo by Mischa Corsius Photography
My name is Jos, Jos F.M.Eijsermans. I was born in 1955 in Venlo, Netherlands. Now I am living with my wife Fabienne. No kids, just 4 lovely cats.
After our move to Germany back in May 2007, we now live some 150 KM north of Maastricht in a rather small but very cosy town with great neighbours. In a beautiful old house (1927) with a fantastic garden. Very near to the both Dutch borders (!) since as well East as West of us we have the Netherlands borders, 30 KM away both of them.
I have been collecting since I was a kid. As usual for a youngster I collected anything collectible. Beer mats, key rings, cigar labels, stamps and coins. And maybe more that I forgot about. It was my granddad who gave me my first coins. He and my grandma went on holiday abroad back then. Unusual for that time in the Netherlands. He also gave me my first (German) banknotes.
These were German inflation Reichsmark notes and others. Local issues from just over the border from 1920-ies. Not unusual since the whole Venlo area is and was agricultural and the produce was mainly exported to Germany till 1945! And is now again. Including the period of hyper-inflation in 1923. So many farmers and other people here on the Dutch side of the border too back then, were paid with money that proved worthless not long after. I remember getting stacks of these notes for free from various people when I was young, when they learned I was collecting papermoney. “Strange guy, collecting PAPERmoney!” Nobody collected papermoney back then! Nobody these days gives you stacks of banknotes for free anymore!! Times have changed.
For my private collection I’m constantly looking for contemporary counterfeits, advertising messages and postcards, phone cards, emphemeras – all depecting paper money. I’m most interested in paper money. At the fair I do not have much time to search for these items, as you may understand.
I became a banknote-only-collector after I joined the team of a Numismatic Dept. at the Main Office of a major bank. That was 1979. I sold my coins then. I only had banknotes left. When the coin market collapsed, I joined the cashiers of the Foreign Currency Dept. of that same bank. I was there for over 15 years. Using my knowledge of papermoney from the hobby (but also gathering information for the hobby from handling notes from all countries every day). Detection of forgeries was one of my tasks of course.
That explains my collection of contemporary forgeries and advertising notes that very often look like genuine notes.
After that department had reorganised and I became obsolete there, I found myself a job as Editorial Advisor at a printing firm that does the “green books” for Interpol about currency being valid or exchangeable or not. I worked there for 2 years trying to improve the books where needed. This contract ended suddenly in June 2000.
I have been organizing collectors bourses since I was 17 or 18. Small local events. Quite succesfull as well.
Also was I co-founder of a German collectors group when I was 20, board-member of several collectors organisations since, like the I.B.N.S. I was on the board for many years, became Vice President and eventually President of the (International) I.B.N.S. a few years ago. I was also founder member and later – for a period of time – President of the Dutch Chapter of I.B.N.S.
I back then founded my own little company under the name “A.P.n.C. Int. “, which stood for “All Papermoney ‘nd Collectibles International”. Now since a few year changed to “Eijsermans Events” since I limited the dealing in banknotes already and concentrated on the bourse organisation (twice a year now) That was too much to do it all for 100%.
After my heart problem in Summer 2007 – just after our move to Germany – I sold and auctioned off almost all of my collection and duplicate trade stock. I only did keep duplicate material from the topics I continue to collect. But above all I am still a collector. As long as I cannot part with some of my notes I still am. isn’t it? In the meantime I gathered a wide selection of world- and other notes again… I can’t help myself…