The popularity of collectable coins has prompted a Bulgarian banker to visit New Zealand this week to comission a collection for the Bulgarian market.
Valentina Grigorova Gencheva, the head of gold and coin collecting at Bulgaria's First Investment Bank, is working with New Zealand Mint, a bullion company and coin maker based in Auckland.
Last year, the company sold $US15 million worth of coins to Eastern Europe, where it is traditional to give coins as gifts on important occaisions.
Mrs Gencheva says it's a rapidly growing market in Bulgaria, where increasing wealth and consumerism, as well as the economic crisis, have made them a popular gift and safe haven investment.
She says the First Investment Bank has imported more than 20,000 coins made by NZ Mint over the last three years, as they are considered exotic and very "avant guarde". They are highly prized by collectors.
