I occasionally like to take a left turn and go down untraveled roads, always hoping to be surprised. One area of collecting that is always different involves fantasy coins. While wandering around the internet I discovered a small private family-run mint in Arkansas called Shire Post Mint. They engrave their own dies and strike their own coin and medals. What's interesting is they strike them on vintage coin presses, and even have a couple of old screw presses around. From the looks of it, I'd like to work there for a week or two.  They have their hand in quite a few things, such as fantasy coins, medals, keychains and jewelry. Their fantasy coinage looked interesting and I picked up a set of fantasy Nouvelle-France (New France) pieces. The back story being if King Louis XIV did more with the Louisiana territory, that this is what his coinage could have possibly looked like. What makes them cool is they're struck one at a time using hand engraved dies, so they even look from the period. I have a few fantasy pieces from Daniel Carr's Moonlight Mint as well. Fantasy coinage is fun and interesting, but I  strictly keep to copper pieces. Silver and gold pieces can get pricey, and there's no real aftermarket here. As I said before, this is just a fun diversion, but not an investment. Enjoy.