Senior couple in Gainesville collects money from 130 countries they’ve visited

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - “When we first met, Charlie said how would you like to travel and see the world and I said sure that sounds fun”, that is how Charlie and Diane Jacobson’s love story began in 1993.

Since then they have traveled to over 130 countries and seen 200 places.

Each trip differs in experience but one thing stays the same.

The couple collects paper money that is specific to every country they visit.

“It was easy to collect. You know when you’re traveling that much you don’t want to collect a lot of stuff that you have to carry so it was easy to go to a bar have a beer and ask for change in local currency and I’d put it in my pocket. That became more and more what I did everywhere” said Charlie Jacobson.

Charlie recently had 80 of their paper bills put into a glass collection so they can remember each trip and admire the uniqueness. “ You have the serious guys like the Ayatollah and Fidel, then you have other people that are kind of happy and then other people you’ve never heard of but within there country they were quite famous. It’s been fun to collect” said Charlie.

To share their love for travel, Diane leads a monthly presentation for her fellow residents at The Village senior community that features the different countries they’ve traveled to, while offering travel advice.

“Many people will never be able to experience that magnificent trip so just to share what we’ve seen and to instill that the world is big but yet small and people are people all around the world”

The Jacobson’s will travel to the great lakes and Egypt to continue their journey around the world.

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