Recently, 42-year-old Wissam Ali Youssef, a Lebanese from Chakra in southern Lebanon, broke a new Guinness World Record for owning the biggest collection of banknoteswith 12,282 pieces from different countries around the world.

Youssef expressed his happiness for being able to achieve his dream after long efforts and hard work.

"My first collection of banknotes was destroyed when Israel hit southern Lebanon in July 2006," he said, adding that "the war destroyed my house entirely and allof my collection."

Youssef said that he had started collecting his first banknotes at the age of eight.

"These banknotes were very precious to me. I felt that the war destroyed my passion. These currencies hold a lot of history and culture," he said.

However, Youssef decided not to give up his dream when he watched an exhibition for banknotes on television in 2014.

His passion came back and he decided to start a new collection all over again.

"This was my dream and passion. I thought that I should not allow an act of aggression to destroy my ambition after it had already destroyed my country and house," hesaid.

Youssef now owns 12,282 pieces of banknotes, breaking the record of an Indian who holds 10,025 pieces.

"Some of my banknotes are gifts from friends who travel regularly to different countries while others were bought from e-bay, merchants and exhibitions," he said.

Youssef's next dream is to establish his own exhibition in his hometown Chakra to showcase all the banknotes that he collected over the years.

Before Youssef's achievement of his goal with his record number of banknotes, the largest collection of banknotes belonged to the Indian Anil Bohora with a total of 10,025different banknotes, as of Jan. 13, 2009.

Guinness World Record also recognized Leigh Follestad of British Columbia, Canada, for breaking the world record for the largest collection of uncut banknotes.

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Feature: Lebanese man breaks Guinness World Record with biggest banknotes collection(http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-10/12/c_138467111.htm)