Thinking about joining the ANA! What is the magazine like? What about the other benefits? Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
Well, the lending library is superb...........I've been somewhat remiss. I have to renew my membership. The rag, beg pardon, Mag is quite informative and jam packed full of timely news. A membership also allows you to access (online) digital material from previous issues going back to God knows when. Well worth it, my friend.
You can send coins to NGC for grading without joining NGC. You can also use Hugh Wood insurance to cover your coins.
The magazine has some well-researched articles that are a touch above the kind you find in Coin World. NGC submissions, Hugh Wood insurance, library, free admission to certain coin shows, free admission to the ANA Museum if you're ever in Colorado Springs, access to the ANA Summer Seminar (although it's not free unless you get a really good scholarship) are also great benefits.
Well worth it. I joined a few years ago and have never regretted it. The benefits given in earlier posts are enough alone.
Now go check out their library and find a book that interests you. That's one of the best features of ANA membership.
Right now older us coins! Stuff you don't see all that often old dimes, nickels, quarters, large cents, 3 cents........ Stuff like that! Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
When you get a chance, visit ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO. They definitely have some interesting stuff in their museum. Get double the fun by going during summer seminar. I went last year buy I sadly couldn't make it this year.
Start of by buying a Red Book (Guide Book of United States Coins). Get the spiral one if you like to lay a book on a desk and read it, the hardcover otherwise. In the back of mine, which is a 2015 edition, there is a bibliography broken down by coin type. Any of the Bowers "A Guide Book..." books are currently published by Whitman, and Bowers is often more the figurehead author than anything else. They are good overviews of their series. Also, there is a search page on the library. I just did a search for "three cents" and got 21 hits. Many dealt with 3c pieces, but a few were different parts of the Catalogue of the Byzantine coins in the Dumbarton Oaks collection and in the Whittemore collection. While that's no match, it does show you that you can find a LOT of different stuff there. Who knows, some of the accidental search hits might be interesting, too.
I have the newest red book in fact I used the discount code in it for my membership! So far I have flipped through the magazine on my tablet while trying not to fall asleep and I have to say I'm glad I've done this so far! [emoji2] Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
ANA members have access to all 125 years of The Numismatist online and searchable. FireFighterRyan3 says that he likes "coins you don't see any more." Of course, we do see them... at coin shows. But the point is taken, and if you like to pursue what we call the "classic American coins" of the 19th and 20th centuries, The Numismatist is a wealth of arcane information. I cannot stress that enough. People pursue coins but never understand truly why one is worth more than another, just accepting the current market as the only measure of value. But those markets came into being because of articles in The Numismatist (and other periodicals). And there are more facts inside those pages than can be condensed in a Red Book (nice as the Red Book is, especially the new DeLuxe and Professional Editions). And there is a lot more to American numismatics than the circulating issues of the federal mints. And there is more to numismatics than our brief 300-year history. If you like the classical look of classical American coins, you will appreciate their original models, the coins of Ancient Rome and Greece.
One additional advantage of supporting the ANA is that it provides hobbyists a bigger voice in various areas, like the press, government agencies, and politicians, that have the ability to affect the future of the hobby. Cal
