I'm thinking about writing a book on coin hunting and collecting.

The first thing you will need to write a book on coin hunting and collecting is EXPERIENCE. I would spend lots of time collecting, hunting, reading, joining a coin club, go to coin shows, etc. Then you will have plenty of experiences to draw from. Gather some material and post it on here. You will get plenty of feedback!

 

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Get my hands dirty, got it. Thanks.

 

Luckily I do already have a bit of experience to start off with.

 

I would like as many opinions on this as I can. This is my vomit or dump draft. So it's just where you dump your ideas onto a page before you write a book. I know that I have a HUGE gap for improvement and I would like for people to help me fill that gap. I would love any suggestions for things that I could change or add. I will put your name in the bibliography.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FcuicZOAhpOHEQg11Fq8jyTbkPQX7HNokTgnkHbrG_A/edit?usp=sharing

 

@LincolnLover2369 - First, welcome to the neighborhood!

You'll have to forgive "furryfrog" for his poor sense of humor. It seems he doesn't know well enough to check out someone's bio (like yours!) before he makes a crack about someone else and you have no understanding about what he means.

In fact, I am a big opponent of anyone who writes a useless book only to fatten his bank account because it is easier than making a living by collecting coins. The next time frog wants to belittle someone, all he need do is look in the mirror for inspiration.

Chris

 

I'm going to say this once again and get bashed for it once again, and regret saying it once again, but it's only true with SOME of the generation, then there's us normal minded minority of the generation that shakes their heads when we see our peers doing stupid stuff like that. I respect and trust the word of my elders with complete confidence and I also think I am kind and am relatively intelligent.

I posted on you other thread two suggestions but I'm going to give a personal one here, RESPECT AND BELIEVE the people on here (within reason).

Thanks,
Jacob

 

Yes, I think I have said this before: you are one of the few who are the exception. The kid I was replying to does not appear to be.

 

First off getting coin rolls at the bank can vary on finding wheats or war nickels based on whether brinks or loomis supplies the bank. I find more wheats when one company delivers verses the other company. Being a cashier at a store for 15 years has its advantages. I have always bought junk silver from locals to just keep my earning solid instead of just having fiat currency.

Be willing to learn and absorb information from wise people in this group. Respect will win friends. Shalom.

 

Last week when I went to the bank,there were Ike dollars and Susan B's available. So of course I traded my fiat currency for them. There are collectors that want an Ike bicentennial coin with a s mintmark on it. So I advise make use of every opportunity to purchase good investment coins.
Morgan's ,even cull Morgan's are worth at least one purchase to understand the difference in the grade.

 

Have you collected coins already? What is in your collection. Pocket change coins? Slab coins?
Relatives that got you interested in coins?
Understanding the gold to silver ratio and what fiat currency will help you in seeing the true value of coins verses fiat currency.

 

I have wheat pennies, uncounted pre-1982 pennies. Pre- 2000 nickels,Morgan dollars and one peace dollar. Benjamin Franklin memorial token was my first find as a cashier. I have several pre-1964 dimes and am making a bracelet with the dimes on it.

 

I wrote over 100 articles on coins and just completed my second book. Its a fun experience but my graphic designer with coin photos was my major expense but Amazon Books has a lot of good bells and whistles. Just try it but you need some upfront money.

John Lorenzo
Numismatist
United States

 

I make my living writing. It's not an easy thing to do, and while there are certainly those out there who write stuff just to "fatten their pocketbook", as someone put it, I would point out that that is the ENTIRE essence of any business, even coin collecting. You put in an honest day's work somewhere, perhaps as a cashier in a grocery store, for what? To fatten your pocketbook (assuming there is anything left after the necessaries are paid for). It's all the same. So, having said that, I would like to offer the OP some advice about writing his book. First of all, shorten your topic list. If you are going to write about coin hunting and prospecting, narrow the field from what is an immensely broad spectrum down to a narrow bandwidth. For one thing, that will give you the leeway to write a comprehensive and, presumably, well-researched piece of work that will be both useful and enjoyable to read, always much better than the scatter-gun logic of a cover-all work. For another, equally important, thing, the narrower approach will allow you to do two things: identify other areas that are of interest within the overall topic area, and write additional works as parts of a series.
There are two other things I would recommend right off the top of my head. Given your young age and lack of long experience, if I have read the previous posts correctly, consider gearing what you write to your own age group for now, perhaps as a young adult adventure tale in which the protagonist is an avid budding coin collector who knows a few things already but is always learning as (s)he goes. Then, once you have amassed sufficient technical expertise, write a more technical guide for amateur coin collectors based on what you have learned. Second, and I can't stress this one enough, limit the size of your ebook product. Ebook readers like quick reads, between 50 and 100 pages at most unless they are reading novels. Look into it a bit and you will find that the vast majority of self-help ebooks run between 25 and 50 pages, so use that as a guide when you plan your writing. There's lots of help out there for writers, and since writing seems to be your goal it will be well worth your time to focus on the craft rather than the topic of your book. Do that, and you should end up with the ebook you want to write.

 

a google search for meaning proverb "don't burn bridges" would answer your question. Colloquially it means don't do something that keeps you from being
able to go back. Usually in reference to people and family members. Example - telling your grandfather and grandmother how stupid they are for not doing
things the modern way is a good way to get moved to the bottom of the
inheritance list or maybe cut off altogether.

 

I would start by writing a couple of articles to a controlled audience (I.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). This will allow you to dial in your subject and give you some positive constructive feedback from people you trust. You could also share them on here, if you are daring. Also find a mentor in the industry, could even be a family member with numismatic experience. I would go into it with the mentality that you are doing it for fun and not to make money. You are up against some stiff competition with much deeper pockets if you want to make money. But if you have some fun along the way, who knows where you might end up?

 

Thank you for the feedback. I have decided that I will not write a book on coin collecting because I will first need more experience in collecting, and in writing informative text. It would be more fun for me if I already knew what i was doing. But I still am going to write a book and perhaps more books, just not on coin collecting for the time being.