Like most people here, I have a decent general knowledge of coins but pretty darn good in my narrow collecting focus. I also have over a thousand dollars worth of reference books relating to my area of interest. A while back I responded to a post asking for help attributing a coin, this was not even on this forum but another that I frequent. He stated that he didn't have the reference material for this particular series. Now, those of you who attribute by die variety know how time consuming this can be at times. I spent at least a couple of hours going through the material and found that the posters coin was a pretty rare R7 variety. I posted the results and did get a thank you. I immediately saw the coin on ebay with my attribution touting the rareness of it. the seller was a fairly high volume coin seller. I assumed I was ID'ing the coin for another collector for his knowledge, although in fairness the poster never said what his reason for wanting the coin identified was. Am I out of line in thinking that if someone is planning on profiting from coins then they should pony up the money and effort for their own research? I actually would have liked to have the coin but decided not to bid and run the price up higher. I think after this when someone asks for info on something I have knowledge of I will question them a little bit about the coin first before helping.
No, you're not out of line for thinking that. Why should someone pony up the money for research material or spent the time researching when they have you? When someone posts a coin or question I'm interested in and I don't know the answer, I enjoy researching it on my end. If I find the answer, I'll share it with them. It's helping me learn. Most all the answers are right here in this forum anyway.
Next time that person asks for an attribution, I’d just give them a link to a listing for the appropriate reference book and encourage them to buy the book and attribute it themselves. There’s no shame in not wanting to helping someone for their own financial gain when you get nothing in return, especially if they’re putting in no effort at all.
I'm surprised that @l.cutler would be surprised by the outcome. We get it here just about every day. Do you really think all of the newcomers here want to know what error they have and how much it is worth just so they can keep their records straight? ~ Chris
True. Not so much surprised, it just kind of bugged me. I sometimes wonder when coin "collecting" went from searching out coins for your collection to looking for coins to sell.
I'm with you! Just seeing it here practically every day makes me want to......to......well.....I think you can guess where I'm going. It's why I despise our "What's it worth" forum. ~ Chris
I actually enjoy doing the research coins for people here. If I can help I will. If I can't I usually say "wait for more opinions...".
I do too, if it is something I can help with. Just as I know others would help me with my weak areas. I specifically did not mention what the coin was because I have helped several others with them and I did not want anyone else to think I was talking about them. It was a Hibernia halfpenny, but to anyone out there, I would be glad to help if you have one in your collection and would like more information!
I would think it would only be right for the person to offer you something for sharing your vast knowledge since he needed the information to price a coin he was selling.
Send him a note now, telling him how glad you were to help and you would be happy to do further attributions, but you wanted him to know your rate is $999 per coin.
