Buying the book before the coin

The words one always says to a new collector is "buy the book before the coin".

However, how many of you do this? How many of you go out and get some good books on the series your're interested in. Say if the only books for that series are over your budget, how can you buy the books?

Let's assume your doing a type set, do any of you really go out and buy every top notch book for every series...that would be buying the book before the coin.

Why not, "study the series before buying". that would be better. We have a free way to do that, being the internet. Of course, books help, but like said above, they can be costly.

I have two books, and am working on getting a third. These three books will run me almost as much as my entire collection, and two of these are just very basic books that can reseached over the internet. As, some of you know, I collect ancient coinage, and the reference books for these can run several hundreds.


thoughts?

stainless

 

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The saying came out before the advent of computers, so I think your substitution of "study the series before buying" is a perfectly reasonable substitution.

I know you youngins aren't familiar with this resource, but when I was a little younger we used to go to this fancy place called a library. They have books there on many subjects (including ancient coins), and most of the books, you can borrow them for a period of weeks to months to study, free of charge. If your local library doesn't have the book you want, you can get an inter-library loan from another library in their network.

 

Stainless. Knowledge is far more important in the beginning of your collecting days then the coins. Had I purchased a book on counterfeit coins back in the early 70's, do you think I would of gotten stuck with a bum 1909SVDB? I am a HUGE advocate of getting knowledge going into a series of coins before you get burned early on. ALWAYS, ALWAYS arm yourself with the best books available and read, reread and then read again the books. Would you go to war with no weapon? Would you enter the Indy 500 with a VW? Learn what you need to know to collect the series you wish to collect. I dont remember who said this but the best quote I can think of is "Knowledge is Power" Live by that rule my friend. 30 years from now you will NOT regret it.

 

I go to the library, and have borrowed books, but their selection for reference material on ancient coinage is very limited.


stainless

 

As this is the GENERAL section, general responses to Stainless' question are necessary. While knowledge is important, you need at least some impetus to search it out. If the price is right, buy a few cheaper specimens to mess around with. See if you like the series.

Take this for example:

Celtic Gaul - The Remi
EL 1/4 stater - 1.48 g, 11mm
c. 100 BC
Celticized head
Celtic horse galloping r.
Castelin 516 var.

I bought this without knowing a damn thing about Celtic electrum. In the end, it turns out I overpaid by about $25. But the important thing is that it got me reading about Celtic coins in general, and I've since started adding more to my collection.

Another topic that must be considered is the cost and difficulty of the references. You probably won't run into this with US coins. Everyone can pick up a copy of Overton and thumb through it. Or at least start with the pervasive Red Book. But if you decide to collect Roman tesserae, are you going to run out, learn Latin and German, and shell out $500 for Tesserarum Urbis Romae et Suburbi Plumbearum Sylloge and Römische Bleitesserae? I hope not!

 

Didn't you notice this comment?

I have gotten some pretty esoteric books from a relatively small branch library - I just had to wait awhile for them to arrive.

 

The information to be gleaned from the internet is sparse for non-U.S. coins, and when information is available, the true has to be separated from the false. Unless the coins you're buying are very cheap or the reference is absolutely beyond your price range, you should buy the book before the coin. If the latter is true, you should visit your local library as borgovan mentioned. Of course, you can also join the ANA and borrow books from their numismatic library program for the cost of shipping (which is very low for book lending).

 

The library and internet are good substitutes for buying the books. Another thing you might want to try is to ask the librarian if the library would purchase a particular book you want. Most decent-sized libraries have a budget for new purchases and might appreciate a suggestion to keep their coin section current with what people want to read. They might appreciate a suggestion from a local collector.

 

Interlibrary loan takes a LONG time! Thankfully, here at school, if its an article in a journal (Numismatic Chronicle or the AJN, for example) I can request it and receive a pdf within three days.

 

That is why I am on these forums so much. I've gained tons of knowledge. Many times the books are too expensive for me and I don't even know what to look for most of the time. Most of the time I can't afford to buy coins or books, but I CAN afford to read and post on the internet, gathering knowledge for future use...

 

That's a great post.

 

Want free numismatic (or any) books? Visit Google Books. I've collected thousands of pages of valuable reference material there. They have entire books scanned into their database for free. A lot of the coin books I read have been out of print for years, so I don't feel bad when I print them off for my own library.
Guy~

 

I have a pretty bad habit when it comes to buying books. This been because I collect just about everything out there. I don't buy books for every single book for every series but I have bought books for error coins including the cherry pickers, How to grade (2), U.S paper money, U.S paper money errors, World paper money, coin photographing books, catalogs older than me and much more.

Although there is the internet which is also very useful, and forums like this one, collectors universe etc.... A book in my opinion is the best way to go. You'll never lose that information.

 

it is a great resource

I borrowed & read tons of books on free loan from the ANA. Back in the day, their video tapes were also great. (I haven't borrowed one in 10 years but it is a great resource).

I remember when some counterfeit data I read saved me. I was looking at a raw 1955/55 cent & saw a little dot at the tail of one of the wheat stocks. One of those books I borrowed had taught me to look for this easy diagnostic on a die struck counterfeit.

Very best regards,
collect89

 

Yes, the ANA lending program is probably one of the best things available to numismatists, yet most numismatists don't know about it.

 

There are probably not too many of us who did not buy (acquire, inherit, find) our first few coins without the books but, soon thereafter, we all begin to wonder about the coins, their mintage, their value, their history, and whether we paid too much (or got a bargain).

So for the first few coins, it's the coins then the books. But forever afterwards, it's the books then the coins.

 

When I was a little kid colllecting coins (7 or so), I went into a coin shop. This was about the time I bought my first gold coin (a 1/4 quarter eagle) with all my birthday money saved up. I've always been paranoid obessing over certain things my whole life. I used to collect beanie babies and had to have every one of them, had I know it was a fad and they would be worthless I would not have done it. When I began buying them I bought "The idiots guide to beanie babies", and found out there were 'counterfeit' beanie babies from china. I was worried that every beanie baby I bought was fake., fake tags, etc.

regarding the coin shop, I went into the coin shop. My dad told me there's no such thing as fake coins, as I was reading about it when I was around 8. I asked the dealer there about it, and he said "Oh, you bet there's fake coins. I have a whole bunch of fake ones in the back of my shop."

From that point on I began to obess and worry about every coin I bought. So I decided to at least get better knowledgeable in the subject. I took a class at the phoenix show for just the class, I got several books on the subject. I got print outs from other people here (Thanks to Hobo for the gold angel print out). Despite my growing knowledge, I still worried about fakes. I knew that buying gold, especially raw gold I had to be very careful about fakes. The post-1840 gold is paticularly bad, about every date and mintmark has been faked. You could even build a whole album full of counterfeit early 20th century gold. Despite knowing a bit on counterfeits, I still am not comfortable with the subject. I simply have not seen enough genuine coins to know exactly what they look like -- in other words, I know what to look for, but I can't tell if a coin is genuine at a glance.. that only comes with experience.

I'm hoping to expand my knowledge in other ares, paticularly errors buying and selling on ebay from a mentor of mine.

PS: I still only buy slabbed gold, especially US gold. Even though I can probably spot some of them, there are very, very deceptive ones out there.

 

Thanks BigH

As I am a member of the ANA, I should borrow books from their library. I have not borrowed one. I am afraid I will loose it for one, and I tend to read books somewhat slowly when they are this type of book. Not because of not caring or glacing over or being a slow reader, but because I will usually read it cover to cover first, then go back and study each page. The first reading is usually very quick, but then the study can take weeks...

 

Okay..I just got back from my Library (to work on my colonial coin paper) and seen what they had for ancients...they had nothing, and none of the libraries they are intramural with had them (except a really bad Judaean pamplet).



stainless

 

Good post, but I'd like to share my experience. My first foray into collecting Conder tokens was buying one at a show without knowing anything about them. I then did some internet research and saw more desirable examples. From there I spoke with a specialist dealer who advised purchasing a key reference book. I did and was then hooked.

I bought another token or two. I then went headlong into acquiring other out of print books about the stories behind the tokens. I then got a book regarding the societal issues when they were made and then another about how they were minted. I joined the relevant club and read the quarterly journals. I also met other collectors, joined a dedicated token internet forum, and learned from them.

I still have so much to learn and that's the fun of it. However, I don't know that one has to go in a rigid sequential order or that one can't buy pieces along the way as one acquires knowledge. It may not be perfect or the most efficient, but it's the most fun for me.

I am also a U.S. type collector and realize that there is not enough time or money for me to read about each series before purchasing something that strikes my fancy. So, I do rely on the slabbed grade (for U.S. type) to some extent and hope that my experience thus far will keep me from making major mistakes. I will eventually take an ANA grading class to strengthen my skills.

Thanks for reading my ramble!

Edit: also, I must mention Conder101 who was extremely generous with me in getting me started collecting Conders.