What made you realize, you weren`t a newbie anymore?

I have to say when I started collecting real double dies and started tossing all my machine doubling in the coinstar machine. LoL

 

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I think the term "newbie" is a continuum. I know a huge amount about the series I collect, but if you throw something like an Indian head cent in front of me I would just shrug my shoulders and look puzzeled at it since I don't know what to look for.

 

Well since you put it that way, I guess there is many forms of being a newbie...:foot-mouth:

 

I don't think I've ever been a newbie. When I started, there was no such thing as the internet or the Sheldon scale, and the term "newbie" hadn't even been invented. If someone like me had used that term in an English paper, it would have meant a deduction from the grade. You couldn't just dial up someone and ask for help by posting photos. However, when I realized that I was really making headway was when other people started coming to me for answers, but you should also keep in mind that it is much easier for me to get the answers I need today than it was 50+ years ago.

Chris

 

Since I have been collecting for about 15 months now, I think I have graduated from newby to novice, another year and I may make dilletante.

 

Well Im still a newbie but I think after 5 solid years of collecting and learning, then one is able to move up to the next level..

 

I go along with most of what he said, but getting back in seriously until after I retired (2000). I did not know squat about Sheldon, TPG's, etc. So I still considered myself a newbie until I had a "discussion" with Doug and I was right and he was wrong.

 

I simply cannot tell you how much reading and research I have been required to do in order to be able to keep coming back here. A few months ago, I was so stupid, it shockes me today. I am still a "newbie" and likely will never get beyond that status even though I have studied this several hours each day. I know I will never get enough first hand experience with the coin varieties to ever be anything but a "newbie". I do like to share the things I learn though.

gary

 

Well Im a newbie but I do alot of research too and Im making myself known in the coin world . There is alot I dnt know but there is so much I`ve learnt. Alot of times I annoy some of the experts because Im not will to take any old thing someone throws out there. I have proven alot of experts wrong on some of my findings. I look at myself as a " Semi-Pro-Newbie "...

 

Still a newbie, I just think I know a little more then I did when I started.

 

LOL! And Doug will never admit that he's still a newbie.

 

I search for varieties, so for me there was a moment of finding the proper lighting for examination and seeing that first rotated RPM and the shadowing of the split serif. I had been examining incorrectly for a long time up until then. Now I can't even remember when the last time was that I searched a roll of '59-d, 60-d or '61-d LMC and DIDN'T find an RPM.

 

When I got back into coins in the late 90's, I used to send modern stuff to PCGS for grading. I think my last submission to PCGS marks my graduation from the newbie class.

 

.....After my first thousand posts here on CT....

 

When I found i could answer most questions about coins by memory, mostly learned here in the last 5 years. i knew the basics, but this hobby is a many faceted jewel.

 

I don't consider myself a newbie and I don't consider myself as a coin expert. But I do study on how to spot counterfeit 1909-S VDB Wheat cents, as well as any other major rare dates such as the 1916-D Mercury Dime. I pretty much know better on to buy certified examples of any rare coin that's likely to be counterfeited. Wether if its on the internet or at a coin show, unless I know for SURE that the coin is authentic. Which no one can ever be so sure without being a top expert. Even though I have been collecting for 5 years, I learned a few times about counterfeits. I was too lucky that it didn't happen to me with any rare coin that fetches 100's of dollars or even 1000's. When ever it comes to grading, no, I am no expert but decent after all. Really, all I specialize in, is determing what the coin is, but not authenticy. Leave that to the top grading companies.

So I'll go in between newbie and expert. More close to the newbie bar than expert bar.

 

Like others have said, I still am a newbie in most areas of numismatics. I have only been at it 30 years, I have just started!

I am pretty sure until I die I will still be learning about new areas of numismatics.

 

We grow too soon old and too late smart.

Amen, brother!

• Roethke Award, Michigan State Numismatic Society, 2003 for “Copper Owls: The Emergency Coinage of Athens”
• George Heath Literary Award Second Place, American Numismatic Association, 2002, for “Sir Isaac Newton: Warden and Master of the British Royal Mint.”
• Annual Literary Award, Women in Numismatics, 2000, for “The Origins of Coinage.”
• George Heath Literary Award First Place, American Numismatic Association, 1995 for “A New Look at the Origins of Coinage.”

“Internet Connections” Monthly feature column, The Numismatist, January 2002 to present.


Somewhere in there, I realized that I was always going to be a newbie.

 

Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. David Sear is not an expert in every area of ancient coins, let alone other areas of numismatics. I probably at most will ever have 1% of his knowledge.

 

David Sear ... Q. David Bowers.... David Vagi... David Hall ... David Harper...