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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1628578, member: 19463&quot;]I&#039;m Doug and I started collecting ancients in (or slightly before) 1963 when I was in high school and took Latin.&nbsp; I bought as many coins as I could afford until 1974 when poverty drove me to sell all but three &#039;special to me&#039; coins but I kept most of my books and an interest.&nbsp; In the mid 1980&#039;s I started again but never replaced some of the highlights of that first collection (who out there has my coins - admit it).&nbsp; I joined the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington (DC) and learned a lot from a number of really brilliant people.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In 1997, I have an unexplainable desire to learn to code web pages in HTML.&nbsp; I did not know what subject to use for practice but at that exact time I became interested in a friend&#039;s collection of late Roman bronzes (I had always collected Septimius Severus and earlier).&nbsp; That friend was writing a book and I took photos for it (you should own Victor Failmezger&#039;s book if you collect Diocletian through Jovian).&nbsp; My first post had two pages one called &#039;sev&#039; and one &#039;notsev&#039;.&nbsp; My intention was to replace each of these pages regularly but since the free web space I was using (Geocities) allowed more space, I never got around to deleting the old stuff.&nbsp; I posted more or less regularly each Friday until 2003 when I retired and decided I would not have enough money to keep buying coins while not working so I stopped updating the page for almost 5 years.&nbsp; I did participate in online coin talk groups (Numism-L was first) and discovered that retirement was not as impoverishing as I had feared so I started collecting again (but not at a pace that Stevex6 would appreciate).&nbsp; I discovered Coin Talk in 2009 and enjoyed the interface with beginners there who seems unwilling to stick their heads up on some other venues populated by more expert collectors.&nbsp; I hoped this contact would give me ideas for pages to add to my site (there were 150 by then) but instead I spent my free time typing here (and a couple other similar lists) instead of writing new pages for the site.&nbsp; I have good intentions to add pages but I am realistic enough to expect it to be one a year rather than one a week.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you have not visited my site, feel free.&nbsp; It has moved twice since Geocities folded but everything since the beginning is now here:</p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>When asked what I collect, I answer: &quot;Coins I like at prices I can afford.&quot;&nbsp; About 25% of my coins relate to Septimius Severus and 75% are Roman.&nbsp; I have a few Greek and Eastern (mostly Indian) having rather recently expanded my date range to more or less 1400&#039;s but I have not become interested in machine made coins.&nbsp; I am very interested in coins that teach me something and am fond of technical oddities of just about any sort.&nbsp; When I stared collecting, I was told I was wasting my money buying such junky coins when I could pay more and get higher grades.&nbsp; Times have changed and there are now more people buying coins that I consider too ugly for consideration so I guess I have been transformed into a condition snob without even moving.&nbsp; I expect coins to have readable legends (particularly mintmarks if from a period that used them) and what we call &#039;eye appeal&#039;.&nbsp; Today I ordered a coin worn to fine with a nice surface which I prefer to EF details on a corroded hunk of metal that most seem to prefer.&nbsp; I don&#039;t plan on selling my collection so I don&#039;t worry about things like appreciation in value.&nbsp; I suggest you don&#039;t either.&nbsp; One of my favorite dealers over the last phase (late 80&#039;s to present) Frank Robinson once said, &quot;Love your coins for what they are, not for what they are worth.&quot;&nbsp; He is a wise man.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>That said I do have perhaps a thousand coins I really don&#039;t want but I have trouble selling coins (remembering how it hurt in 1974) so I prefer to trade unless we are talking about duplicates (which I get a lot more of as I get older and forget what I have).&nbsp; I could never be a coin dealer and have to sell something I love just because you are standing there waving money. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now you know me and, hopefully you know better than to ask a question and expect a short answer.&nbsp; :yawning:[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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