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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2033051, member: 19463&quot;]<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0786868643/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used&amp;sr=&amp;qid=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0786868643/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used&amp;sr=&amp;qid=" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0786868643/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used&amp;sr=&amp;qid=</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I mentioned the availability of this once before but just now finished reading my recently purchased copy.&nbsp; There are still three available used for one cent + $3.99 postage (joke or no joke) and a few more for 4 cents (splurge and buy a new one if you wish).&nbsp; Obviously they are a glut on the used market.</p><p><br /></p><p>The old saying is, &quot;There but for the Grace of God, go I.&quot;&nbsp; Bruce McNall&#039;s autobiography hits me way too close to home in this respect.&nbsp; I am a very few years older than he but started collecting ancients about the same time and relied to some extent on the same dealer for many early purchases.&nbsp; Young Mr. McNall lived in California and became a fixture in the shop of Joel Malter.&nbsp; I lived in Indiana and bought from him by mail order.&nbsp; We both loved ancient coins.&nbsp; I bought them with my money; whenever possible, he used other people&#039;s money - he became a dealer almost before he became a collector.&nbsp; I never did.&nbsp; He became a multi-multi millionaire...</p><p><br /></p><p>In the period in my life when I was earning my highest income (not much, I&#039;ll point out), I loved the wonderful sale catalogs of Numismatic Fine Arts.&nbsp; I rarely bid since most of the coins he offered were over my price bracket but the few that I won, I liked.&nbsp; The catalogs were worth more to me than the coins.&nbsp; In the Spring of 1994, NFA issued their last catalog (XXXIII - I won 2 lots and got the prices realized).&nbsp; I found other dealers to supply my habit.&nbsp; Bruce McNall went to jail.&nbsp; <b>Fun While It Lasted</b> is the story of how a boy who loved ancient coins ended up in Federal Prison.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Without giving away the whole plot, I&#039;ll point out that questionable business practices can be equally questionable whether buying million dollar groups of coins or hundred million dollar race horse/motion picture/pro sports team investments.&nbsp; In every case, Bruce McNall showed a greater interest for how much coins/anything else were worth than what they were.&nbsp; Too often (but, perhaps, not in every case) the same standard was applied to people.&nbsp; I was disappointed that more of the book did not describe specific coin purchase/sales but coins were treated as a commodity no different than a group of anonymous young horses.&nbsp; Quite a bit of attention is devoted to specific movie deals serving to point out that Mr. McNall and I had rather different tastes in the cinema but he was producing them and I was watching them when they came on TV.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I enjoyed the book but would not consider buying a new one for $29.&nbsp; At one cent, I guess I can risk enriching (n)either the author or the bankers he still has to compensate by order of the court.&nbsp;&nbsp; I would recommend, however, any reader buy a couple old NFA auction catalogs just to see what was done by someone who considered that business small change compared to Michelle Johnson&#039;s body parts or Wayne Gresky&#039;s skating.&nbsp; (Yes, that line was put here to attract interest by some of our Canadian friends.)&nbsp; One or two of those things seem to have contributed to the unraveling of this life story.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>While I feel this post is sufficiently coin related to warrant posting alone, I will add photos of six of my junker coins that I bought from Bruce McNall/NFA while the &quot;fun&quot; was going strong.&nbsp;&nbsp; All these were from one sale in 1990.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Taras, stater</p><p>[ATTACH=full]370181[/ATTACH] </p><p>Kroton, stater - bought as a fourree but it is solid and a victim of horn silver which was removed with no skill leaving unfortunate surface problems.&nbsp;&nbsp; This was not the only solid coin I bought as fourree from NFA.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]370182[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>You have seen my archaic obol and 3/4 obol before.&nbsp;&nbsp; NFA customers shunned little coins so I won both. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]370183[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]370184[/ATTACH] </p><p>I thought the Seleucos 4dr was attractive but other bidders found it too low grade.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most coins offered were nicer than this ... much nicer.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]370185[/ATTACH] </p><p>This is an as.&nbsp; High end bidders seem to want sestertii.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]370186[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>This is the place to post any coins you have with NFA provenance.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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