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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1754962, member: 19463&quot;]While I can not speak for others, I believe the problem I have had every time I start to get interested in cash is that I run across situations that seem to be extremely important to specialists that either I do not understand or that seem insignificant to my way of looking at the situation.&nbsp; Not reading Chinese may also be a problem.&nbsp; For one thing it limits me to books like Hartill written in English.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For example, in post #10 of this thread I showed two examples of Zheng Long Hartill 18.40 which is listed as a rather common &#039;14&#039; ($5) coin.&nbsp; Hartill 18.41 is listed as the same coin except that the top character &#039;Zheng&#039; has a short extension of the bottom line to the left which would require the character to be drawn with 5 strokes rather than 4.&nbsp; This makes the coin a rarity 6 ($250) item.&nbsp; I might understand some of this if that fine point of calligraphy served to separate the coins by mints or dates but all I see is a $245 1 mm bump.&nbsp; Now I admit that the coins I understand better (Roman) have some fly speck variations (like the six variations on Tiberius Tribute Penny chairs)&nbsp; but usually these are accompanied by something like mint ID or at least something that catalog authors might bother to explain.&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;m not saying that I would pay extra for an 18.41 if I did understand it (I don&#039;t pay extra for special mints in Sasanian - just to mention another language that I don&#039;t read) but seeing such things just makes me feel stupid.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>My cash collection includes common &#039;junk&#039; coins found in bulk lots (mostly Northern Song) and a few &#039;special&#039; coins I sought out because the Emperor was a big name (built the Forbidden City,&nbsp; did something particularly interesting in the sense that Roman collectors favor Caligula, etc.).&nbsp; What I have not become convinced of yet is what I might add to my benefit (education, interest???) if I turned my 100 different cash holding into 200.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]276731[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>[ATTACH=full]276732[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;A recent addition (also filed off, it seems) is this Xuan De (1433-35 AD) which I wanted to match the 19th century replica bell from my wife&#039;s collection.&nbsp; The two center characters on the top band of the bell match the coin&#039;s top and bottom.&nbsp; These bells are rather common but I have never been able to find out if there is an original or why the later bell makers felt the need to make so many bells inscribed &#039;Made in the time of Xuan De Ming&#039;.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If a cash collector here could put it in words,&nbsp; I would be interested in hearing what it is about cash that makes them appeal to your collecting instincts.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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