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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;physics-fan3.14, post: 3168572, member: 19165&quot;]I believe that anyone who has been in the hobby for a while understands that a forum like this is its own unique microcosm. You get a LOT of new folks here, asking really basic questions (and often, the same questions over and over). That&#039;s just the nature of a place like this. </p><p><br /></p><p>Compound that with - every time you see a news story about coins, what&#039;s it about? Some common every day penny that has some crazy error or double die and is now worth thousands. There are literally dozens of books claiming that if you look closely at your pocket change, you&#039;ll get rich. A website like this is where those poor deluded people are going to come to ask questions, and then get discouraged when they find they aren&#039;t suddenly millionaires. </p><p><br /></p><p>However, after people have gained a bit of experience and knowledge, you&#039;ll find that most of them don&#039;t focus on errors or varieties (some do, and that&#039;s cool - if they are knowledgeable and have actual errors). Most of them don&#039;t focus on toned coins (some do, and that&#039;s cool - if they are naturally toned, original, attractive, eye appealing pieces). </p><p><br /></p><p>As people gain experience in numismatics, they specialize and then begin to share that information - and that is truly the benefit of a website like this. I get to see the sort of stuff that you may not even see at a major show like that, because someone has spent the time to learn and collect. </p><p><br /></p><p>The other major difference between a forum like this and a show like that - the sort of people that you are going to hang out with at a show are generally going to be more experienced, and have similar focuses as you do. It&#039;s a self selecting bias. You aren&#039;t probably going to go hang out with the John Reich or Cuban society unless that&#039;s what you collect. And a brand new beginner wondering if his beat up penny he found in a parking lot is a super rare error variety probably isn&#039;t going to go to a show like that at all. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, yeah, stating that the internet forums and coin shows are completely different is both stating the inanely obvious and completely missing the point at the same time.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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