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Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 96464, member: 57463"]If you think I am an expert, then I am flattered. What is a legitimate expert, Roy? We tend to over-estimate ourselves.You have heard those old guys who say, "I've been collecting for 30 years. I've seen hundreds of Morgan Dollars.  Those grading services don't know what they're doing."    Of course, a grader for a major service will see a hundred high quality and/or rare date Morgans in ONE DAY... 300 days a year.  And the reason that the old guy will be listened to is that everyone knows that grading services nonetheless make mistakes. Am I an expert on ancient coins, Roy?  I was granted a Heath Literary Award for an article on the origins of coinage.  The ANA rejected it the first time around because it contradicted the books in their library.  After correspondence with their museum curator, Robert Hoge, they agreed with me that the books (including the Encyclopedia Britannica) were wrong.     If you think that makes me an expert, then I am flattered.  I assure you that I depend on dealers, the same as any other collector.  Dealers see far more coins over many years of continuous work.  This is just a hobby.  Even the so-called (and self defined) "expert" collector who goes to the ANS once or twice a year and closely inspects rare coins with a loupe for a day or two has invested less than 1 percent of the time a dealer does in a year.  I have published a dozen articles on ancients and another dozen on other topics.  (I got a second Heath for an article about Sir Isaac Newton's tenure as Warden and Master of the British Royal Mint.)  I know what I know -- and I know it solid.  But I also know my limitations.  That is why I depend on the dealers. It is not the fakes you spot, it is the ones you miss. Yet, the dealers make mistakes.  Bulgarian counterfeit ancients tricked many of the same dealers twice in 10 years. I was offered a bag of them at the 1999 NYINC convention.  "Oh, no, these are genuine!" the dealer said.  He thought they were.  He thought he was more of an expert than he really was. I prefer to buy from trusted sources.  Usually, that means an ANA member dealer at an ANA convention.  I save my money in a special account and once a year or once in two years, I go to a major convention.  In between times, there are MSNS and Central States shows, where I deal with people whom I know by name and face and handshake. I also buy mail order -- but from trusted sources such as VCOINS dealers. Many of those dealers also advertise in The Celator.  Advertising in The Celator is one way that a dealer establishes a reputation of trust in the ancients community.  That does not become a general rule. Ken Pines Coast to Coast was expelled from the ANA in July 2005, but still runs the same splash ads in the same numismatic newspapers week after week.  To be fair, I bought an ancient from him and it was fine.  He was expelled over a different kind of coin, entirely.  Some might say that he had been pushing the limits for 30 years and it was about time.  However, the objective fact is that he made one mistake -- and the ANA has always had a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY toward dealers.  So, one mistake in 30 years and you get booted from the ANA.  That is why I patronize ANA member dealers.  ANA membership is not a guarantee, perhaps, but it is much better than a "feedback rating."[/QUOTE]

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