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Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 1005225, member: 57463"]Into thyself, look first. Collecting anything is personal, and all the more so with numismatics which is highly developed from once having been truly "the hobby of kings."  The advice you got to "buy a Red Book" could be 100% wrong.  Why are the coins you found "cool"?  What were they and what attracted them to you.  Only you can answer those questions. For me, coins are history.  It is a cliche in the hobby that "coins are history you hold in your hand."  I started with 19th and 20th century classic American coins, the Mercury Dime, the Barber series.  But then I realized that what I really wanted was not these latter day knock-offs, but the Greek and Roman coins from whcih they were copied.  The founders of our republic read Greek and Latin and collected ancient coins and those ancients were always part of the U.S. Mint's own cabinet.  So, I turned to them.  For those, you do need books -- but not The Red Book. You need to find yourself in your collection.  No one else can recommend what you should pursue, any more than they can tell you what career to pursue or whom to marry.  They are not you. I do not collect modern proof coins.  But consider this: they are often close to perfect.  Mint State and Proof coins come with deep relief, mirror fields and frosty devices.  As ugly as our "dead presidents" can be, few things approach the perfection of a Cameo Proof coin.  It's not for me, but it might be for you...  You need to find out what you like and why.[/QUOTE]

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