Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;sjnebay, post: 67935, member: 1665&quot;]As a young numismatist, many years ago, I was very impressed with the letters after the names on dealers business cards. Nowadays, there are even more opportunities to gather letters to put after your name. At first glance, seeing that alphabet soup seems quite impressive. Let&#039;s look at what it all means:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>ANA </b> - I paid $36.00 (minimum) this year to possibly have my name published on a mailing list. I didn&#039;t have to meet any professional or educaitonal requirements to get these letters, and I probably don&#039;t know any more about coins than an experienced collector.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>NGC C. S.</b> - I paid $99.00 so that for the period of one year, I can have my coins handled and graded by someone else at the rate of 1000 per day. Of course, this costs me extra (from something like $11 to $30 per coin). They do, however get encased in plastic. Many inexperienced collectors will pay a high premium for that piece of plastic without looking at the coin! Oh, by the way. I don&#039;t need to know anything about coins to get these letters either; I just have to pay my money.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>CONECA</b> - I am interested in error coins. These letters cost me $35 per year to put after my name.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>SSDC</b> - I collect silver dollars. There seems to be no functioning web site so I don&#039;t know how much these letters will cost me for the honor of putting them after my name. I also don&#039;t know whether I need to know anything about siver dollars in order to put the letters there.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is why letters don&#039;t impress me. Show me 15 or 20 coins that you&#039;ve graded with which 4 or 5 other experienced collectors will concur and that will impress me.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lest anyone be insulted by this post, I have letters from the above list that I COULD put behind my name, but choose not to because they mean absolutely nothing other than the fact that I had some extra money to blow which I should have spent on coins, or books about coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in