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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3454555, member: 19463&quot;]Let&#039;s be clear about this.&nbsp; The vast majority of books on ancient coins (or anything, for that matter) are outdated to some degree.&nbsp; Our job as readers is to be able to ferret out the grams of precious metals from the kilograms of slag.&nbsp; We do not read any of the standard references with the kind of reverence that religious people treat their holy works.&nbsp; Sydenham was pretty well made useless by the publication of Crawford which is getting a little long in the tooth but has not been replaced with a better standard reference.&nbsp; RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) was published in ten volumes over a wide span of years by several authors who did not agree with one another on how a book should be formatted.&nbsp; Several of the volumes have been updated/replaced so there are more recent versions but some of them are borderline hilarious.&nbsp; They are not worthless since many people still believe in the numbering system they put forth but as a catalog of what exists and details about mints, etc. they are not something to bet on for important decisions. </p><p><br /></p><p>We on Coin Talk are just like books.&nbsp; Some things we get right and some things .... not so much.&nbsp; Some things are just opinions but there are few facts not subject to review or refinement with new evidence from new hoards and reconsideration of things that just don&#039;t make sense from the traditional wisdom. </p><p><br /></p><p>This is not important to those of us who do this for fun.&nbsp; I have no use for people who have a need to make their name by proving some new revision but every respect for those who try to understand things that were glossed over by previous experts. </p><p><br /></p><p>I encourage everyone to read critically and avoid questioning things that you don&#039;t understand just to be fashionable.&nbsp; &quot;I don&#039;t know&quot; is a reasonable response and &quot;I&#039;m learning&quot; is the mark of someone to respect.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, I am forgetting as fast as I am learning.&nbsp; I most definitely have opinions and it is your job to decide if you should listen to me or the people who take all this, and themselves, waaaay too seriously.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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