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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kirispupis, post: 7722650, member: 118780&quot;]I agree with [USER=90666]@Andrew McCabe[/USER]&#039;s assertion of &quot;Do the work.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>By most accounts I&#039;m a n00b here. I only started collecting in December and my entire collection comprises 75 coins. I did start of course by thinking &quot;I&#039;m going to collect every Roman empire and every Greek city!&quot; and that has since been honed to a roughly 60 year period in one region of the ancient world. I do read extensively about that era though.</p><p><br /></p><p>My typical &quot;work&quot; for buying a coin is the following.</p><ul> <li>Read every scholarly paper I can find about that coin. Understand why it was minted and by whom. What variants exist? Are there any controversies about it?</li> <li>Look it up on Forum&#039;s fake list to see what I should avoid.</li> <li>Review past auctions and current copies for sale. What is the price range for this coin? For my budget, what can I expect?</li> <li>Since I&#039;m on the low-end, provenance is rarely given. However, if the seller does provide one, I do my best to verify it.</li> </ul><p>Keep in mind that I&#039;m never looking for the &quot;best&quot; copy. The way I collect coins now is by constructing a &quot;story&quot;. I&#039;m therefore seeking the best representatives to tell that story. Flaws that would easily put off an investor are fine for me. I&#039;m really looking for the coin&#039;s features to be recognizable, though I do have standards that certain features must be clear.</p><p><br /></p><p>Will I ever qualify as a &quot;serious&quot; collector? I&#039;m not sure. There are 24 coins I&#039;m seeking to build my current story. After that (and the cool down period to let my wife simmer from the expense), I don&#039;t know. I may start looking for variants from this period, I may slightly widen the geography/time period, or I may start with other stories. If I do stick with the same period, then I could conceivably become an expert/serious in ten years or so. If I branch out, then probably not.</p><p><br /></p><p>I do tend to follow things with a passion, and I suspect that&#039;s really what Andrew&#039;s getting at. One day I decided to start running, and within two years I&#039;d completed 20 marathons. I also like photography, and have my photos in galleries and a book available in stores. I&#039;ve published a novel and have another on the way. I like languages and speak at least six. And, I still have a day job. Therefore, I&#039;m certainly not going to look at coins as a bunch of valuable shiny things. I treat them seriously, though I may not yet be labeled as &quot;serious.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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