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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 680806, member: 57463&quot;]Age old advice.</p><p><b>1. If you don&#039;t know your coins, then know your dealer.</b></p><p><b>2. Buy the book before you buy the coin.</b>&nbsp; (At least borrow the book from your library.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Never go to eBay.&nbsp; There are trusted dealers on eBay, but they are reputable FIRST and then just happen to have eBay sales.&nbsp; You have to know the dealers.&nbsp; You cannot trust eBay ratings.</p><p><br /></p><p>VCOINS does a good job of vetting dealers. You can find there the dealers who are known from <i>The Celator.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><b>THE CELATOR.</b>&nbsp; <i>The Celator</i> is the number one magazine for ancients.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Check the Library catalogs at the ANS and ANA.</b>&nbsp; Reputable dealers are often recognized scholars.&nbsp; Look for the dealer websites.&nbsp; The best dealers do more than sell coins: their sites have authorative articles.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>That said, many who know ancient history and who love the artifacts participate in the hobby as dealers qua dealers, rather than as writers and researchers.&nbsp; Again, you have to learn who they are.&nbsp; That is part of the process.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Point 3: &quot;There is no royal road.&quot;</b></p><p>The story is that when the young king Ptolemy was being tutored in geometry by Euclid, he complained that this was hard.&nbsp; Euclid said that there is no royal road, i.e., no easy highway, to geometry.&nbsp; So, too, with ancients.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Membeship in a Society. </b></p><p>If you just want one ancient coin, then, really, any ANA member dealer can sell you just one ancient coin.&nbsp; ANA member dealers adhere to a Code of Ethics.&nbsp; So, that is some protection.&nbsp; (For an ANA member dealer, ignorance is no excuse. Two complaints are enough to cost a dealer their membership.) Beside the ANA, there is the ANS of course, as well as PNG (the Professional Numismatists Guild) and the IAPN (International Association of Professional Numismatists).&nbsp; Membership in such societies is an indication of well-deserved and hard-won esteem.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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