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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1814730, member: 57463&quot;]<font face="Arial"><span style="color: #000066"><b>Numismatist.&nbsp; </b></span></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">The dictionary is a help, that is all. They do not <b>create</b> definitions; they only <b>report</b> what &quot;everyone&quot; seems to mean by what they say.</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>1.&nbsp; We are autodidacts.</b> No university curriculum exists. No government licensing exists.&nbsp; It is like computers. Anyone can claim to be a programmer or web developer. If you want to claim to be a systems analyst, though, you better have some cred.</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia">2.&nbsp; <b>Collectors do pursue knowledge </b>about the objects of their passions.&nbsp; In a sense every collector must be a numismatist at some level.&nbsp; But it depends on the level or depth of that learning. </font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>3. Numismatists might not collect.</b>&nbsp; Most of the professionals who work for museums do not.&nbsp;&nbsp; Why bother? They curate collections far superior to anything an individual could acquire in a lifetime.&nbsp; (Some do collect and are necessarily cognizant of the conflict of interest.)&nbsp; Like GDJMSP, I have not purchased a coin in years - longer than he, actually. </font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>4.&nbsp; But I do buy books. </b>So, that makes me a collector of those.&nbsp; Is that in the discussion?&nbsp; I mean David W. Lange is now perhaps the most active collector, reseacher, and seller of <b>vintage coin boards.</b>&nbsp; (<a href="http://coincollectingboards.net" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coincollectingboards.net" rel="nofollow">His website here</a>.)&nbsp; I knew him from my earliest days as a collector of Mercury Dimes because he wrote the book by DLRC Press.&nbsp; <b>Auction catalogues</b> are another area for <b>bibliomaniacs. </b>(If you have a passion for the printed word, the <a href="http://www.coinbooks.com/esylum/index.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinbooks.com/esylum/index.html" rel="nofollow">Numismatic Bibliomania Society here</a> has a free weekly email list called the E-Sylum, a spin on their print journal, the <i>Asylum</i>.</font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Georgia"><b>4a</b>. <b>Among the bibliomaniacs, I am a mere collector.</b> I do not know the sheet sizes (follio, quarto, octavo...) by heart. I am not conversant in the common terms of wear and grade like &quot;foxing.&quot;&nbsp; I do not know the mechanics of binding.&nbsp; I do know some things. And I love to learn, but as a book guy, I do not qualify as a bibliomaniac.&nbsp; I just write articles.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>Bottom line: it depends...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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