The Human Condition and your Contribution to Numismatics!

no no...I Love old paper. My younger sister makes her own paper from wood chips/clay.....and other substrate. Takes awhile and physical effort and knowledge and practice and ink techniques from the prior years.

Like a good brother I've helped her do her thing!

She has a few REALLY BIG printing presses and loves finding a use for them (plus a few smaller ones....which she on occasion requests I help move above the flood line.) I've told her moving a foundry would be easier more that once!

The "cure" has been found growing as a bread mold years ago. No offense intended.

I'm just trying to keep your thread alive as I truly find it informative and useful.

...oh....you used the word "whom"....you're a USMC office, perhaps Academy trained and now have an appreciation for the evasive chance to enjoy the esoteric.

Keep in touch!

More to the point of your direct question-I posted this here because I want to know more about our history/ how it came to be this way...and why you are the only Marine I've ever communicated with, other than the Commandant of the Marine Corp, that has used the word "Whom".

 

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Those who compile catalogs and references, certainly what they produce they do so as a money making venture...but what many produce is invaluable as recources.

Let me start by dispelling this myth. Most of the authors of books on paper money did not write their books as money making ventures. With the exception of the more popular catalogs like Friedburg or Schwartz/Lindquist, most hobby books are not great money makers for the authors. (Whether they are for the publisher is another story.) The audience is limited and many of the printings for specialized books are in the low thousands of copies. The amount of time that is spent on research and writing produces a less than minimum wage result for the authors.

I have written for BNR and other numismatic venues and have given presentations at most of the major shows (and at local ones). I do so for the sake of the hobby. My collecting focus has always been historical and the story behind a note is just as important to me as the note itself. Writing or speaking about them stems from this.

I cannot speak for other authors and researchers, but I know a fair number of them (including many on RickieB's list). Most of them would probably say the same thing. That is not to say that there is not some ego-stroking involved in being recognized as an expert, but most of these people are ordinary folks who had a story to tell.

It is true that many of them had opportunities (and pocketbooks) that may not be available to all of us, but doing what I have done and what some of these others have done is not as daunting a task as it appears, particularly with the advent of the internet.

Most numismatic publications (BNR, Numismatic News, Paper Money and the IBNS Journal, for example) are screaming for articles. They do not have to contain earth shattering research or new discoveries. They can be as simple as writing a short biography of someone on a note or a short history of an event depicted on a note. Thematic collections like notes depicting sailing vessels or aircraft lend themselves to an easy article. The same holds true for doing a presentation at a show.

How do you get an article in to BNR or get to do a presentation at ANA or Memphis? Ask. It is really that simple. Contact the publisher, the sponsor of the show or one of the board members at IBNS or SPMC and tell them you want to do an article or a presentation on ABC or XYZ. They are likley to be delighted to have a volunteer. Do it often and well enough and they will come asking for you.

 

Perhaps we were both educated at the University of Texas??

BTW..there is no vaccine for T.Pallium the cause of syphlis!

Regards,

RickieB

 

Nice insight Lettlow.

Thank you!

Regards,

RickieB

 

This is an interesting question you’ve posed, RickieB. Even more interesting are some of the answers. While reading the posts, I was forced to review my position as a collector and compare it to other aspects. Several things popped up that I didn’t give much thought to before. Am I a collector? Of course. Am I a curator? I like to think that I am. I mean I certainly show my collection to others and answer any questions about it and give advice when asked. What do I want from this collection? Enjoyment, camaraderie, learning/discovering about new aspects of banknotes and history. What does it do for me? It gives me all I want from it. What do I do for it? I try to be someone who helps promote it to those who are interested in it, give information to those who need it, and be as helpful as I can in general.

I think I am perhaps more like the responses that Daggarjon and Drusus gave in my collection habits and styles. I would never do it if I didn’t like it and was able to have fun with it, build on it and learn more about it all the time. While I’ve seen people on forums give up and read about others who are leaving the hobby, I honestly cannot imagine myself going the same route. There is just too much to learn, too many different aspects that the collections can branch out into, etc., for this to ever become boring to me. I am not looking to make money in this venture, but if I could write a book, give paid lectures, or somehow make money off my knowledge, I certainly wouldn’t turn it down. If there was something I could make money on that I felt would hurt the hobby, I simply wouldn’t do it.

 

I was referring to Krause and certain ancient reference catalogs. The price of most ancient catalogs are astronomical and without doubt, whether the people compiling and editing these publications are collectors or dont get paid a whole lot is mute as they dont even have to be collectors in many cases. Many are employed because they simply can use the layout program. Like me...I am employed in an industry and at a job in which I do not have to have any passion for the material...I just have to product the material.

Krause and many of the other major index catalogs are, without doubt, a money making venture and they are making good money. They offset the lower sales with higher prices and of course many of these companies are also involved with many different types of publications. the people doing the grunt work may not be getting paid a fortune...just like any business venture the publishers (the big guys) are making money or they would not being doing it. Krause is not publishing catalogs for love of the coin.

Certainly people who write numismatic articles either do so for little pay or for free....sadly, this just means that the publishers are the ones cashing in on their work and their wish to get information out. If I write an article for a print publication...for free...and that publication is a for profit business...that simply means someone is making a little money off me. I would rather it go onto the web where all people can read it for free.

I guess my question to Resu Eman...if you dont mind...would be...if you were invited to lecture for free (or cost)...simply because people want to hear what you have to say...would you still do it? If people asked you to help write a catalog but told you there would be no money and that everyone was working for free to help the hobby...including the publisher...would you still do it? In essence, this is what I am saying...the best way for a hobby to work...IMO...if for people to put out the effort for free...because its a hobby not a profession. If you end up making money off of something that is purely beneficial and needed by collectors...and you happen to start making a bit of a profit...thats one thing...but I do think some people just see collectors as a revenue source and they arent what I call collectors as much as opportunists.

 

The entire point of this thread is do just that. To have every individual step back for a moment and give thought to what they are doing, how they are doing it and what directions the potential of change might bestow upon them at one point or another in their collecting careers.
It is interesting for me as well....it is fascinating actually!

Everyone has their own opinion, this I respect! As everyone else should respect those of others. There is nothing remaining in our Society thats will please everyone 100% of the time...absolutely nothing.

Thanks for some great replies guy's...it is always nice to know the felling of other collectors as well.


Regards,

RickieB

 

My short answer would be yes. Long answer would have stipulations as to how much time I'd have to spend (I still ened to work!), is it something I can actually do, etc.

However, I must put forth that this never happens! I have been asked several times to take on non-numismatic tasks for little pay, but always I was to be the one doing the vast majority of the work which would benefit a few people only. I've learned to say no to these types of requests.

But if I were asked to put together something that would eb a true collaborative effort that would be put out to everyone in the hobby - Yes!

 

I am sorry to say that I haven't read all your posts... yet, but I figured I would say a little something.

I have no idea where I am headed as a collector or what else I will ever do in numismatics.

Right now I have only two goals:

1) Find, finish, and then improve the original collection that got me started as a kid, my Lincoln cent Whitman folders.

2) I live in a small town, it doesn't have a coin shop or anything like that. So, I was thinking of starting a coin club on the campus of my university next semester. Not sure if there will be enough people to do it, but hopefully I will find a couple more collectors.

 

Can one learn how to fish there?

 

??????????????????????????????????????

What in the world does this have to do with fishing, might I ask?


RickieB

 

Probably could! LOL
But I don't get what that has to do with this thread!
Would be cool if everybody on this forum would answer this question though...
Rickie, I love this thread, it is fun reading my own goals, and others as well

 

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he shall never go hungry? Thats what I'm getting from it.

 

Great thread Rickie! Really made me think about the sport, err, I mean hobby. My wife told me this evening that I have this love/hate relationship with everything I collect. I can't really describe it. I guess I love collecting and finding and searching, but the need to have it all now is sometimes overwhelming. Gotta slow down and take a deep breath and appreciate what I have. But it is human nature to want more, bigger, better stuff.
Thanks again.

 

Jacervone.....
I just like many of us, I'm in the same boat! I just jerked the cork under the water again a few min ago....that minnow was very tasty!!

Take care friend...keep those gold coins coming..WOW is all I can on your collection!!


Best regards,

RickieB

 

yEP.

What The Noost said.

I am into this hobby because I find it stimulating, requires close inspection and interaction with one's environment and has a timeline that extends in multiple directions.

It involves man & machine & ideas. It attempts to define value &/or "worth". It proves that while we attempt to make one thing we usually make another.

If the entire world was composed of gold, what would a handful of dirt be worth?

and what jaceravone said-

A wise old teacher told me to expect two great disappoints in life:

1) To want something, but never get

2) To get it.


I enjoy the hunt. I can go to a McDonald's, buy a lousy hamburger but still get a thrill by finding a treasure in the change. I joined this forum so I could learn when and how to be thrilled. So thank you all for being my new teachers.:bow:

 

Give a man a match he'll be warm for a minute... But set him on fire...

 

I'm not sure if this thread is supposed to make my brain hurt or my sides?