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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;medoraman, post: 1241730, member: 26302&quot;]I understand your post Doug, I also know that you have posted many times that you feel money is better spent on coins than numismatic books. I simply need some scarce volumes on some research I am doing on Hepthalites, and some rare volumes quoted in references are listed in the auction. However, you and I disagree on how much a good standard reference is needed. I find myself getting most of my education for ancients not by the internet but by books. The internet is built on quicksand, and a large amount of attributions I see online, (except for CNG and the like), are erroneous. To me, a good reference library is invaluable in understanding and researching your collection. How else do you find out WHY an author is attributing a coin to a certain location, see the exact coins that others are referencing as an attribution. Do you advise just blindly copying an attribution a seller lists on a coin, or pulling out RIC and cross checking the reference and ensuring that it is the correct mint, date, or even Emperor?</p><p><br /></p><p>While I admit I have more books than I probably need, I frequently pull one out just to read and learn. The problem with the internet is that anyone can post whatever they feel like, without any peer review. I have seen common coins like Indo-Sassanid issues described as anything from Hepthalite to Sassanin to Indian to Kushan, with dates from 4th century to 12th century. Having some good standard reference volumes I think is almost necessary if you want to move beyond believing everything the seller says is true.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sure, references get dated, and new information appears, but those same coins are still referenced, the volume is still relevant if only for their documentation of known examples. This is very important when a hoard of new coins come out, like the Black Sea hoard, to compare against known examples and determine if they are real or not.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sorry, but if someone wishes to collect a certain series of coins, I still say its imperative to get the standard refernce for it to get the most out of his coins. If you collect Parthian, you should own Sellwood, if you collect Constantius II you should own RIC VIII. Anything else and you are simply trusting that all information out there that you rely on and you based your collection on is 100% accurate on the sellers tags. Would you pay extra money for what the seller claims is a rare Parthian issue without owning Sellwood to check the attribution yourself? I wouldn&#039;t.</p><p><br /></p><p>BTW Doug I am not including your website when I talk about quicksand, but you have to admit some coin website are not that they could be. </p><p><br /></p><p>Chris[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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