By Doug Winter – www.Raregoldcoins.com CoinLink Content Partner

I’ve seen it happen many times in the past few years. An avid new collector storms into the hobby and buys lots of coins but then hits critical mass and thinks about leaving numismatics. What can you do as a collector who has reached the “burnout” phase to rekindle your passion for numismatics?

The first thing I would suggest is to get all of your coins together and lay them out on a table or desk. Take a good hard look at them and decide what deserves to be in the collection and what does not. If you are like any new collector, it is likely that in your initial burst of enthusiasm, you bought coins that you shouldn’t have. In retrospect, they may be ugly or they just don’t fit in with the core collection you have. My best advice is to jettison them.

Now I’m not suggesting a fire sale. The best way to sell the coins is an orderly, organized fashion. You might do it yourself or select a dealer to help you. Or, you could always choose to put the coins in an auction. If possible, give yourself at least 90-120 days to plan and execute a strategy that makes sense.

It is likely that some of the “duds” that you originally purchased are going to be losers when it comes time to sell. Assuming that you are out of love forever with a specific coin, it’s alright to sell it for a loss. Just make certain that use this as a learning experience and try not to repeat this specific mistake in the future. (FYI, even smart dealers sometimes have to sell coins for losses. Really smart dealers get out of their bad deals as quickly as possible and reinvest their money in other coins that, hopefully, will be better deals).

The next thing I would suggest to recharge your battery is to take the next $500-1,500 you were going to spend on a coin and use it to form a basic library. Buy the five to ten essential books that should be in every collector’s library and then buy useful books in your chosen field(s) of specialization. I would also suggest buying a core group of auction catalogs from the 1980’s and 1990’s as well. Find a numismatic literature dealer and tell him that you collect Liberty Seated quarters or Type Three double eagles and the chances are good that he can recommend some older but still very useful catalogs that can greatly enhance your collecting experience.

Taking the numismatic literature theme one step further, get a current auction catalog from a specialist dealer like George Kolbe, Charles Davis or Fred Lake and buy some interesting 19th or early 20th century books or catalogs. As an example, the upcoming Kolbe sale of the John Pittman library has some really wonderful books and catalogs that will make a great test for your numismatic DNA. If you find everything in the catalog to be boring and the history of numismatics and its personalities has no appeal to you, maybe you are being sent a message: coins just aren’t in your blood. But if you find some of the obscure books, catalogs, letters and manuscripts to be very exciting, then you can take this as a message: coins are in your blood but you just need to reinvigorate your interest.

Doug Winter
10/27/07
www.raregoldcoins.com
For more information on United States gold coins please contact me via email at dwn@ont.com

Nathan Elkins’—”Why coins matter”—is touted as a “special feature” on the web site of Saving Antiquities for Everyone (http://www.savingantiquities.org/feature.php). Mr. Elkins, in what can only be described as a tyro condemnation of the ancient coin market, stitches together a series of disjointed and unrelated points that leave the reader struggling for a thread. His arguments, in the best of cases, lack plausibility. More often, they are incoherent.

A bold sidebar anchors the lead-in with the bizarre quote: “We cannot think that ancient coins are less significant than looted Greek vases…” Elkins suggests that archaeological context trumps any other value of an object. This thinking is merely a precurser to the irrationality that follows. Supremacy of context is of course the trite and time worn position of radical archaeologists that has all but faded into obscurity since cultural property nationalists began screaming for repatriations. If context is the most significant aspect of an artifact, then the location of any artifact once it is out of the ground is really irrelevant. Why should Italy or Greece, for example, care where an object is stored today if its “archaeological” context is unknown? The obvious answer is that cultural property nationalists do NOT value context over possession, nor do a host of other interest groups including museums and collectors. Even archaeologists seem hung up on possession. Every suggestion that surplus common artifacts from a dig be sold to collectors is quickly rejected even though the objects have all been recorded and studied and are sometimes even earmarked for destruction. The supremacy of context is an argument whose day has come and gone. Yes, coins are important when found in an archaeological context. They are equally important without any context whatever, as any experienced and knowledgeable numismatist knows. (more…)

There are reports, confirmed from several sources that as of Monday September 17th, ebay is going to amend its Seller Policy with respect to the listing of Coins and Currency.

The new rules will only allow a coin to be listed as “Certified” if that coin has been certified by one of the following authorized grading companies:

* Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC)
* Numismatic Conservation Services (NCS)
* Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS)
* Independent Coin Grading (ICG)
* ANACS

Listings for certified coins must now use new grading attributes within the Sell Your Item form, which will include “Grading Company,” “Grade” and “Serial Number”, and must include an image of the item, showing the coin in its graded holder, front and back (more…)