In the definition of numismatist not only does the word collector appear but so does one or both of the following terms, ?study? and/or ?student.? Did I go from collector to numismatist? You can decide, personally I would say maybe.

In the 1970?s I started attending coin shows. I met a dealer named Guy from Frederick, Maryland. I did a lot of business with him because he treated me well on trades. One day I came loaded for bear and dragged a small suit case loaded with items I was willing to trade. When Guy asked me what I had to trade I open the case. He looked at what I had (over 90% of which I collected from change) and said, ?Hell you have enough there to set up at shows.? At that point the light bulb went on and I said to myself I have material and own a Red Book what else do I need? Within a month I was doing my first coin show. My first show was a two day show. And was I busy, it was non-stop sales. At the end of the first day I sat down and looked around and guess what, all my customers were sitting behind the other tables!!! OK that was lesson. But let?s move on. Later as I walked around looking to replace my inventory I started to ask questions like why is that large cent so expensive. I don?t see it listed in the Red Book and what is that ?S? number (there were similar questions about colonials and the ?M? numbers re. Connecticut and New Jersey). I asked Pete a dealer friend of mine at Coins of the Realm. His simple response was you have to buy the book before the coin. I said what? He took me over to his desk and started placing one book after another on top of the desk. I was dumbfounded. You mean I need more than a Red Book. I started buy reference books wherever I could find them. I can remember my copy of Penny Whimsy cost me $80 and I made a $120 profit on the very first coin I bought using that book. My numismatic reference library now contains somewhere between 450 to 500 volumes. Some of those are hard to find auctions catalogues like the Early American Copper Society Convention Auction of February 15, 1975 while others are texts like Penny Whimsy. I spent more hours than I can estimate reading the text and studying the photos in those references. So does this make me a numismatist? At this point I would say no.

I believe it was around the late 70?s that my friend Guy became friends with Charles Hoskins (spelling?). When the ANA decided to provide authentication services (not grading) to the coin collecting community it was Charles that they picked to start this service. Eventually he left the ANA and started to provide this service at coin shows. Guy convinced Charles to offer classes on authenticating coins. I attended these classes which included chalkboard presentations as well as the examination of coins (real & fake) with a stereo microscope. The first class was the most informative. Charles said you can not authenticate coins until you understand the minting process. For example what causes luster? What is the difference between shine and luster? How does the field/design device interface look on a real coin versus counterfeit coin? Other classes looked at defects typical to counterfeit coins and tell-tail features found on rare coin varieties. For example how many of you know what the diagnostic mark is on the reverse of the 1942/1 dime? Charles did not like to talk about these because the more people that knew about them the sooner counterfeiters would know of them. So have I become a numismatist? I would say at this point I was really working on it.

I think it was when my interest expanded to include ancient and world coins as well as medals (non-military) and tokens that I may have earned the right to say I was a numismatist. However, I believe ?numismatist? is like the term ?Doctor? (a Ph.D.) in the early days which was not granted based on completed course work but rather by recognition from your peers. Just like with Ben Franklin, those in the scientific community (overseas) called him Doctor Franklin.