Doing your own research 1 1

[mlovmo]

If one is into researching a non-U.S. series of coins, you may not be so lucky with the level of transparency that other nations provide from official sources.  We're blessed that the United States government (mostly) follows its own laws (FOIA requests, Archives access, etc) and allows this amount of information to be available not only at the Archives in College Park, MD, but also at the NNP online.

I am a researcher of South Korean coins.  When I finally got a hold of someone from the Bank of Korea to answer my very specific research questions and questions about access to their archival holdings, they told me that they would only refer me to their latest publication issued in 2010!  Needless to say, I relied on their older published, and unpublished studies and data. Older Korean central bank and Mint documents and publications have much more “juicy” information in them than the more recent ones.  More recent publications are more like glossy pictorials and promotional literature.  They are devoid of historical information. When I was gathering data for my book, the former Moon Jae-in administration touted a "transparency in government" policy, but it was just window dressing.  The Korean government (via the Bank of Korea, the Korean Mint's overseer) has basically placed an embargo on revealing anything about the Korean Mint.  In my opinion, this embargo on allowing researchers access to the archives seems to go along with the overall trend in governing in countries worldwide nowadays:  Reveal as little as possible to researchers and journalists and keep everything under a tight lid to avoid any embarrassment and to control the narrative and the perception of “the brand.”  Again, that’s just my opinion.

Surprisingly, though the Koreans published a large amount of information on the subject of their nations coins and currency, and an equally surprising amount of unpublished material was available, too.  This is why it was possible for me to write my book.  However, the research phase of my Korean coin book would have been expedited considerably if only the government in Korea had a fraction of the transparency that we enjoy in the USA.  That's why we should never take it for granted...

Edited December 23, 2022 by mlovmo

[bstrauss3]

One of the wonderful things to come out from the COVID-19 pandemic was that a Spanish-speaking numismatic researcher was trapped in Madrid for about a year. He requested and received a researcher's credential and spent the pandemic researching the history of the Spanish Colonial mints from the original source material.

 

He wrote a letter to NI (Numismatics International) indicating he has enough material for four years of writting.

[WandaWay]

It sounds like an advertisement for a new article) About who are you speaking, please? I heard about a new publication about the latest discovered Spanish coin that is the most popular, with its distinctive design and consistent silver content. We may be relating to the same stuff. I want to do my research, and a critical essay would help me considerably. Own research needs to include personal views and approaches to the paper besides the exact data, information, and graphics. So I hope the source I have found will help me with the critical analysis I need.

Edited January 26, 2023 by WandaWay

[GoldFinger1969]

On 12/22/2022 at 9:10 AM, disme said:

Don Taxay and I started about the same time, the late 1950s, and Ken Bressett was close behind, perhaps mid-1960s. 

Wow, was just reading about Don Taxay....interesting fellow, huh ?  Boy, did he do a 180 degree life correction. 

I wonder if he is still alive. 

Edited January 21, 2023 by GoldFinger1969

[IceStormZZ]

On 1/5/2023 at 8:40 PM, bstrauss3 said:

One of the wonderful things to come out from the COVID-19 pandemic was that a Spanish-speaking numismatic researcher was trapped in Madrid for about a year. He requested and received a researcher's credential and spent the pandemic researching the history of the Spanish Colonial mints from the original source material.

 

He wrote a letter to NI (Numismatics International) indicating he has enough material for four years of writting.

agree with you

[RWB]

It's great to see some writers finally going to original materials, in the original languages, for their book and article content. So much of the extant numismatic literature is outdated.