How have you learned so much about world coins?

Early_Milled_Latin_America

I own probably 20-25 books (and know many very well....not all so I am still learning a lot from them) but I never can understand how some of you get to be so knowledgeable. Where have you guys learned from over the years? Other long term collectors? What exactly? Coin shows/auctions?

I would like to deepen my knowledge but have no idea where to start apart from this forum.

Early_Milled_Latin_America

Pruebas, Bidask, WCC, Boosibri (and a few others)....who were your mentors over the years? Or are you mostly self learned and if so how (outside the books most of us already own I mean)? Old auction catalogues?

Maybe I need to read lot description more when auctions come up?

Boosibri

MrEureka and Pruebas have taught me a lot, but intellectual curiosity, independent research and seeing coins have helped as well for whatever level of knowledge I might have achieved

bosox

I feel like I have mostly been self-taught. My specialty is Victorian cents of Canada, and over the decades I have read as much of the previous literature as I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, the deeper I got into things, I found much of the older literature had numerous errors of commission and omission. This usually occurred because it was based on only one source, the Royal Mint annual reports, which contained numerous inaccuracies. Quite a few well-accepted conclusions were simply wrong.

I have found that, if you want deep knowledge of a coin series, there is no substitute for looking at as many coins as you can in person (I have examined literally thousands of Victorian cents). I have augmented this effort with visits to the National Archives in Kew, Libraries and Archives Canada in Ottawa, the British Museum, the Royal Mint Museum, and other collections of relevant coins and records. The result has been six books on large cents.

I realize such a deep dive is not for everyone. That said, unless someone has done similar research and published it, I know of no better method to obtain deep, factual knowledge of your favorite series.

SimonW

I’m not highly knowledgeable about any part of numismatics, but I know some stuff.

My biggest method to learning is three fold. 1. Forums and groups like this and coin shows (of which I go to very few.) The knowledge passed back and forth is very helpful.
2. Books and other publications. Learn it all! Even the history of the place. It’s very helpful.
3. I start small, get my feet wet cheaply, then I upgrade when I understand more of what I’m doing. My collections grow and mature like a tree. I do not just jump onto a series I don’t understand at the higher levels. Maybe this is the “wrong way” but it has helped me learn then grow. It helps avoid costly mistakes. The mistakes tend to be smaller and easy to learn from.

MEJ7070

I love both US and the “dark side”. Gravitated over to world after years of US only collecting. Frankly expanding the knowledge base was a primary motivator. I had poured myself into US coins for years and found that I’d hit a proverbial wall in my collecting. Delving into world coins has reinvigorated my collecting brain for sure.

Methods for learning have been:

1. Coin “mentor” (long time LCS owner in my area and friend). He’s as good about recommending books as he is coins.

2. Internet/these boards/random independent research

3. Books & auction catalogs

4. I ask a ton of questions and am not really afraid to come off as a newb in areas where I am in fact inexperienced and naive.

5. As @SimonW said, I also like to dip my toes in with modest purchases before I start thinking about cannonballing into the water.

I have a LONG way to go before I’d begin to call myself “knowledgeable” over here, though. In the meantime I’ll have to just let enthusiasm carry me

Definitely very appreciative of what I’ve been able to pick up from these boards.

Namvet69

^^^^Above^^^^^, my peers have articulated my thoughts best. Especially being able to examine a coin in hand, with my loupe. Peace Roy

Sapyx

I don't read books as much as I used to; I guess the Internet has made me lazy. For example, back in the day, I'd buy a new Krause catalogue, and I'd read it - cover to cover. Same when I bought by copies of the Sear Greek and Roman catalogues, and most of my other coin reference books. I certainly didn't memorize it all, but I learned enough to know roughly where I'd need to go looking in that book to identify a particular coin.

This system extends to my Internet "knowledge"; I retain enough to know what I need to type into Google to find what I actually need to know.

Other places I've learned stuff from: my coin clubs. Two of them print journals, with articles written by club members - people who were passionate enough about their field of collecting to write about it, and to speak about it at club meetings.

Coinlover101

One of the reasons that I started the Coin of the Month series is to learn more about world coins that I would otherwise never look at. It's been a fascinating journey so far.

BillJones

My "world coins" are limited to British and ancient imperial Roman. All of that knownedge has been self taught from books, and a little bit from the two world history courses I took in college over 50 years ago. I was an accounting major, and those were free electives.