Is the Numismatist Magazine any good?

Shamika

I'm not an ANA member, but I was wondering if the Numismatist is a good read or if it's just full of dealers adveritising their wares.

CarlWohlforth

I like it. There are lots of ads. I'm not one who needs to read many rags, after all I have the forums. So all I currently subscribe to is the Numismatist.

JrGMan2004

Personally... there's not much in there to interest me... like this last issue... the "Features". . . "Let's Get to Work! A Florida couple receives the ANA's highest recognition." Obviously I care very much for this subject... "The Iowa Quarter: A Lesson in Design. Education and environment shape the future." Wow!! This one sure sounds interesting too!! "An Olympic Challenge. The collector's reward is in the game." Let's measure how many teaspoons of care I have for modern commems... "The Mint at Hall and the 1696 Taler. A handsome piece of Habsburg propaganda." I wonder how much interest a Litesider has in Austrian Coinage... The topic of the cover story is mildly interesting, but doesn't suit my tastes, "The 1964 Peace Dollar: The Mystery Remains. The entire mintage was melted... or was it?" I'm sure it has it's good months and it's bad... but thus far of 2 or 3 issues I've recieved... there's been only 1 or 2 articles I've read through... 1 of them being about Jeremy's charity auction...

So, I guess it just all depends. If you're a type collector or you like to read about all different source of coins, currency, and tokens, the magazine is great!! For me, it's been mildly interesting, but none of the articles have hit topics I've been interested in...

airplanenut

I like it... there are some interesting articles, and they do have nice, glossy images. The editors are really friendly, too

Jeremy

majorbigtime

I think it's a POS with ads geared to the uninitated!!

coinguy89

Well I just joined the ANA, not for that reason, but I hope i'll like it.

nwcs

I believe it is very good.

K6AZ

Come on, there are a lot of good articles in the Numismatist. For example, in this months issue, there is an article about the 1964 Peace Dollar written by David Ganz. There is also a great article on pages 48 and 49.

ursabear

I think it is a good magazine. Sometimes, it is hit-or-miss for me WRT topics, but the articles tend to be well-written and informative.

I don't read the ads anyway, just as I do not do with the tabloid-sized trade mags/papers. They don't bother me and make it more affordable for me to read materials about coins I cannot afford and probably will never hold in my hands.

koynekwest

Hey, JrGMan-that Florida couple mentioned couldn't be the Hagers, could it?

ColonialCoinUnion

I don't care for it.

I find too much I don't have any interest in and just little bits of stuff I even want to read. Just my opinion.

Gemini

If you are a specialist you may find it somewhat dry.
The articles do cover the entire spectrum of Numismatics which is fine by me.

Coinosaurus

If you like reading articles like "Our Friend, The Lincoln Cent", The Numismatist will take care of you

OTOH, if you want up to the minute news and interesting dealer insights, stick to the PCGS boards instead.

darktone

I don't really think it's a fun read so I usually throw it out. mike

ccex

I enjoy the Numismatist. I renewede my ANA membership recently after several years of doubting that they would do anything for consumer protection. The Numismatist seems to be the only publication that accepts anti-ACG advertising. The average advertiser there seems to be at least a half a cut above what I see in the all publications which would not exist without advertising revenue.

I ignore the necessary ads, but am glad they are on average representative of very few scamsters. FYI the Florida couple on the current issue's cover is definitely not the Hagers (who cancelled their ANA membership over a year ago, fearing complaints from other ANA members). The featured couple is Gene and Pat Hyndes, of FUN show fame, who received this year's Farran Zerbe Award for distingushed service.

Yes, the Numismatist's publisher is the same lawyer the ANA selected as Executive Director to cover their a**es, so one should not expect as much controversial news as you'll find on this forum or on R.C.C. Still, I consider the Numismatist among the 30% of mail I receive which is worth reading.

ms70

I like it. I've learned quite a bit about many different series of coins.

Conder101

I feel that it was much better a few years back before they changed the format. The articles back then were more likely to be specialized (Often VERY specialized) and well researched. On the down side, for most people here, the old Numismatist was more heavly into darkside material. But for serious numismatists it was a good magazine. When they changed the format we got slick pages, glossy color pictures, and shorter articles with less depth. They dumped the scholar for a magazine that tries to be more of a general interest rag.

cosmicdebris

The old format sounds much better.

ksteelheader

<< <i>I think it's a POS with ads geared to the uninitated!! >>

majorbigtimeAh, the troll just did a hit and run! Speaking of POS!

mr1931S

ANA changed format of the magazine awhile back.
Content has improved since they did that?
It seems so.

Conder101

As I said, in my opinion the content in the earlier issues was much better than what you get in the current format. It is currently about on a par with Coins Magazine or Coinage. Or Coin World with color pics and glossy paper except the ads just pomote the dealer and don't actually offer coins for sale..

jhar

I like it very much. The articles lend information about subjects I hadn't even thought of. They may not have the information you are specifically interested in, but they can teach you something about numismatics that you didn't know before. That can only be a good thing.

Wondo

It's not bad, kinda like People Magazine of numismatics. Only takes me 15 minutes to go through it.

wingedliberty

I love the magazine. Its a bargain and full of great commentary and history. As far as joining the ANA, I've been a member since the 80's and will continue to be. I approach the ANA as strictly an educational organization. The politics and the illusion of dealer ethical enforcement is absolute nonsense and a smokescreen, the ANA has about as much enforcement ability and respect when it comes to its interpretation of dealer ethics as a middle east peace plan. If you take the bullcrap out of it and look at it as strictly an educational organization, then its worth joining, beyond that, the politics surrounding it are a joke, if my membership card is sponsored by Litteton and the ANA took money from Accugrade, then the ethical side of the ANA has less value to me than a roll of Charmin, again, the educational aspect of the organization and the magazine is priceless!!, beyond that, its a joke!!

Mark

I think Wondo's characterization as the People magazine of numismatics is right on the money. Conder's comment about the change in style is also totally correct. But I think over the past 6 months I detect an agreeable lengthening of the articles, which allows the authors to go into more detail.

In this issue, I thought the 1964 Peace dollar article by David Ganz was good, though Ganz seemed determined to put an "Eva Adams (the then-mint director) lied about this and that" spin in the story. He didn't allow for the possiblity that the mint is a big operation and so Ms. Adams might have been unaware about some points. But, all in all, it was interesting. And the story about the couple who won the Farran Zerbe award was well written (it was written by Barbara Gregory, so I'd expect it to be well written!) and fun to read, perhaps because I like reading about fellow collectors. I haven't yet read the other major stories, but the Iowa Quarter and the Olympic coins artciles look fairly pedestrian whereas the 1696 Thaler story looks intriguing, even for a light-sider.

Mark

P.S.: I also liked the "article" K6AZ (Eric) cited.....

majorbigtime

<< <i>

<< <i>I think it's a POS with ads geared to the uninitated!! >>

majorbigtimeAh, the troll just did a hit and run! Speaking of POS! >>



Oops, like Fonzie, "I was wrrrrrrrrr, wrrrrrrrrr, wrrrrrrrong."

I was mistakenly refering to the news stand magazine "CoinAge" or something like that, not the offical ANA magazine.

Sorry for my faux paux! I didn't mean to come across as a POS.

northcoin

Some issues have an article that I really like. Some issues are not as inspiring. I think it has a lot of potential but misses the boat in general. It is rarely timely as the news is outdated by the time it reaches the subscriber but that is the bane of all monthlies I guess. It could benefit from more participation and contributions from all of us though I sense it has a little bit of an attitude that discourages that by appearing to be a little bit too cliqueish and insider driven.

northcoin

I would also add that The Numismatist had a great opportunity last year to present some of the controversy surrounding the "discovery" of the "lost" nickel that mysteriously appeared as "found" at the ANA Convention. Instead all we got was some piece of pablum spouting the party line and adding nothing new. Laura Sperber of Legend (who handled one of the other nickels) could have provided exciting insights into some of the behind the scene conduct that never made the offical news releases. I would like to see them do an article on the ethics of the auction houses in reselling coins without disclosing information known to them from sale of the same coins in prior auctions. Heritage's recent sale of a half disme that was the subject of a recent thread here as a case in point.

northcoin

Here is a link to the thread regarding Heritage's apparent unethical conduct:
Heritage profits by its failure to disclose

lordmarcovan

Back during my first membership in the 1990's, it used to be very scholarly and a little bit dry. The new format is a lot better. It's a good publication. Still scholarly, but not as dry.

zzzz

I really enjoy the magizine ...
it promotes Education as does the ANA.

I may be wrong but isn't the Numismatist sent to ANA members only, As part of their memberrship?
I don't think you can buy it at Borders Book store.

Doesn't every member sign or as they ask for membership into the ANA agree to their set of ethics when selling coins?

When buying on eBay, or where ever, don't you view that auction a little less cynical when the seller is a life or just plain member of the ANA and says so in his add?

Isn't eBay trying to adopt those ethics when sellers put up auctions now?

I know it's in its infancy and time will tell how that works out but if worked properly it can become a good thing.

Doesn't the ANA put on 2 weeks of classes, to educate the not only newbies in this hobby but many that have been in it for years and "thought" they knew it all, were experts, like a lot of people in these threads?

The Numismatist and the ANA are entwined. So, the way I see it if your a, supposedly, or expert seller and don't like the Numismatist the only infrance I get is your against educating people and would like to keep people in the datk so you can keep on scamming them .. Now that's my opinion.

No teeth ?? Well, the ANS does have venues in place to report abuses of their ethic code ... I've never tuned anyone in so I can't make that generalized statement about no teeth ...

lordmarcovan

<< <i>When buying on eBay, or where ever, don't you view that auction a little less cynical when the seller is a life or just plain member of the ANA and says so in his add? >>


Yes, a little bit.



<< <i>Isn't eBay trying to adopt those ethics when sellers put up auctions now?

I know it's in its infancy and time will tell how that works out but if worked properly it can become a good thing. >>





It may be a drop in a bucket, but I do give eBay credit for trying. A little effort is better than no effort at all.

Conder101

<< <i>The Numismatist and the ANA are entwined. So, the way I see it if your a, supposedly, or expert seller and don't like the Numismatist the only infrance I get is your against educating people and would like to keep people in the datk so you can keep on scamming them .. Now that's my opinion. >>



ZZZZ, you think I'm AGAINST educating people??? My complaint against the Numismatist is that it has become LESS scholarly and less and educational. They have traded intellectual content for slick paper and pretty pictures. Now I agree the new format is probably friendlier to newbies or inexperienced collectors but there were already publications that did a better job of that.

291fifth

I recently renewed my ANA membership after a five year lapse. I think the Numismatist is "ok" but far from great. I'd like to see longer and more detailed articles.

Shamika

Thank you everyone.