Interesting Dream

WACoinGuy

I had a dream last night that I was teaching a college course about coins. That got me thinking, what would a college course on coins look like? What would you put in the curriculum if you were teaching a course on coins? Would you focus more heavily on the art, history, or collecting aspects of coins? And what would your tests look like?

I wonder if there are any colleges out there that already have a class on coins...

pharmer

I vaguely remember someone taking courses or even getting a degree, somewhat self-directed, at a midwestern school, for some reason Northwestern comes to mind. I'm thinking of taking the ANA courses in Colo Springs this summer, I believe they focus on grading, counterfeit detection, the minting process, but not sure. I bet Lane would know.

Hedger

All those coins would be going toward your tuition. Kiss 'em goodbye.

ebaytrader

Don Kagin has a doctorate in numismatics. Ask him about it.

WACoinGuy

So there are full degrees in numismatics? I guess I was thinking more of an introductory class, but if there's full degrees there must be introductory classes.

BTW, I wasn't a very good professor in my dream -- I didn't have the course content figured out before the class and was pretty random during it. And for some reason I was sitting in the back of the class instead of the front. Don't know what that signifies...

MAD4MORGANS

Dear Mr. Kagin and Mr. Kern,

Please forgive my previous post here. Sometimes I put my foot or head up somewhere I shouldn't and if there was any offense taken in my previous feeble attemp at "wit"...I apologize.

Altough you speak of formal accreditation for degree seeking numismaticists, even organizing an informal curriculum (even basic) would be a great help to us fledglings wandering around here in the woods learning "the hard way" like you have. Personally, I wouldn't mind taking some kind of Technical Correspondence Course concerning numismatics. I wouldn't even care if the person who developed this had a formal degree as numismatics is a very technical field. The knowledge obtained would be the reward.

There may be some sort of market with us "newbies" who "attend" forum here in the numismatic field. Perhaps you could take the lead and organize such an endeavor and maybe it could develop itself into something bigger down the road.

Conder101

Don Kagin and Jonathan Kern both have degrees in Numismatics. In both cases their degrees were the result of self directed studies. There are no coleges offering degrees in numismatics. From time to time a college will offer a class in numismatics but nothing based on a formal degree. A little over a year ago Lane taught such a class at, I believe, the University of Texas. I believe the class only lasted a few days.

MAD4MORGANS

airplanenut

<< <i>I vaguely remember someone taking courses or even getting a degree, somewhat self-directed, at a midwestern school, for some reason Northwestern comes to mind. I'm thinking of taking the ANA courses in Colo Springs this summer, I believe they focus on grading, counterfeit detection, the minting process, but not sure. I bet Lane would know. >>

There are classes in those areas, but also type coins, gold coins, colonial-era coins, paper money, the USS Central America and more... there are LOT of classes to choose from, and it's a fantastic experience. When you're not taking a class, you are talking with people about coins, and you can always pop into a bull session to learn even more... what a great experience!

Jeremy