The Confessions of a Collector

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI The Question of Condition considered More at Large-- How One most Forcibly Realises Its Importance and Value--Limited Survival of Ancient Coins in Fine State--Practical Tests at Home and Abroad --Lower Standard in Public Institutions and the Cause--Only Three Collectors on My Lines besides Myself--The Romance of the Shepherd Sale --Its Confirmation of My Views--Small Proportion of Genuine Amateurs in the Coin-Market-- Fastidious Buyers not very Serviceable to the Trade --An Anecdote by the Way--The Eye for State more Educated in England than Abroad--American Feeling and Culture--What will Rare Old Coins bring, when the Knowledge of Them is more developed?--The Ladies stop the Way--Continental Indifference to Condition -- Difficulties attendant on Ordering from Foreign Catalogues--Contrast between Them and Our Own--D'une Beauti Excessive--Condition a Relative Term--Its Dependence on Circumstances--Words of Counsel-- Final Conclusions--Do I regret having become a Collector ?--My Mistakes. Condition, with the majority of coin-collectors, does not rule at all. A man wants a particular piece for the sake of study or of possession; and so long as the type is there, he is satisfied. That is the general religion of amateurs. With a second section this quality becomes a merit; if the coin is a good one, so much the better, if it is not too dear. With halfa-dozen perchance in each generation, if with so many, the state is a postulate; the purchaser of the item depends on that above everything else; and the price is secondary. I have known very few persons in my time, who seemed thoroughly to understand what a fine coin was. It is not sufficient that it is well-preserved or even fleur de coin; for it may have been badly struck, or it...