Coin Collecting -- Not Just the Hobby of Kings Any More Says Ancient Coin Collectors Guild

GAINESVILLE, Mo., March 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Coin collecting, once the hobby of kings, has now become democratic. Although many collectors acquire and study coins of their own country, ancient coins are collected by people from all nations and from all walks of life.  From American school children in classroom projects to Middle Eastern oil-rich Sheiks, these coins appeal to all sorts of people. A child can still buy a genuine ancient coin for the price of a candy bar, although the Sheik might pay a "king's ransom" for another one. Being such a democratic hobby, it also attracts people from all professions who bring their varied skills to the subject. Many of them further our knowledge of the past by writing about the coins that they love—all of them advancing the subject in their own special way.

David Hendin is a perfect example: His primary professions were medical journalist, newspaper columnist, publishing executive, and author. Yet, he is also an internationally recognized authority on Biblical and ancient Jewish coins. His landmark "Guide to Biblical Coins" is now in its 4th edition.

Then there is the late Henry Clay Lindgren, emeritus professor of psychology at San Francisco State University.  He is well known to the collecting and academic world as author of "Ancient Bronze Coins of Asia Minor and the Levant from the Lindgren Collection".

Many collectors have made great contributions to the study of coins over the years. Some of them have even brought their skills to new disciplines. It was a paper company executive in England, Sir John Evans, whose collecting of Celtic coins led to him being one of the most important founders of modern archaeology.  Sir William Flinders Petrie, who collected ancient coins as a young man in London, became the greatest Egyptologist of all time.

Today, some archaeologists know so little about ancient coins that they see their only function as a means to date an archaeological site.  These misguided academics lobby against private collecting and support overreaching regulation of the hobby and trade. None of them have significantly enriched our understanding of the past through ancient coins and some have gone so far as to condemn the efforts of private scholars.  Fortunately, coin collecting is still a democratic activity and not a cloistered and sequestered exercise. 

Contact: Wayne G. Sayles, 417-679-2142, [email protected], www.accg.us  

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SOURCE Ancient Coin Collectors Guild