THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

cheap ridicule by those who confound it with
the mere aimless bringing together of objects
which have no other merit than their rarity.
But it has repeatedly been proved that skill and
patience are more helpful to success in col-
lecting than length of purse, and it is especially
for those who desire to pursue their amusement
with intelligent economy that this series has been
planned.
The great prizes in the older forms of col-
lecting have long since been won, and though
it may be needful in these handbooks to refer
occasionally to a book, a coin, a postage stamp, or
a particular " state " of an etching or engraving,
of which only a single example exists, the object
of the series will mainly be to describe those
specimens which are still attainable by the
amateurs who will take the pains to hunt them
down.
For this reason, though the series will be
written by experts, it will be written by experts
who have in view, not the visitors to the great
Museums of Europe, but the amateur and col-
lector of moderate means, who is anxious to
specialise in some one or two departments of
his favourite studies, and to whom it is still
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