WHY COLLECT NUMISMATIC LITERATURE? Público Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 45, November 7, 2004, Article 15
WHY COLLECT NUMISMATIC LITERATURE?
Steve D'Ippolito writes: "I second Dick Johnson--the main
reason to collect numismatic literature is in essence the
content of the literature. I have in my possession a CD-ROM
of the Corpus of the Grand Duke Georgii Mikhailovich. An
original copy of this multi-volume work, which came out
over a period of decades just before the 1917 revolution,
will set you back at least $10K. The subsequent French
reprint is still well into four figures; the abbreviated French
reprint (without the invaluable reference material--hundreds
of pages for each reign of Emperor or Empress) set me back
$200 when I bought it--years before the CD-ROM came out.
I now have access to all that reference material in JPEG format
and I now doubt I would buy the original even if I had the
money. Without the CD ROM, I don't think I could make that
statement. (I have been known to drop $500 on a single book
when I had to, more in line with my budget, and establishing the
principle that I will pay big bucks (by my standards) for the
information if I have to.) Now if only I were fluent enough in
Russian to read the reference material...."- 2004-11-07
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