I'm fairly certain that a fair number of club members have computers at home and use them for numismatic purposes. Although I use a computer 8-10 hours a day at work, I do find that having one at home where I can indulge in relaxation focused on coins is tremendously enjoyable. I believe that a computer and network are inextricably intertwined so I will generically use the term "Internet" to mean your computer and Internet connection. When I look at how I use the Internet with regard to my coin collecting I can break it up into the following categories:

Of all the activities related to coins, coin purchasing is one thing that is made incredibly simple on the internet. Many dealers have website (a website is an set of electronic pages that represent a virtual store or catalog). Depending on the level of time and energy a dealer puts into this website, you may have access to his entire inventory as well as digital images of the coins in stock, For my particular area of interest, ancient Roman coins, buying coins without seeing an image is extremely difficult and frustrating. If you want to spend a lazy evening, tune into any of the major search engine, Yahoo, Lycos, Infoseek or Hotbot and type in "coins" and visit the thousands of place it turns up with reference to coins.

As for selling coins, the Internet may act as a faster conduit for discussions with dealers (e.g. you send images and discuss electronically), or, you can sell them yourself on various electronic auction websites. The most widely known general purpose auction site is Ebay which attracts millions of online bidders and sellers. It is extremely important to note that Ebay is NOT an auction house but they are merely an intermediary who connects buyers and sellers. The distinction is crucial because auction houses tend to have strict rules about authenticity, bidder mid buyer credibility, etc. 

My own observation is that online auctions are a previously unavailable venue whereby items with a value less than $100 which you would never invest the money to sell in traditional classilied ads, can now be sold with fairly low selling expenses.

Without a doubt the computer can be the ultimate in coin cataloging for a collector. Tens of programs are available that do coin cataloging in a database. fashion such that they will generate "collection' reports in many different ways. Moreover, given how scanner prices are incredibly cheap compared to just a few years ago, you can build extraordinarily detailed coin catalogs of your own collection. The truism holds that the results you get out will be commensurate with the energy you put in. Doing detailed attribution grading. imaging and appropriate organizing can he extremely time consuming. Although, spending lots of time with your coins oh…. that is the sort of punishment we all need!!

Information Seeking 

Information seeking is somewhat of a broad category but depending on your level of interest in coins, you can find amazing resources online. The most simplest thing everyone should do immediately is tune into the online bookstores (amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com) and do a search on the subject of interest. Amazingly they have over 30 books related to Roman Coins! 

Truthfully speaking, the Internet is pathetic in the organization of information. I liken it to spilling an entire library card catalog on the floor, burn 1/3 of it, hide 1/3 of it and fiercely mix the remainder. If you have the time and ergs to burn, you can blaze a trail and organize numismatically related information for others. If you prefer the easy route, tune into the websites of these trailblazers. If you are interested in a career or graduate study area in "knowledge theory" please pursue this immediately. We can use it!

Since the Internet is a powerful vehicle for many to any communication, sharing the enthusiasm is almost a natural offshoot. You can view the news-groups such as rec.collecting.coins, join mailing lists such as NUMISM-L, create your own lists via a place like http://www.egroups.com, or participate in the infinite number of chat rooms out there. 

Just recently Kent Woodson (a fellow Raleigh Coin Club member) and myself (Paul Landsberg) have started an electronic mailing list under the name NC_ANCIENTS for North Carolina collectors interested in ancients coins. If you are interested in joining this mailing list, please send email to: 

nc_ancients-subscribe@egroups.com

Note that we have even gone a step further than the mailing list and are informally meeting (sports bars, etc.) in the Triad area to share our enthusiasm for ancient coins! Anyone interested in talking about ancient coins is welcome to join us

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