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    What is a Numismatist?

    Oct 18, 2021 4 minutes
    Mike Thorne, Ph.D.

    This was the title of a topic I found explored in a recent CoinTalk (CT) thread. The original poster (OP) had been accused by a “large coin dealer” of not really being a numismatist. According to the OP, the dealer told him, “You are a collector, not a numismatist.”

    When OP asked for clarification, the response was, “You never made a living selling coins.” Of course, this begs the question of what qualifies a person to refer to themselves as a numismatist. Do you have to be a full-time coin dealer in order to be a numismatist, as this dealer seems to think?

    To defend his standing as a numismatist,

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