#5907819 - 08/07/1202:05 PMIs it time for: “Certified Professional Numismatist?”
RWBRWB
FACT if I stop posting, trillions and trillions of transistors would be out of work.
Registered: 01/03/05
Posts: 4501
A recent post about “Certified Professional Photographer” credentials reminded me that many businesses do not have any minimum qualifications to meet before owners hang out their shingle.
The PNG seems to cover those who earn most of their living from buying and selling coins, but what about all the others? To paraphrase the PPof A website:
“The certification program assures the general public that you, as a Certified Professional Numismatist (CPN), are a knowledgeable, quality professional. It’s like quality assurance because certification is a credential consumers and businesses understand. More importantly, it provides you with a tool for telling the world – and all those potential clients – why they should call you rather than the competitor down the street or some fly-by night hotel gold buyer.
“To gain certification, you undergo rigorous testing, which is something consumers understand. • Pass a comprehensive written exam measuring your technical expertise • Successfully pass a hands-on examination covering grading and counterfeit detection • Renew credentials every 5 years with continuing education.”
_________________________
Author of “Renaissance of American Coinage” (NLG Book-of-the-Year 3 years in a row) series and “Guide Book of Peace Dollars,” NLG 2011-Best Software: “Annual Assay Commission, United States Mint, 1800-1943,” and “Silver Dollars Struck under the Pittman Act.” Federal Court-approved numismatic expert. Contributor to the Red Book, Judd Patterns and many other fine numismatic books, discoverer of two gold patterns, and author of numerous coin research articles.
I would like to see that, but I am unsure what the result of such a standard would be with respect to the consumer. Most problems that collectors have with dealers concern a lack of ethics, not a lack of knowledge.
_________________________
Interests: large cents, Draped and Capped Bust coins, foreign coins that circulated in the colonies and early federal U.S., numismatic literature, and historical mint medals. Member: EAC, NBS, JRCS, MCA, TAMS, C4, ANA
If you have a dream about out-posting me, you better wake up and apologize.
Registered: 12/23/04
Posts: 2960
Loc: East Coast
I like the idea.
Five years is too long to re-certify I think, two or three years sounds better.
As your level of knowledge grows, adding some ANA Summer Seminars, attendance at a certain number of coin shows, research work, and possible work in a BM should be part of it.
Let's start up an online course.
_________________________ Enjoy Your Coins.
It is sometimes difficult, even for professionals, to appreciate the restrictions to which art must conform when intended for coinage. Don Taxay, 1967.
#5908152 - 08/07/1204:35 PMRe: Is it time for: “Certified Professional Numismatist?”
[Re: leeg]
RWBRWB
FACT if I stop posting, trillions and trillions of transistors would be out of work.
Registered: 01/03/05
Posts: 4501
It’s only a way of letting consumers know that people with a certificate possess a certain minimum amount of knowledge about coins.
Maybe there would be categories for US, foreign, ancient, medieval, medals…? Just wondering if this might help both collectors and part-time dealers.
_________________________
Author of “Renaissance of American Coinage” (NLG Book-of-the-Year 3 years in a row) series and “Guide Book of Peace Dollars,” NLG 2011-Best Software: “Annual Assay Commission, United States Mint, 1800-1943,” and “Silver Dollars Struck under the Pittman Act.” Federal Court-approved numismatic expert. Contributor to the Red Book, Judd Patterns and many other fine numismatic books, discoverer of two gold patterns, and author of numerous coin research articles.
#5908468 - 08/07/1206:42 PMRe: Is it time for: “Certified Professional Numismatist?”
[Re: mtnstyne]
RWBRWB
FACT if I stop posting, trillions and trillions of transistors would be out of work.
Registered: 01/03/05
Posts: 4501
..a "coin doctor" certificate?
_________________________
Author of “Renaissance of American Coinage” (NLG Book-of-the-Year 3 years in a row) series and “Guide Book of Peace Dollars,” NLG 2011-Best Software: “Annual Assay Commission, United States Mint, 1800-1943,” and “Silver Dollars Struck under the Pittman Act.” Federal Court-approved numismatic expert. Contributor to the Red Book, Judd Patterns and many other fine numismatic books, discoverer of two gold patterns, and author of numerous coin research articles.
#5908645 - 08/07/1207:39 PMRe: Is it time for: “Certified Professional Numismatist?”
[Re: RWB]
johncurlisjohncurlis
If you have a dream about out-posting me, you better wake up and apologize.
Registered: 03/31/11
Posts: 2588
In the sprit of brainstorming a new approach, might it be helpful to add an insurance requirement that protects the consumer in the event that the CPN isn't? A
Registered: 02/02/02
Posts: 5000
Loc: East central Indiana
At one time the ANA had something along these lines. Correspondence courses where you could earn diplomas in different fields. I would expect the CPN to be more rigorous though.
_________________________
-------
Slab collector and researcher
reported as of 2/5/06
150 companies 331 production varieties
Registered: 01/28/02
Posts: 5681
Loc: Western Washington
Certification for anything or licensing for that matter has always been a liability issue, mainly to provide some protection for professionals to obtain insurance against liability from lawsuits. For example, I have been a Certified Manufacturing Engineer (CMfgEng) and an MBA for many years for my work. However, I doubt that this is the intention of this certification. I would believe that it is more for knowledge insurance than for liability.
Giving coin dealers a course and certifying them somehow seems to me like getting an MBA in Business, or a Financial Planning License. There are many of these professionals who never take an ethics course in their life and having the piece of paper is only pertinent to their skills, not their ethics. Many of them have no ethics to speak of.
Maybe if coin dealers had to be bonded or carry some liability insurance in order to be certified then certification would mean something? My mother had a fairly large sum of money swindled from her by a Registered Securities Broker with a Financial Planning Certification in Florida. Neither that piece of certification paper nor the license protected her in any way from being old and having Alzheimer's which set her up to be swindled, despite this salesman being licensed and a CFP in a very large brokerage firm! Just saying.
#5909424 - 08/08/1202:03 AMRe: Is it time for: “Certified Professional Numismatist?”
[Re: RWB]
WoodenJeffersonWoodenJefferson I have nothing to add or subtract, I am merely here.
TOTAL NEWBIE
Registered: 12/08/06
Posts: 12940
Loc: In the minds of many
Companies that do not require certifications because there are no regulations to meet, usually advertize the combined years of service in their particular field. I like the idea of some sort of certifications, course right now it would be voluntary for the grading services, but could be grandfathered in with new hires.
