Your taste runs to rare and ancient, except when it comes to beef. When it comes to coins, if they're both rare and semi-ancient (the fabled 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar is your dream collectible) or ancient, you're happy.
But how do you find an ancient coin dealer and a rare coin dealer? Ancient or old coins aren't necessarily rare, especially if there are replicas floating around. Rare US coins aren't necessarily ancient. What do you do?
You want, for example, to get your hands on an ancient and rare Gaelic coin, such as the Robert III 1st Issue Heavy Groat, 1390-03 with the Fleur-de-Lis. Do you just hit all the ancient and rare coin dealers in the phone book? Is finding coin dealers for these types of coins going to be a nightmare? Not necessarily.
When looking at a list of rare coin dealers and ancient coin dealers, decide if you want Gaelic, Greek or Old German--that's Saxon or Teutonic to you, or Bavarian. Do an Internet search for "Gaelic coin dealers" or "Gaelic coin dealers in London, Ontario" or "rare coin dealers in Maryland."
A hot well-done tip for collectors: make sure your rare coin dealer is authorized by one or more of the major coin authentication and certification services. You can buy from a rare coin dealer that's not on the list, but you never know what you're going to get--like dining at your mother-in-law's house when she serves week-old steak.
An ancient coin dealer that you like and trust is rare and valuable. Treasure that like an exquisite rare prime rib...or haggis, if you've completely gone Gaelic.
