Mr. Rangnath What is your Formal Qualification

[shariqkhan]

Mr. Rangnath
What is your formal educatonal qualifications(I mean Are you a Historian etc)? Do you have any formal qualification in Numismatics and also please tell me how long since you are collecting coins.
from
Shariq Khan

[Rangnath]

Thank you for asking Shariq.
I think that the answer is going to disappoint you, but I will be as honest as I can.
I began to collect coins in 1956; American pennies, nickles, dimes and so forth.  My father would kindly bring home rolls of coins from the bank and I would go through them on the floor in efforts to create collections.  I still have them. 
I stopped collecting when I entered college in 1963. While I loved history, my major pursuit was experimental psychology.
In 1967, I began a two year tour in Bhopal, India in American Peace Corps. I worked with chickens and their farmers and of course I fell in love with your country.
I also loved to travel.  In 1974 through 1975, I "backpacked" around the world. Wherever I traveled, I would gather and save coins and they became the nucleus of a future collection.  I have lived and worked in other countries as well; their coinage was included in the uncatalogued collection of coins.
I returned to University for two more BA degrees (Art and Education) with a minor in history.  My Masters degrees were in Education (where I was fortunate to study Art History of India and South East Asia) and Fine Arts (my major was in design, my medium was water colors). 
My professional life was as an art teacher in our public school systems in the states of Maryland and Oregon. 
A year ago, I renewed my interest in coin collecting.  I became a trader and with the help of collectors in several countries, I developed a world coin collection. 
However, I found that my passion for history and for India directed me to collecting coins from your "neck of the woods".  I am, very slowly, attempting to read Arabic on coins.  Reading Nagari script is easier.  I had learned some Hindi when I lived in India.
Well, there you have it.  I have no qualifications in numismatics! I have a deep appreciation for the religions, cultures, history and languages of what I refer to as the Indian subcontinent.  I have an avid passion for learning.
And, what about you?
richie

[Figleaf]

I have met all kinds of people involved in numismatics, with or without formal numismatic qualifications. I have met a large dealer trained as a historian who's great and an academically trained employee of a large trading house, whose only goal in life is grabbing money. I met a director of a coin cabinet who was uninterested in anything dated after 1499 and one who took the time to teach people stuff about current coins. I met a collector who probably has little if any training at all who's a real expert in coins of the middle ages and the wife of a professional dealer who was interested only in possessing large gold pieces, without knowing anything about them.

I think what counts is a love of coins as they are: little artsy bombastic propagandistic utilitarian witnesses of other times and cultures.

Peter

[Prosit]

Personally I have no training in numismatics.  I have a University degree from the math dept. in Hydrology and Water Resources.  I have 40+ years experience in collecting coins and a keen interest in history.  I prefer the history of the day to day and not the history of the great, near great or of pivitol events.  In general, I prefer to collect in areas of little interest to others such as modern Austrian tokens  however I don't exclude popular collecting interests entirely.

I have opinions, many incorrect which is why I like this forum, someone can show me the error of my ways and such corrections I treasure and need 

Dale

[shariqkhan]

Great Response Guys,
I can say that I am also like .