The E-Sylum:  Volume 4, Number 43, October 21, 2001, Article 7

WHY ORIGINAL SOURCES ARE THE BEST SOURCES    

  Original documents like the letters just mentioned are the   
  ideal starting points for any research effort, numismatic or   
  otherwise.  Far too many numismatic writers consult previously   
  published works in the field without taking the time to look   
  beyond these secondary materials.  Primary source materials   
  include original historical artifacts and documents created at   
  the time of the events being studied, such as letters, diaries,   
  logbook entries, newspaper and magazine articles, etc.   
  Primary numismatic source materials include the numismatic   
  objects themselves, mint records, legislation, etc.    

  Don't depend on someone else's interpretation of an object.   
  Look at it yourself and draw your own conclusions.  A   
  researcher should always go to the most original source   
  available.    

  "Few people realize how inaccuracies can creep into a   
  printed book.  For example, not until 1960 was there a   
  correct printing of the Articles of Confederation.  In that   
  year, the Old South Association asked Dr. Julian Boyd,   
  a past president of the American Historical Association,   
  to edit their republication of that great document.  For the   
  first time in history, it appears, he went to the original   
  manuscript and found errors which had been made in the   
  first printing, hitherto considered authoritative.  Some were   
  minor; one, at least, was significant." -from "Methods of   
  Research for the Amateur Historian" by Richard W.Hale,   
  Jr., Technical Leaflet 21, Revised Edition, History News,   
  Vol 24, No.9, September 1969, second revision, 1969,   
  published by the American Association for State and Local   
  History.   

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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