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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

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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