W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

62 The Coins of Europe
cabinets, where the plan
is I, general; 2, special; or 3,
representative. We cannot, perhaps, urge too emphatically,
when the initiatory stage has been passed, and the amateur
begins to enter seriously on his undertaking, the impolicy
of casting his net too wide, unless it is the case that he
proposes to study, not completeness,
but condition alone.
An assemblage of coins, all
highly preserved, may
well be
rather promiscuous in their character, and may probably
leave very few places unrepresented ;
and yet the aggregate
will not be excessive. After an experience of many years,
the actual discovery and conclusion are, that of the entire
mass submitted to our inspection and judgment, an excessively
slender percentage reaches a fastidious standard.
When the governing motive is special, either from the
standpoint of archaeological inquiry or of ordinary curiosity,
it becomes difficult to exercise the selecting process with
any severity. A student or collector on these lines lays
down for his guidance the law that it is absolutely requisite
to secure every existing specimen of the coinage of some
given country, prince, or line of princes ; or again, to bring
together in one focus all recoverable pieces presenting a
particular type or legend, not excluding such as bear
illiterate or erroneous inscriptions, mules and contrefa$on$.
It is a class of enterprise on which it is
hardly our province
to offer an opinion and there is no doubt that the
; judicious
comparison of differentiated coins side by side has often led
to useful results.
The collection formed on a representative basis may or
may not embrace an adherence to a high standard of
preservation in each instance ;
but it is under any circumstances
that of an amateur. The owner is a person who
acquires only what pleases or suits him. He does not
expend his resources in purchasing items because he sees
them in the hands of his friends, or desires to forestall his
friends in the possession. If he does not know that the
largest public museums of all countries have desiderata, he
finds in due course that the acquisition of certain rarities^ is
either an impossibility or a matter of onerous outlay. By