What's new in ancient coin collecting?

The coins that are the subject of these Notes are often thousands of years old, so it is perhaps not surprising that much is unchanged in the world of ancient coin collecting over the last 120 years. For example - ancient coins that can be collected are vast and cover many peoples and time periods. In a book published by Spink in 1903, Francesco Gnecchi writes to those new to ancient coin collecting:

"Among a hundred individuals who begin to collect one can count on ninety at least setting to work on a general collection, and that because nearly all are ignorant of the vastness of the material before them."
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

Nevertheless, I am surprised by how relevant some of the comments are considering it is 120 years old e.g. on the restful nature of collecting ancient coins:

When, tired of work, weary of society, worried by business, the collector withdraws into his own room; he finds there the most pleasant rest in his favourite occupation which he prefers to idleness. Never is the collector short of employment, to whatever kind of collection he may be given.
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

While other notes sound remarkably obsolete on topics that are more reflective of society than coins:

He who is not a collector in his youth will repent in his old age. Just as the unmarried man feels in his old age the want of a good wife who renders him in the last days of his life the comfort of affection and of old memories, so he who was not a collector in his youth cannot experience in his old age the satisfaction of reviving the memories of a life-time among these old and faithful friends, or of having this infinite and unspeakable comfort to accompany him even to the extreme limit of his life. And in this also the collector has the advantage over the married man whose wife may die before he does, whilst the collection always survives the collector.
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

Although there may still be more men collecting ancient coins than women, many great collectors, numismatists and authors are women. Looking at just a few of the books that I keep close at hand: Catherine Lorber, Margaret Thompson, Katerini Liampi, Elvira Clain-Stefanelli, Jane DeRose Evans, Lucia Carbone, Barbara Burrell, Sylvia Hurter, Liv Yarrow and more...

Obsession with grading is not new, as shown by this sentence from Chapter 3:

The first collectors did not lay much stress on the state of preservation of their specimens, to which in the present day very great, and I might say excessive importance, is attached.
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

Advice on value and rarity is equally sound:

Rarity and Value are two entirely distinct qualifications which should not be confounded. Rarity is one of the principal elements which go to form the value, but it is not the only one nor a guide always to be relied on, since a coin may be most rare and yet be valued in the market at less than a common coin. Many other elements intrinsic and extrinsic go to form the value of a coin.
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

The practice of gluing accession numbers on coins seems to have passed, but must have once been common enough that it required mentioning in the book (not acceptable then or now). This practice can be illustrated with this coin bearing an old accession number #1331 or #1381? This is one of the few coins where the glued on accession number may actually make the coin more valuable.

Roman Imperial, Constantius II, as Caesar (324-337 AD), Thessalonica mint, AE 18mm, 2.22g

Obv: FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C, pearl-diademed and cuirassed bust right.

Rev: GLORIA EXERCITVS, two soldiers, holding spears, standing front, heads turned inward, hand on shield, two standards between them; SMTSΓ in exergue.

Ref: RIC 185; LRBC 836.

Every coin placed in a cabinet ought to have its own number, as for instance on the accession list of a library, and as for this number, it should not be written on the coin itself, but on a small round card placed under the coin.
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

On the topic of deceptive fake coins, the book again seems very up to date:

"It is absolutely impossible to give strict rules by which to recognise forged or falsified coins. Nothing but the experience of long practice confirmed by some mistakes, paid for in good money, can enable one to attain by degrees the eye of an expert, which without much reasoning recognises by intuition the authenticity or falseness of a coin."
-Roman Coins, Elementary Manual by Francesco Gnecchi, translated by Alfred Watson Hands

Although 19th century society may have been very different than the 21st century, a beginner's guide to ancient coins written today would share much of the advice of 120 years ago. The answer to the title question - for the basics of ancient coin collecting, not much is new.

Note: opening image is from Numismata Antiqua, collected and edited at Verona by Jacopo Marchese Muselli (1697-1768) published in 1751.