Hello!

Metal detectorists, hated by some loved by others, its a debate I'm no longer interested in getting into. Certainly interesting people to buy from as often they are a cheap source of decent coins and knowing where your coins were found is always nice.

Welcome to the hobby and the forum.

Pretty much repeating what others have said but when you're starting try to read as much as you can, no need for expensive books right now, the internet is full of good reading. The expensive books can come later.

The hobby is huge, its a lifetime thing, don't expect to know 'everything' any time soon, truth is nobody knows everything.

I'd say just buy what you like for a while, ancients come in all budgets from $1 to £100,000. After a while you will be drawn to a civilisation, or Emperor, or area of time etc that really interests you, this is how most people start, pretty much everyone specialises eventually. If you want to spend big early on ask for help here, others will help you.

There are no stupid questions, we all started at one point and nobody on here looks down their nose at others, most of all enjoy it, its great fun if you do it right