Would any of you be interested in...

spoon

...helping to create an online numismatic catalog?

Thought I'd bring this up after the longing for a digital Krause in the other thread. Of course, what we make wouldn't have the pricing info that Krause does, but for IDs, info and background it can offer more than Krause.

I'm thinking of something in a wiki format (see Wikipedia as an example). Though I'd really like for it to have more community oriented features rather than being a simple information repository. Plus, since there is the potential for abuse by immoral dealers and such it would probably have to be invitation only to become an editor.

I bought www.numispedia.com/net/org months ago and have 2GB of web space and planned to start this, but haven't done much with it yet. Is anyone interested? Do we have any webmasters interested in brainstorming on this project? Comments and suggestions welcome from all. What would you like such a website to have?

tbirde56

I'd be interested but not sure how much time I could contribute.

Compa

Sounds like quite a project! Thousands and thousands of photos to be done - I wonder if the Krause numbering system itself is copyrighted. You would certainly want to apply that standard to any such project. I think they might object to its use in any such project that would be competitive to their publishing efforts.

All that said, I'm available for such a project ... but it truly is a huge one!

theboz11

With all the member that are here with pictures in their upload area, PCGS already has a hugh catalog. All you need to do is get access from them for ALL the pictures, and start there.

cladking

I've probably gotten too far out of the loop to be much help editing
but would always be interested in seeing such a listing. Many world
coins trade on ebay enough nowdays that some pricing could be derived
from that source.

Cruzi

Would be interested in trying to help in whatever way I can.

spoon

Right now my biggest obstacle is server space. The coding and all that can be knocked out in a few weeks/months (on top of my day job). But any site so dependent on pictures is bound to need loads of space.. I'm too broke to put down for a dedicated server! (If anyone is interested in partnering, though? PM me.)

Getting a lot of nice pics should be a breeze. I'm sure more than a few dealers would be willing to grant us their material (with photo credits it could help them!) and, as mentioned, CU members have a lot of coins and a lot of nice pics (of course, all pics would have to be obtained through permission of the owners)

For ordering and structure, I think it would be best to use a simple geo/political outline: Germany > Wurttemburg > Wilhelm I (1816-1864) or Great Britain > Victoria (1837-1901). That way it can handle most of the oddities, and expand into paper and medals more easily. With the wiki system browsing would be a cinch: everything is interconnected and can be arrived at through multiple categorization schemes (geo/political, historic events (shout out to Vern and Askari!), themes (animals, ships), etc).

Editing surely wouldn't be a full time job. Just something for those interested. With dozens of editors putting in a few minutes here and there when they have the time or interest it can grow quite fast. Plus, each entry doesn't have to be done in its entirety in one sitting. You might post a picture and basic data (date range, mint marks, etc) one day and then someone else can fill in more later. You don't even have to contribute images to help. If you can fill in details on a certain coin or think a glossary term is needed or know interesting historic background of a coin.. that's enough!

I'll be going ahead with this on my current server. Will probably be a while before I have substance but will provide updates along the way.

In the meantime please do keep the good ideas flowing!

spoon

I'm not sure on the specifics of how KM #s are copyrighted (this is another area to research before we can get too far!), but it would seem to me that it is fair use material now? As mentioned in the last post, that wouldn't be the basis of the system.. there's just too much they leave out. (I really like medieval stuff and would hate to drop that from the site!) But catalog numbers would be an essential part of each coin entry, and not just Krause #s. I think each entry should probably be titled after the issuer, denom and date range.. that can get clunky on a case by case basis so rules for shortening and making them unique would be needed for some, but it's not such a problem. From the multiple listings anyone should be able to find what they need.

What do you think?

spoon

OK, got the software up and running.. now the long and boring part of writing the FAQs and getting it jump started.

http://www.numispedia.com/en/Main_Page

Compa

The wiki format should work quite well. It seems to be flexible enough to support most anything!

I think the most important thing to deal with at this stage is how the whole thing will be laid out and what you want to present. What standards to use will be very important to establish now, before anyone inputs the first item. (to save going back and changing it all) Something such as size of a coin - do you plan on stating sizes in mm or inches (size is one detail that is hard to find stated anywhere on many coins) - do you plan on any sort of photo at actual size - how (if possible) will that be presented considering differing screen resolutions?

Standardization of photo sizes? - is color needed? - could save huge amount of bandwidth and storage to use grayscale
Level of compression for jpegs (good details or low bandwidth (quick to dload)?
Date ranges for coin issues - variation in date ranges by mint (happens a lot with 19th century Mexican issues)
Weight - Composition - etc.

Just how technical do you want the presentation vs. a friendly collection of pretty pictures and interesting stories.

ColinCMR

I would love to help in any way possible too.
Plus I'll have bucket loads of free time between late June and September to play numismatics.

Better maps would also be a great asset, or linking to other map sites.
Especially for historical borders, island/city names and locations and seeing where these things circulated.
For a while now i've been thinking of compiling maps for numismatic use. Especially for ancient mint locations and borders.

spoon

Right now I'm working on the catalog structure. I'm using the Category namespace to organize things first. The basic scheme will be that all coins must fall under a geo-political category. Each coin entry will use the name format of [location name (as per Category namespace)], [denom], [unique date range and/or title].

Each individual coin entry should have these basic blocks of info up front:

Date range: From-To, plus native calendar dates and, if used, regnal year
Composition: if AG/AU/etc, also give purity
Weight: in grams, and ASW/AGW/etc
Diameter: in mm
Obverse: Legends in native language/script and translation and description of images. This should be brief as it can be expanded on below.
Reverse: same
Edge: smooth/reeded/etc and describe and designs or text
References: KM and other major catalog references

A thumbnail image will be needed at the top of the entry. I'd like to have grading sets of images down to VF, but that almost seems a luxury bandwidth can't afford. If I do go with that, images will come on a seperate page from the initial entry (in MediaWiki you can have "Article_Name/Extra_article"). Otherwise we could go with full size, then basic data, then.... I think on the web having color pics is a necessity. People would get bored with greyscale. There will be a limit on size though: no more than 375px square for each side and no less than 250 (combined, single image of 750x375, just about the size of a 17" monitor.. but that's not counting the nav bar at left!). Still need to iron this stuff out.. but priority is the text side of things. Considering if I need to add a watermarking hack to the wiki. Right now though I'm not fully up on MW's image processing capabilities.. might need to make a few extra tweaks.

Back to the data.. I figure it would be best to use one entry per TYPE. That means where Krause says xx.2 we'll just say xx and clarify varieties in the entry. If a major variety, it can go as a sub section (Article_Name/Extra_article) linked from the common type. Mintages will also go on a sub-page, if anyone is ever brave enough to type out all the dates, mints and mintages. Otherwise differences in dates between mints can be clarified in the bottom section of the main entry page.

Also, at the bottom, a list of themes/events/etc should be included (kinda like Amazon does, but more like: Events: Napoleonic Wars; Themes: Ships), keywords for searching, and links to proper Categories too.

I also want a glossary of numismatic terms; things on grading, storage, etc; engraver bios, famous numismatists, mint histories, economic history, historic maps.. pretty much everything possible on the subject! Really basic stuff on history can be outsourced with a link to Wikipedia.

I think I left a few things out..?

spoon

Excellent idea Colin! In fact, that's one of the things I'm really interested in myself and will definitely be including. I have a few colonial maps going back a while, but any scanned donations when the time comes will be very much welcome!!

Shipcoin

Hi Eric, great idea

I think that great guy already did his contribution!



Don's World Coin Gallery

Numismatics

This sounds very great.
I would be happy to help in any way possible.

spoon

Thanks again for all the support!!

For the next few weeks I'll probably be abusing the system to see if it breaks.. what works, what doesn't. Please do keep the ideas flowing on structure you'd like to see of it. I can still use help in this unglamorous stage. But I'll probably be calling on you guys again in a few weeks once the groundwork has been laid, to start the project up in earnest. I don't want this to be MY website, rather a collaborative tool for all collectors. But for now I'll spare you the boring stuff

Thanks again!