Does anyone know where I can get a complete set of photos of every US coin for free? I am working on an iPhone app which requires these photos, but I need to acquire them legally to avoid copyright issues. If there are no royalty free ones out there, I would be willing to pay if necessary (if they aren't too expensive). All I can seem to find are modern coins still in circulation. Just the obverse is good enough, although obverse and reverse would be awesome! Thanks for your help!
Well, the problem with Wikipedia is that it is a wiki site. This means that anyone can post anything they want. It is true that it is all open source, but if someone posts a copyrighted image on Wikipedia, that does not make that image free from copyright law. In other words, taking images off of Wikipedia and using them for commercial purposes can be very dangerous. As for usmint.gov, don't they only have currently circulating coins?
Seriously doubt you'll ever find a complete set, but you find many right here - http://www.coinpage.com
Sweet. I would totally be interested in an iPhone coin app as it would work on iPod touch too. Am I correct?
Great link!! I just emailed the site owner to make sure it would be okay to use the images since this will be for a commercial product. I don't need a photo of ever coin ever minted...just one sample from each coin type...(i.e. one flying eagle, one indian head, etc) It sure will! That's great to hear. I really hope this product can help the community. I think it will make everyone's life much easier. I have another thread open with more details if your'e interested: http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t55206/
Well, the wiki-police are pretty good about getting rid of anything that even whiffs of a copyright infringement. But more importantly, if you click on an image, you can find out the source of the image, the justification of why the poster thought it was appropriate to put it there, and, speficially, whether the image is in the public domain or not Frankly, I can't remember. But I'd check Wiki first.
You know...that's a great point. I'm definitely going to keep Wikipedia in mind if I find I can't locate certain coin types. Thanks for the advice!
You can always make a thread in here -"Wanted - Coin Pics" - and list the ones you need, along with size requirements, background color,etc... I can provide you with any colonial and/or early copper I have, if you go back that far and I know others would also be more than happy to do the same with what they have. Ribbit
GReat idea! I love it and definitely would use an app like that, but I don't have the iphone and as long as my company continues to provide me with a smart phone, I probably will never buy one. Can you make the app to be compatible for windows based phones? or is it easier to do it for the apple phones?
Just letting you know, that just because it states "royalty free" does not mean it's free free. I know about this subject quite well as I deal with it on a weekly basis. I both buy and sell "royalty free" photos. I buy them to use in my art/production designs at work and I upload and sell "royalty free" photos I take in my spare time to stock photo sites. "Royalty free" most of the time means you pay a fee/price one time for the photo and it's yours to use as needed. Of course there are a few sites that really do give away free free "royalty free" photos but they are limited and likely do not have specific photos of older coins. Just needed to clear that up since I'm a photographer in this digital take what ever age.
Another great idea!! Thanks for the advice...I'll definitely keep that open as an option. Unfortunately, the software would have to be completely rewritten to be put on a different OS...but that being said, if the app does well on the iPhone, I would definitely be inclined to port it to other platforms. It would be pretty cool owning the market for portable coin apps of this type! =) You're absolutely right. I didn't word that correctly at all. What I meant to say was FREE royalty free images. I'm actually very familiar with digital copyright law as well (I'm also a photographer and an ex-photoprocessor). I actually did a report on the DMCA a few years ago in graduate school. Its a tricky subject! Do you sell on iStockPhoto.com? I have a few of my photos up there right now. I would love to put more up, but I never seem to find the time.
If you don't mind me asking, what kind of app are you writing? I almost bought this one for my Ipod Touch: http://www.whatsoniphone.com/reviews/icoin But it was too cumbersome for what I needed. An easy to navigate version would be nice for on the go. So far I have found no app better than my handwritten notebook for when I'm traveling. Keep us informed. Guy~
Terrific idea for an app. I agree with the suggestion that any holes you may have in the required photos can be filled by the members here. Many of us enjoy the photography aspect of numismatics and I, for one, would be happy to help you. Just let us know what you need, chances are pretty good that one of us has it. Best of luck!
Wow! This must have just came out. It looks like something very similar to my app, but I can tell just by looking at screenshots and reading the description that it is laid out completely different. For me there are two primary goals...1) ease of navigation. I want things to be as quick and simple as possible without all the extra navigational pages this guy's app has. 2) Fast logging. You will be able to enter data extremely fast. Coin collections can get unbelievably huge, and entering all of your coins into a database can be a veeeery daunting task, so making that process as painless as possible is important for me. As an added bonus, my app will look MUCH nicer than this. I've been a digital artist for years, and my graduate degree had a great deal to do with user interface and social science, so I know how to lay a UI out in an efficient simple way, and make it look pretty at the same time. Thanks for pointing this out! I always need to be up on the competition. Oh, also...my app will be a lot cheaper than $9.99! Yikes! Thanks Doverboy! Keep an eye out. In a few weeks you just may see a new thread pop up asking for several different coin photos. Thanks for all the help everyone! If you guys haven't yet, please pop into my app thread and answer the questions I posted. It would really help out a lot! Coin App Ideas
Yep I sell on istockphoto.com. I've been on there since 2003, which for that site would essentially mean I got in on the ground floor, but graduating school and things after school got in the way. So I've not been able to upload a whole lot like some uploaders. Even though I have literally hundreds of really good photos. It's finding the time. If I had got really big into getting my photos tweaked, uploaded, and accepted, early on, I would be making a killing right now. Or it would just be financing my coins. Right now I have been mostly using it for work stuff. But hopefully now that life has settled down I can upload this huge backlog of photos. You can PM me your istockphoto name so I can take a look at your photos on there and take this off the board if you like since it's a little off topic.
