This post is to be sure those who might care are aware of an in-progress resource on ancient coins called Coin Project. At present CP has a bit over 50,000 coins but some are duplicates. Some areas are rather well represented while others are not. Coins are uploaded by volunteers either from their own collections or from cooperating dealers (like CNG). After upload, entries are reviewed by a specialist (also a volunteer if you would like to help) in that specialty and 'Verified' if the data is found to be correct. It is not allowed for the same person to upload and verify so many of my coins have not been verified since they don't have multiple volunteers in all the areas of my interest. Users can see unverified coins and search to find results as needed or just browse by ruler. Rather than give the home link, I'll give the one to coins I have submitted. I have tried to submit coins that are not common or that were not in their database but many of the larger submitters have posted everything so it is possible to find photos of several examples of some coins especially if they are the sort of thing CNG class dealers sell. http://www.coinproject.com/submitter_list.php?criteria=dougsmit Photos are generally pretty good and most coins have RIC or other major reference data. There is rarely any comment offered about what makes the coin interesting but this varies according to who uploaded the coin and whether the coin has a tale to tell. The Coin Project hopes to become 'complete' but this will take decades. It has certain advantages over Wildwinds and AC Search but also has some shortcomings. The management would like to have more specialist volunteers sign up to handle certain sections (I'd like someone to volunteer to verify my Septimius and Anonymous Pagan coins). The also would appreciate cash donations toward programming and bandwidth costs but it is not necessary to pay to join or to join to see the coins. Give it a look and see if there is anything there that might help you in your collecting.
I have this bookmarked, but I seem to seldom use this as a resource. However, when I'm in a fix, I will check it out along with some others I seldom use.
Thanks for posting this site -- its breadth of coins is pretty extensive. I hadn't realized it existed. Is "verifying" a coin as simple as someone other than the original poster checking the posted information for accuracy? Or does the person doing the verification need to be someone previously screened and/or qualified in order to perform the verification? The reason that I ask is that I found most of my collection of 12 Caesars aureii to be already on this website, although I did not post them myself. So, in theory, could I "verify" the accuracy of these coins since I did not originally post them myself?
Those who verify are selected and expected to own at least the primary reference. You could not verify 12 Caesars material without RIC 1 and BMC 1, I'd think. I believe most are specialists in an emperor or time period (like 'Flavians') but I also suspect that any volunteer might be accepted for areas they currently lack someone to cover. Since many posted coins are from very capable houses, much of it is easy. However, there are periods where there are no good standard references and others that are so huge (Severan Provincials, eg) that they certainly could use additional help. I have no idea which areas are covered and which are not. You can ask.
Thanks for the response and clarification. Owning the reference material (which I do, plus other references) and some of the coins aren't sufficient qualifications, at least in my case, to become someone who can verify the displayed coins. Plus, I'm not sure exactly what this site would consider "verification" of the displayed coins. Anyone who has RIC volumes can verify that the displayed coin corresponds to the RIC reference number, but would that be sufficient to classify the coin as "verified?"
Not always. For example a person should be comfortable enough to separate various mints in periods that did not use mintmarks and had identical coins issued from more than one mint. This is the case in the Severans; Is it also for Vitellius? I don't do enough with 12 Caesars to allow me to serve in any way for these but I can upload my coins that might seem a bit different from others that are already up. The concept of verification at least suggests that two people made the same mistake or that the coin is properly identified.
Hey Guys: Thanks for the discussion! I am the founder of Coinproject.com, I am on vacation, so I don't have much time to go into great detail. (Catching up on email this morning) There are several "steps" to moderation. The first is to edit and approve the records. This entails parsing (separating) the data into its appropriate fields. Obverse and reverse legends and descriptions should go in their own fields, etc. Once the data has been parsed it can generally be approved. This step does not require much expertise and pretty much anyone can volunteer to help us with this step. The second step is verification. This requires that the person "checking" the submissions have some expertise with the issues in question and that they also have the major reference works for the particular issuer or city being verified. The first step is to confirm that the coin described is the coin in the photograph, confirm obverse and reverse legends, the mint, etc. Second step is to physically open the reference works cited and confirm that the citations are correct. As Doug noted, we prefer that the submitter not be the one to verify their own coins. The third way users can help is by submitting error reports. Once a user is logged in to the system, there is a link under each record which allows them to submit an error report. This report is sent to the moderator(s) of the issuer/city and the admin. A very slow process, but it ensures a very high degree of accuracy. We can also use help adding records which we are missing. If anyone has a few minutes a week to spare, send me an email and I can walk you through this process. I will be back on Wednesday and can answer any questions when I return. Best, Alfred
