Personal Coin Websites

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by ClearwaterCoins, Mar 9, 2009.

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  1. ClearwaterCoins

    ClearwaterCoins Junior Member

    I want to build my own website showcasing my coin collection. I have purchased my domain name and have started to take photo's of all of my coins.

    Now I need some advice on the rest of the process. I am not sure what software to use. This would be my first try at any type of web site. So any suggestions would be great.

    CC
     
    ClearwaterCoins, Mar 9, 2009
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  3. weryon

    weryon World traveler - In Thailand

    I recommend using dreamweaver, very simple... If you want to know more PM me
     
    weryon, Mar 9, 2009
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  4. Daggarjon

    Daggarjon Supporter**

    i agree, i love dreamweaver! its not all that easy once you start, but once you learn the rope, its super easy!!! I had a heck of a time trying to figure out what button did what :D
     
    Daggarjon, Mar 9, 2009
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  5. Peter T Davis

    Peter T Davis Hammer at the Ready Moderator

    I highly recommend building with Wordpress. I think the blog format of Wordpress is perfectly suited to a collector, the categories can match up with the sets within your collection, the blog posts can focus on individual coins or series of coins. It's dead easy to setup and upload pictures and post new articles. You don't need to learn much about the code behind it. Many hosting companies allow a one click setup for you. Let me know if you need help.
     
    Peter T Davis, Mar 9, 2009
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  6. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    You guys make it so hard. Using dream weaver is frankly the fastest way to make junk you can't maintain and nobody can understand while wasting a ton of money for 90% of the features built already in Firefox.

    Using wordpress is shooting a fly with a bazooka and of course requires access to a real server, which is easy enough if you download a GNU system and by a static IP address DSL or cable line.


    Learn 10 minutes of HTML and get a real webserver coloation for a few bucks a month. Try http://www.panix.com.

    Get a free editor like VIM and write HTML.

    I can't emphasis this enough anyway. DON'T PUT UP A WEBSITE WITHOUT BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF HTML 2.0 or stumble around blindly like a fool for the rest of your on line life.

    This is my basic Coin Collecting Website:

    http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins.html/

    This and everything else that has ever been put on my server has been written with the VIM Editor and HTML

    This is the tools that you need. It doesn't take long to master them. After mastering them you will never be at anyones mercy again for your websites.

    These are the basic tools you need:
    A) A TEXTeditor:
    Use http://www.vim.org/ or any other decent editor that stays out of your way

    B) An Image Manipulation Program
    http://www.gimp.org/ - The all powerful image editor program

    C) Basic Education - Knowledge - Share it
    http://html.net/tutorials/html/ - which is even to difficult for basic html

    or

    http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Advanced.html

    or get an OLD version of the Koala Book from O'Reilly
    The Definitive Guild to HTML - some version before CSS like Version 3 or 2. The old version had a GREAT cheat sheet on the back cover with all 30 or so basic HTML tags which ALL browsers still use and understand.

    [​IMG]

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...1_olp_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236656654&sr=8-2

    here are some for $4.00

    And finally Apache

    http://www.apache.org

    You should have a quicky local server on your own computer to see how your site works. This is called a development station in the business.

    My 8 year old son mastered this (OK - he is now 12), and so can you.

    Finally, LOOK at Firefox. There is an HTML editor built into it. ONCE you get familiar with HTML, you might use it to make templates.


    This is a sample HTML file created by myself for my coin collections website. Its fairly simple and straight forward.

    Code:
    <HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Ruben Safir Coins Collection and Information</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY BACKGROUND="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#3333FF" LINK="#00AA00">
<CENTER>
<H2>
<A HREF="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/halfs/columbian_obverse.png">
<IMG SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/halfs/columbian_obverse_sm.png" ALIGN="MIDDLE" width=150 height=149></A>
Coin Collecting at the Safir House
<A HREF="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/halfs/columbia_reverse.png">
<IMG SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/halfs/columbia_reverse_sm.png" ALIGN="MIDDLE" width=150 height=147></A>
</H2>
</CENTER>
[+ localtime +]
<HR>
<IMG ALT="Schmuel-Leib Eliezar checking out his coins" TITLE="Schmuel-Leib Checking his Coins" SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/purim_2006/schmuel2_cons.jpg" ALIGN="LEFT" BORDER="5"> At the Safir home everyone collects coins, although some are more enthusiastic about it than others.  Things started with gifts of the American Silver Eagle series from the US mint, and 
like many things, might have gotten out of hand a little.  Between the love of the camera and the love of coins, 
our family can spend hours looking, photographing and chating about coins with friends.<P>

For anyone interested in talking 'Coins' on the net, take a look at <A HREF="http://www.cointalk.org">Coin Talk</A>
where we have fun posting pictures of our new coins and talking shop.  There are some great experts there and we always
ask on the forum before making purchases because their opinions are always dead on.  <P>

<H3>We held a contest on Cointalk and had Great Results</H3>

Here is a list of Coin Exhibit Entrees for the contest from around the Gobe and <A HREF="http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/coins/contest.html">the votes.  Check them out.  They are great</A>
<P>
In addition to Coin Talk there is the publication <A HREF="http://www.coinworld.com/">Coin World</A> which can be 
subscribed to.  It is a weekly newspaper type of publication with good information and lots of advertisments.
<P>
On the Intenet there is also <A HREF="http://www.coinfacts.com/">Coin Facts</A> which largely lists every known
US Coin type as well <A HREF="http://coins.heritageauctions.com/">Heritage Auctions</A> which is a good place to buy
coins online, especially for beginners.  Heritage has the best pictures and the best selling history on coins, greatly
reducing the chances of buying either a fake coin or over paying because of ignorance.  Heritage even has software 
to help you keep track of your coins.  It is a great resource.
<P>
A word about Ebay.  Unless your an expert, don't make any purchases of coins from Ebay without asking folks on
cointalk for an opinion first.  You can loose ytour shirt otherwise.  The scams with coins on ebay are famous amongst
collectors on Cointalk, so listen and learn before plunging into the market.<P>

Finally, if you find some old coins that you think might be worth something, <B>NEVER NEVER NEVER DIP, POLISH OR CLEAN
THE COINS</B>.  You will destroy the value of the coins like that.  They are not silverware, they are historical 
peices.  Polishing is a major no no as it destroys the coins original surface.<P>

<IMG ALT="Itka Shira Safir checking out her coins" TITLE="Itka Shira Safir Checking out her Coins" SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/purim_2006/itka_2_cons.jpg" ALIGN="RIGHT" BORDER="5">
If you live in New York, like Ruben Safir and his family does, you can take advantage of a few resources like
<A HREF="http://www.nyinc.info/">The New York International Numismatic Convention</A> which focuses on foriegn and
anceint coins.  the show is going to be on January 12-14th and the Waldof Astoria Hotel in 2007.  We hope to go
with the kids and take some pictures.  Also <A HREF="http://www.numismatics.org/">The American Numismastic Society</A> is located on Fulton and William Streets in the Financial District just west of South Street Sea Port.  And if you need a good dealer in Brooklyn, try Pace Coins, Ralf Pfali ANA-LM and Howard Lebowitz.<P>

Pace Coins<BR>
1-718-627-0340<BR>
2109 East 19th Street (Avenue U)<BR>
Brooklyn, USA 11229
<P>

Just because all this is so much fun, I thought that I would post some pictures of what we look like as we work on this website, including the equiptment that we are 
using.  In general, we do things on the cheap using a Sony Cybershot digital camera for the photo's and like all other software we use, we use the 
<a HREF="http://www.gimp.org">The Gimp</A> for the photo editing<P>
<IMG SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/01142009/newcoins.jpg" BORDER="4"><BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/nycoinshow/shani_bear.jpg" BORDER="4"><BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/01042009/coin_talk_work_station_sm.jpg" BORDER="4"><BR>
[- Execute ('coins/menu.html') -]
</BODY>
</HTML>




    The most important thing for your first website is KISS KISS KISS - Keep it SIMPLE stupid. HTML was designed to be simple and accessible to all. As time moved on, publishing houses pressured the W3C, who sets standards for the web, to increasingly complicate it. Believe me, with a large enough collection, there is plenty of things to figure out aside from why a version of CSS DIV attributes unpredictably works differently on 3 different platforms, 2 of them rendering virtually under readable.

    Learn basic HTML.
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 9, 2009
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  7. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    One more thing, get your domain off the place you brought it from. Use another DNS to be the master DNS for your domain and don't let them also cohost. I've seen people can't get the domains unlinked and lose control of their copyrighted material. I'd be happy to do your DNS - no charge. I'm a registered DNS server.

    Ruben
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 10, 2009
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  8. Peter T Davis

    Peter T Davis Hammer at the Ready Moderator

    Ruben doesn't know that Wordpress is even easier than reading what he just wrote. Wordpress can be done with access to a "real server" or it can be done at http://wordpress.com for ten bucks a year, or free if you don't mind your website url ending in .wordpress.com
     
    Peter T Davis, Mar 10, 2009
    #7 + Quote Reply
  9. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    http://www.sandiego.com/company/software/webedit//

    This is a pretty good editor as well, which I learned HTML with a long time ago, back in 1996. The advantage of this editor is that it let you see all the code as it created it and you could edit the code directly if you wanted to. This meant that you can try all the attributes for tags as you learn them because all the attributes are in drop down menus

    So while it helps you edit, it also helps you learn HTML.

    Ruben

    PS - You'll never see me recommend slaveware like this again... well, maybe XV for quick and dirty file viewing.
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 10, 2009
    #8 + Quote Reply
  10. Arizona Jack

    Arizona Jack The Lincoln-ator

    Can you guys please speak English? My translator is not working tonight:confused:
     
    Arizona Jack, Mar 10, 2009
    #9 + Quote Reply
  11. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    Umm

    I worked with wordpress for 3 years and it runs the Gannet Newpaper websites, one of the biggest sites collectively in the US. Its a perl based templating system, YUMMY stuff. Also, for whatever it is worth, it is used, or was used, by Wil Wheaton's blog until he broke it some how.

    What this kid needs to learn is Basic HTML, not the word press engine. There is plenty of time for him to have his brain twirled later in life.

    Ruben
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 10, 2009
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  12. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member


    Yeah -

    Learn STATIC HTML

    Ruben
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 10, 2009
    #11 + Quote Reply
  13. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member

    Ah - your making the point that he can use the word press site. Nothing is free. He uses it. He learns Word Press speak. He learns Word Press Think. He becomes another brick in the wall. He never learns HTML. He never learns how a website works. He gets to be a drone of word press who then can't use Django, PHP or Ruby on Rails, or Catalyst, or Cold Fusion, or MoJo, or Mason, or Jitney, or Embperl.

    My Drill Sargent once said that His Rifle and Him was the army's most powerful and affective weapon. He was right.

    Likewise, a young person and his VI editor is the most powerful force on the web.

    Ruben
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 10, 2009
    #12 + Quote Reply
  14. Peter T Davis

    Peter T Davis Hammer at the Ready Moderator

    Ruben, it's perfectly safe if you're wearing your tinfoil helmet.
     
    Peter T Davis, Mar 10, 2009
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  15. Drusus

    Drusus Pecunia non olet

    If you just want to put up a website and you dont care a whole lot about learning HTML, its understandable. I use dreamweaver with no problems at all..people can, of course, read my website with no problems...its real simple...set up a template and generate new pages...put in your content...save...upload...tada!! Easy to maintain...and I do not know what is meant by 'nobody can understand' as the code and the resulting pages are not only easy to maintain but the pages display fine and the code is there and easy to understand.

    I know HTML and could do it in word or text editor but I prefer to make it easy. Dreamweaver has all kinds of site management tools which makes everything rather simple...so you dont have any real learning curve.

    you have graphical interface as well as code interface or you can have code and graphical together so when it generates code, you can see what its coding...a great program.

    Use what is best for you...I have found with free programs you often get what you paid for...like with Gimp...all I would say is...just stay away from Frontpage...:)
     
    Drusus, Mar 10, 2009
    #14 + Quote Reply
  16. Andrew67

    Andrew67 Clueless


    HAHAHAHAHA:p:mouth::thumb:
     
    Andrew67, Mar 10, 2009
    #15 + Quote Reply
  17. Billincolo

    Billincolo Senior Member

    Do you work on Windows or enjoy a Mac?

    Makes a difference. If you're on a Mac, by any chance, look into "Rapidweaver." Just Google it. It's much easier to learn and use than any other website program on the market.

    FWIW ... YMMV ... YADA YADA
     
    Billincolo, Mar 10, 2009
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  18. weryon

    weryon World traveler - In Thailand

    Why is this thread still open ?

    It's very simple ... Dreamweaver !

    You can drag and drop images and add functions easily without even knowing xhtml. :D

    you can even copy past xhtml stuff you found on the next and see it in real time , editing it as you please.
     
    weryon, Mar 10, 2009
    #17 + Quote Reply
  19. willieboyd2

    willieboyd2 First Class Poster

    I set up my website a couple of years ago.

    I wrote my own HTML, I only use a few HTML features, such as <IMG>, <A>,
    and simple CSS style sheets to control font sizes.

    I took the pictures of the ancient coins with a digital camera,
    and used a scanner for the modern coins.

    The website link is in my signature line below.

    :)
     
    willieboyd2, Mar 10, 2009
    #18 + Quote Reply
  20. mrbrklyn

    mrbrklyn New Member


    Free Software is not about money, its about code base licensing. And you don't get what you pay for with slaveware. What you get is enslaved, buggy junk that twists your brain until you actually believe that left is right and right is left garbage. This computers, the tools you use and learn form the glasses that you view the world through. Learn the standards and the language of the web and don't let the stock owners of Abode tell you which way is up.

    HTML is childs play. It doesn't need a garbage interface in your way and it certainly doesn't need a $1000 investment or hours wasted learning a proprietary interface that is only valid for a single platform, if it produces standards base as all.

    Ruben
     
    mrbrklyn, Mar 10, 2009
    #19 + Quote Reply
  21. Peter T Davis

    Peter T Davis Hammer at the Ready Moderator

    Not to bash on the software or deride anyone's suggestions, but you guys recommending Dreamweaver should also mention the cost. At Amazon for example, it's going for $366.99. I think that's kind of steep for a personal website. I agree that it is the best of it's class of software, but for someone setting up a site to show off his collection, it's a lot of money to spend.
     
    Peter T Davis, Mar 10, 2009
    #20 + Quote Reply
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