Coin Talks

Greetings from Groningen,

I have started an interview session called "Collection Talks" on my website. In contrast to traditional interviews, interviewees can voluntarily do the interview by answering the questions that can be found in the link below. I tried to include many different aspects in the questions.

All you need to join Collection Talks is to collect coins. It does not matter if you are collecting since 6 months or 60 years.

If you would like to join the project, just download and fill the form and send it to info@altaycoins.com with a lot of photos!

Interview will be published online after processing!

http://altaycoins.com/makaledetay.asp?dil=Mg==&id=MzY=

 

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I think I'll wait to see how the first 2 or 3 go before I commit to anything, but it's possibly something i might be interested in the future.

 

I hope everybody will not think this way

 

Fine, I'll tell you what. I'll work on it this weekend and send you something .As long as the questions are not "What's your address, where in the house do you keep coins, and what time of the day are you going to be away from your house" I'll try to answer as honest as I can.

I would prefer to use a nickname instead of my full name though if that's ok. I don't exactly want every single one of my clients reading about my hobbies on the internet. So no first name basis, ok?

 

PS: Hope you get a lot of world coin collectors and ancient coin collectors. Most American coin collector all sound the same. For them it's all about coins encased in plastic, the higher the grade the better, making profit, investment, etc. Really borring stuff. I think among the American coins crowd, for every 4 or 5 investor types, if you are lucky you'll find one actual collector that cares about something other than commodity/investing, prices, profit, stickers on holders, and unhealthy obsession with grades.

 

Oh no you ruined my whole plan!!

Sure! That would be fine to use your CoinTalk nickname.

Actually I don't think they would be interested at all. Only excitement is the grade for them.

 

sounds like a worthy project

 

Why was this started in the ancient coin section? I had answers for only about half of the questions. My suggestion would be to post the questions openly rather than requiring the download so prospective participants can tell at a glance whether they see themselves as suitable. I did not. Perhaps this is because I do not collect modern coins or world coins and approach collecting differently from you.

 

I actually thought all the questions were relevant. If nothing else you can use some of them to contrast the modern 3rd party grade-based approach of modern collectors to the more scholarly and historically based, less grade focused, world of ancients and medieval/world collectors. Maybe some of that will rub off on a US coin collector and usher him to the dark side.

That's part of the reason I'll occasionally post an ancient coin (if it fits with the general conversation) on threads in the "Coin Chat" section of the forum. Hoping to lure some unsuspecting victims to our side.

 

I am very surprised to hear that Doug, because when I prepare the questions, I was intended to get answers from ancient and medieval coin collectors. May I learn which questions you feel uncomfortable?

About the download, I thought of posting the question openly but then I realized it would be easier to download and write the answers. Maybe I should do both at the same time. I will add questions openly on the page soon. Thanks for the comment!

 

@altaycoins, I see several obstacles to your goal of having people actually provide these answers.

1. Many people will be reluctant to download the form, especially if they don't know you.

2. Downloading the form and then getting it back to you requires too many steps. Typing out answers is a lot of work. Submitting images (and attributions or captions) is more work. It's different than a verbal interview-- your format requires considerably more effort from the the interviewee. Making the process easier might increase participation.

3. Strangers may be reluctant to send you something by email because it requires disclosing their email address, although many people have "throwaway" or alias email addresses they use when communicating with someone they don't know well.

4. You ask for personal information beyond coin collecting (for instance, q.1. Could you please let us know about yourself? What do you do besides collecting coins?). People could of course opt to not answer this question but many people prefer not to reveal any details about themselves, especially to a stranger and without knowing exactly how that information will be used. Of course, no matter what you do many or most people won't want to take the time to answer the extensive questions.

5. If you eliminate some of these obstacles you might get more participation. Hosting the questionnaire on your website will help. There are dozens of survey or questionnaire apps which you can incorporate into your website. By using such a form, the user won't have to download a form and then email it back to you. The form will be filled on directly on your website and submitted through your website.

6. While some of the questions are best left open-ended, others are easily adapted to a multiple choice format and you could also have an "other" choice which allows the interviewee to write it their answer. "How do you store your collection?" "In your opinion, what is the best way to preserve coins?" and any other questions which can be made multiple choice should be made multiple choice. Reducing the work required to complete the survey can only help. With the multiple choice question you can still have a place for the respondent to write additional details.

If you wish for greater participation-- participation beyond a handful of extroverts who love to tell their story-- perhaps the changes suggested above might help. I'm going to copy your questions below so others can see them without having to download the form. I hope you don't mind. If you do mind, I'll edit the post.

Also, tell us a bit about the traffic your website sees. How many hits per day do you average? Which countries are represented and what is the average percentage of users from each country?

.........

Lütfen bu "Koleksiyon Muhabbetleri" formunu doldurarak info@altaycoins.com adresine dilediğiniz bir kaç fotoğraf ile (ne kadar çok o kadar iyi) yollayınız.
Please send this "Collection Talks" form to info@altaycoins.com with a few photos that you choose (the more the better).


İsim (Name):
Soyisim (Surname):
E-mail:
Tarih (Date):

• Kendinizi biraz tanıtır mısınız? Koleksiyoner kimliğiniz dışında neler yapıyorsunuz?

Could you please let us know about yourself? What do you do besides collecting coins?

• Koleksiyon yapmaya ne zaman ve nasıl başladınız? Sizi çeken şey neydi?

When and how did you start collecting? What was attracting your interest?

• Koleksiyonunuzdan biraz bahseder misiniz? Hangi dönem paralarını topluyorsunuz ve bu o dönemi seçmenizin bir nedeni var mı?

Could you tell more about your collection? What is the subject of your collection and why did you choose this one specifically?

• Koleksiyon yapmak neden önemlidir? İnsana ne katar? Herkes koleksiyoner olabilir mi?

Why collecting (coins) is important? What's its contribution to personal development? Can anyone become a collector?

• Koleksiyon yaparken yaşanılan zorluklardan biraz bahseder misiniz? Kişisel olarak yaşadığınız zorluklar nelerdi?

Could you talk a bit on the possible difficulties in collecting? What are the challenges you have experienced personally?

• Koleksiyonunuz ile ilgili hayalleriniz neler?

What are your dreams/plans about your collection?

• Koleksiyonunuzdaki en sevdiğiniz para ya da paralar hangileri? Bu parayı (ya da paraların) seçmenizdeki en büyük etken nedir? (Resimleri ve detaylarıyla paylaşırsanız seviniriz)

What is/are your favorite piece(s) in your collection? What is the biggest factor in choosing this coin?

• Koleksiyonunuzu nasıl muhafaza ediyorsunuz? Uzun zaman koruma için en uygun yöntem nedir sizce?

How do you store your collection? In your opinion, what is the best method to preserve coins?

• Paralar iki yüzleri olmaları ve bu nedenle sergilenmesi zor parçalar olması nedeniyle müzeler tarafından çok da sevilmezler. Sizce en iyi fiziksel sergileme nasıl olmalıdır? Bunu uygulayan müzelere örnek verebilir misiniz?

Coins are not the favorite pieces of museums as it is difficult to display a object with twofaces. How would you describe the best way to display coins? Could you also give examples to those museums that have amazing displays?

• Bir önceki soruyla bağlantılı olarak, internet ortamını para koleksiyonlarının sergilenmesindeki önemi hakkında ne düşünüyorsunuz? Ve siz hangi ortamları kullanıyorsunuz (kişisel websitesi, Facebook, Instagram vb)

In connection with the previous question, what do you think about the importance of internet in connection with the display of coin collections? And where do you share your collection (personal website, Facebook, Instagram etc.).

• Paralarınızın envanterini nasıl tutuyorsunuz? (Fotoğraflama ve dökümantasyon anlamında) Eğer fotoğraflarını çekerek arşivliyor ve/veya sergiliyorsanız, fotoğraf çekim düzeneğinizin fotoğrafını paylaşır mısınız?

How do you store inventory of your collection? (By means of photographing and documentation) If you take photos of your coins, could you please share a photo of your photography setup with us?

• Koleksiyona koyduğunuz paraları temizliyor musunuz? Para ve sikke restorasyon ve konservasyonu konusunda ne düşünüyorsunuz?

Do you clean coins in your collection? What do you think about restoration and conservation of coins?

• Koleksiyonunuzu oluştururken bugüne kadar yaşadığınız ilginç bir anınız var mı?

Do you have any interesting memories as a coin collector?

• Hiç profesyonel olarak bu işle uğraşmayı düşündünüz mü? Ya da yayın yapmak (kitap, makale vb) konusunda çalışmalarınız var mı?

Have you ever think about turning your hobby into your profession? Or do you have any work on publishing books or articles?

• Yatırım amaçlı koleksiyon yapmak ne derece mantıklı?Şöyle diyelim, koleksiyon neden yapılır ya da yapılmalıdır?

Is it logical to collect coins as investment? Or let's put it this way, why should people collect coins?

• Koleksiyonunuzun geleceği hakkında ne düşünüyorsunuz?

What do you think about the future of your collection?

• Koleksiyon yapmaya yeni başlayanlara ya da başlayacak olanlara tavsiyeleriniz nelerdir?

Do you have any suggestions or an advice to the people who has just started or want to start collecting coins?

 

Thanks @TIF for the comments although with many of them I disaggree. I don't want thousands of participation but a really good few contributions that can trigger others for the beginning.

Let me answer one by one...

Well if people will not download the form just because they don't know me, they would also not want to answer my questions. But as Doug also pointed out this, I have added the questions openly on the page too.

I don't think it is too many steps but I will come to that in the following questions.

Via google analytics I can see what are their operating systems, how long they have spend on my site, how they behaved on my site etc. So I know more than maybe their e-mail address. If they are too suspecious (weird behavior in 2018 but ok), people can use 10-minute-emails. But if they want to answer my questions this shouldn't be a problem.

I am not making a survey here. I am trying to establish an article series where experienced or inexperienced collectors share their experiences.

I don't see any harm saying "I am an ortodontist in USA". I am not asking for their ID numbers. Please remember that I will not collect this answers for myself, it will be published online. So a person that can answer the question, can be well aware of the limits they want to put.

I am not making a questionnaire and certainly don't want to have incorporate such thing in my website. It can end up with short answers that nobody really cares about. I really want volunteers who are excited as much as myself.

Again, this is not a questionnaire. I want real answers. Multiple choice is not an option.

No need to have the questions here as I have updated my page. So yes you can edit.

It is getting around 120 unique visitors each day with an average of 1000 pageviews. Main traffic is from Turkey, USA, Russia, Iran, Germany. I do not reveal information on percentages.

 

I see that you have given this a lot of thought and I look forward to the results

 

I would consider answering the survey, but given the background analytics you are going to look at, and the disparaging remarks about collectors of moderns, I think I'll pass. Luckily my son and I don't worry about grades or value or anything else but what the history and beauty of a coin is. That's good enough for us.

 

First let me be clear. This is not a survey or questionnaire in any respect. This is an interview.

Then..

What do you mean by this?

I did not make a disparging remark about the modern coin collectors. I started collection by collecting modern world coins and I have still have over 10.000 coins from that collection. I only said world coins collectors would not be interested because world coins collectors that I sent this message did not show any interest. And from my friends, they only talk about grades MS values etc. I did not want to generalize to all the modern world coins collectors.

I would love to see your and possibly your sons answers..

 

There. That's what I'm talking about. What else does the "etc" cover?

And I was referring to your comments that modern coin collectors are more interested in grades and value. Well, I'm interested in what makes the coin valuable to me, which is quality and history behind it.

 

Google analytics is a free website analysis tool. You can find what they cover here. Almost exclusively all the web admins use that. Probably CoinTalk also uses it. I just pointed out in 2018, people shouldn't be scared sharing their email addresses.

EDIT: yes cointalk is also using it. here is the source code from cointalk:

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var _gaq = [['_setAccount', 'UA-292541-19'], ['_trackPageview']];
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{
var g = d.createElement(t),
s = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
g.async = true;
g.src = ('https:' == d.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
s.parentNode.insertBefore(g, s);
}
(document, 'script');

</script>

That's what I observed unfortunately. But still I do not generalize and does not say everybody is the same.

 

I don't understand the point of this?

 

I am totally surprised and disappointed from the replies that I've got in CoinTalk.

I have started collecting coins in 2002 by collecting Turkish Republic coins, and then moved into Modern World Coins where I stopped in 2015 with about 10.000 different types in my collection. In 2006, I have developed an interest in Anatolian medieval and ancient coins with a particular interest in Ilkhans. As the years pass, I faced a lot of difficulties and decided to specialize on Ilkhans. My website, altaycoins.com is established in 2008 and since then, I dedicate myself to share information publicly for free. I am investing a lot time and money to improve my website (both technical infrastructure and the content). I believe ilkhans.altaycoins.com (a subdomain dedicated for Ilkhan coinage education) became a reference site for a lot of collectors and academics (based on the feedback I got from people).

For me collecting coins is more then hoarding a stack of coins minted some time ago. At the times when I was collecting coins that I came across, I faced a lot of problems and I had to solve it myself. But as I establish connections with people all around the world, I understood that I have rediscovered America many times. In the mean time, I learnt a lot by reading and/or watching interviews with the great collectors. And now, I would like to include more contributions from my fellow coin collectors in my website. I would like to interview with a long-time collector, where people can see how this hobby was 20-30 years ago. I would like to interview with a new collector who has just started to build a collection and would like to see what other people think about our hobby in common, what difficulties they are facing today. I would like to interview with a dealer or an auction house that can tell us different aspects of coin collecting.

I actually wanted to do the interviews personally but as a scientist, I cannot find time to travel and do the interviews by myself. For some of the collectors, still I really want to do that. I developed this idea in the last 2 years and waited until I find a good way of doing it. And then I found this website. It is a blog that shares the experiences of Turkish people (or people from Turkey as they did intentionally use to cover all the ethnicities) living abroad. In this website, there are question that you can copy paste and fill the answers. I enjoyed reading it as I am currently an expat too. And I find similarities with the project that I want to make. And as a result, I decided to use their approach which was successfully represented in their website.

I am just a scientist and a collector who thinks information should be, in contrast to common belief and practice, free and accesible for anyone who needs it. I am not trying to increase my visitor count simply because I am not making profit in any sense but satisfaction of being useful to the community that I feel I am belong to. I have incorporated Google Analytics on my website to improve it, for example by looking at the web browsers they use. If my visitors does not use Chrome browser, I don't need to make improvements that is required by Chrome. Besides that, seeing where my visitors is from is just fun.

With this intended interview sessions, I would like to do something that has not been done before, and something that I would love to read if someone else did it. Imagine that Harlan Berk, Steve Album, David Sear filling this interview. Wouldn't it be interesting? I would love to read it!

So I am not a guy asking for personal information or any information that risks the security of the person. But still, if anyone doubts about it can send replies anonymously. Because I am not after the answers of only big names but opinions of any collector. Additionally, all the questions are written in a flexible way that everybody collecting anything can fill. Even a map or stamp collector can fill it if you replace the word "coin".

I hope this makes my intention clear.

 

Great website and superb collection, @altaycoins !