The "What are these coins?" contest.

I have an idea for a contest. I ran two or three versions of an identical one on a different talk forum about seven years ago which was very popular.

First, I want to make sure that this conforms to the rules here. Then I want to judge interest. I don't want to go to all the trouble of selecting and photographing coins if it is not permitted or not enough people are interested. I think it needs at least ten participants to be successful.

So will someone confirm that I am allowed to do this and will others express interest. As soon as I know it is permitted I will select and photograph some coins and start it, maybe in about a week.

The next post to this thread will be the rules of the proposed contest so that you know what it is.

 

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Proposed Contest Rules

Below are partial pictures of 12 coins from my collection. The first person to identify them all is the winner. Ten of the coins are worth less than $20 (some much less), two are worth more. The winner will get to choose one of the ten lesser ones as the prize. The contest is more for the fun of it than for the value of the prize.

Each evening I will reply to all posts done that day (probably more often if I have time) and I will tell you how many of your guesses are correct, but not which ones. I will need to be given as much information as possible about each coin. If I think more can be gleaned from the picture than is offered I will say so, with no implication that the given information is correct.

This is not just a game of identification but also a game of strategy. Everyone can see your guesses so you don't necessarily want to tell everyone else the answers you are sure about until you think you can post a complete set of correct answers. Deliberately posting wrong answers to learn how many of the rest are correct is part of the strategy.

The competition will run until a correct answer is given. If we have more than 10 people submit guesses then I will do it again later with a different set of coins, perhaps once per quarter.

Each person is restricted to one guess per day. This is to stop people dumping lots of answers before others have a chance. If you post more than one guess in any calendar day only the first one will get a response.

 

"Below are partial pictures of 12 coins from my collection. The first person to identify them all is the winner."
Invisicoins! I don;t see them, lol I win!

 

Well, you wouldn't, would you, until the contest actually starts. Did you read the first post?

 

Bummer totally missed the top line

"Purposed Contest Rules"

 

Thinking to much coffee this morning. Thats my story and I am sticking to it....Nice Idea by the way and I do like it.

 

Nice idea.

 

I'm in as long as it's US coins.

 

Probably none of them will be US coins. That would be too easy.

 

My thoughts in numbered but no particular order:
1. Everyone loves coin challenges and free coins
2. I don't think you need to reply to each person. Not only is that a lot of work, but probably not necessary. Most people aren't going to want to blow their first guess with fake answers. You will be surprised just how good some of these folks are at identifying coins. Don't let me stop you, but I'm advising against it.
3. Change it to "each person is restricted to one post and guess per day" and then please define when the day officially starts (presumably when you make the post is the start of the first 24 hours). Some CT members are in other countries and time zone.
4. Will you mail internationally? You should clarify.
5. "As much information as possible" is rather vague. Maybe clarify what at least you're looking for (country, year(s), denomination). I assume you want the same information for each coin; arbitrarily changing the requirements based on the coin can lead to potential issues.
6. Consider changing the challenge to a PM to you so someone who got all but one right doesn't give away the answers to everyone else. Research can be time consuming. 9 correct answers saves me a TON of time because the first thing I'll do is look up those 10 answers and find out which is wrong. Then I only have to research one new coin.
7. If the first person guesses all 10 right (yes, it can happen) it might prevent others from participating. Hence my suggestion of #6.
8. I like the idea of this being a game of strategy, but I just don't see it working out that way. I hope you aren't disappointed by the responses you receive.

Cheers.

 

I agree, alot of "red flags" in my opinion that could come back to bite you (the OP)

 

I think it sounds fun.

 

Although I am a new comer and know a little about coins other than India but I would enjoy watching contest. Thanks.

 

Well, it has been three days. That seems long enough. There has been a few responses and some of those have been discouraging. I am very surprised because last time I did this, on a different coin forum, it was popular.

However, I must concede that people here must be of a difference ilk. I will not pursue this idea.

 

Why not? I love contests!

 

go for it

 

How about you do it one coin at a time, and you can't win more than once.
That would be really cool

 

Because I didn't intend to do it more than once a quarter and I reckon there would a long delay between them that way. With 12 coins and only partial pictures I think it would last quite a while because no one is an expert in coins from every country.

 

Okay even with the 12 coin lot it is a fantastic idea