Contributing to Numista

[Gusev]

At Zeno, the best plan with an unknown, or partially known piece is post it in what they call the "root group."  I monitor Zeno at what I think is daily, but then go to SE Asia and there are some things posted a few days earlier I missed.  Some people take the "database" situation to mean they should post all 2000 of the pan-liangs in their collection.  It overwhelms categories to no purpose.   

1. You can apply a special option for any category and then you will receive all new coins in that category.
2. For ordinary Zeno members there is a limit on the amount of information.
3. For hand-minted coins, the variety of stamps is of interest to specialists.

[bgriff99]

3. For hand-minted coins, the variety of stamps is of interest to specialists.

Yes.  The problem is FINDING the actual variations, when for vanity purposes, people post 60 of the identical common patterns, and there ends up 15 pages of them to search through.   I post unique individual examples of the not-common things, rather than compete for who has the most posts.  I have probably 100,000 cash coins.  They don't need to see all of them.

[capnbirdseye]

I have a Numista account from 2012, around the same time I joined WoC, I've never added any coins though but have made a few posts from time to time. Yesterday I had a search through the Coin identifications and valuations section in their forum.

I spotted several Indian coins that had no replies but recognised the coins so added my replies, no problem there.
I looked through several more pages and went to add a reply to one to see "Topic locked (Numista Robot, 15-Oct-2023" and one with no replies at all posted Oct 6th/2023 "Topic locked (Numista Robot, 5-Jan-2024, 05:06)It appears that threads have a random time limit before they are automatically locked regardles of whether identified or not.

Where is the sense in that, thousands of topics locked?, no possibility of anyone  adding an i.d or correcting a wrong one. 

That's my post from above complaining about locked posts on Numista. Today Xavier has posted that they are now all unlocked so success!

[Xavier R]

Thank you Vic for your valuable feedback.

I have a Numista account from 2012, around the same time I joined WoC, I've never added any coins though but have made a few posts from time to time. Yesterday I had a search through the Coin identifications and valuations section in their forum.

I spotted several Indian coins that had no replies but recognised the coins so added my replies, no problem there.
I looked through several more pages and went to add a reply to one to see "Topic locked (Numista Robot, 15-Oct-2023" and one with no replies at all posted Oct 6th/2023 "Topic locked (Numista Robot, 5-Jan-2024, 05:06)It appears that threads have a random time limit before they are automatically locked regardles of whether identified or not.

Where is the sense in that, thousands of topics locked?, no possibility of anyone  adding an i.d or correcting a wrong one. 

I change the automatic locking policy, so that old identification threads are not locked anymore. It's always interesting to get a coin identified, even if it's years later.

I've had a good look at Numista and find myself completely shocked at the number of glaring errors in coins from India, coins posted upside down, incorrectly attributed etc. Unlike WoC and Zeno there can only be one example of any coin in their database and it must have a catalogue reference such as KM or Goron & Goenka. This maybe o.k for machine struck coins but not for hammered. If you have an unlisted coin then you will probably have it rejected by a referee as I did.

So I spotted a Bahmani coin of Daud Shah, listed as Ahmad Shah II   and reported it. I was told no need to report it just fix it. So I changed it to Daud Shah and then had to wait for a referee to approve it who rejected it with "[Please maintain the Naming convention of numista"[/i] I've no idea what I did wrong and why he didn't simply fix it there and then    so now the coin is left wrongly identified. Would this happen on zeno or WoC? definitely not.

I then decided to post a rare uncatalogued variety of a Mysore Paisa.KM#103.6 I had no option but to use the the number of the regular type. It was rejected by the same referee:- [i]coin will be deleted as type is already posted I pointed out that it's a distinct variety not recorded to which he replied - Then please do not list under the same KM# as listed in Numista. Please post the difference with the nearest KM variety in the comments and submit again. Thanks! I wrote back that I already did use the nearest KM number    no reply since and to be quite frank I don't want any of my coins posted on Numista as they clearly have a referee who can't read Indian scripts.

Here are just two examples of Jaipur coins with an upside down Obverse, for Numista to be considered the Bees Knees of coin databases I think it unbelievable. And here also is Daud shah which is very clear to read
And my incredibly beautiful and uncatalogued Mysore Paisa REJECTED!!!

Oriental coins is an area where Numista is currently lacking, and I really appreciate your efforts to help improving the catalogue. I'm sorry for your unsuccessful experience with contributing. I will review with the referee to understand what happened and how we can be more welcoming to contributions, even when they need adjustment.
In the meantime, I corrected the ruler for the coin of Dahud Shah and the orientation of both coins you mentioned.

Until now, Numista allows only one pair of pictures per coin type. This is not enough to illustrate varieties or even to illustrate the whole design of many Oriental coins. We are currently working on a solution to accept more pictures per type. This feature should be available in February.

[capnbirdseye]

Thank you Vic for your valuable feedback.

I change the automatic locking policy, so that old identification threads are not locked anymore. It's always interesting to get a coin identified, even if it's years later.


Oriental coins is an area where Numista is currently lacking, and I really appreciate your efforts to help improving the catalogue. I'm sorry for your unsuccessful experience with contributing. I will review with the referee to understand what happened and how we can be more welcoming to contributions, even when they need adjustment.
In the meantime, I corrected the ruler for the coin of Dahud Shah and the orientation of both coins you mentioned.

Until now, Numista allows only one pair of pictures per coin type. This is not enough to illustrate varieties or even to illustrate the whole design of many Oriental coins. We are currently working on a solution to accept more pictures per type. This feature should be available in February.

Well that's very good to hear Xavier, I fully understand that for machine struck coins only one coin is required. As you realise yourself the majority of hammered Indian coins are struck with large dies on small flans, even larger flans are often struck off centre. This would be confusing for someone given a Numista link to the coin type to find it looks nothing like the coin they just got identified.

Uncatalogued coins are turning up all the time due to the current huge popularity of Indian & Islamic coins, I have quite a few myself and therefore no printed reference is available, new unlisted varieties of known types I suppose could have the catalogue of the type (KM#3.2 for e.g) simply listed as KM#3.2 var  or KM#3.2 var A or whatever suits

[Figleaf]

This is a good example of the value added of the Grand Numismatic Alliance. There are issues that are best solved together. The Grand Numismatic Alliance creates the trust necessary for such co-operation.

I do not have the intention that WoC should become a complaints bureau or an idea box for Numista or Zeno, but if there is an issue that can be solved best with some friendly contacts, it can be done and I am happy about that. Stay tuned for more on the Grand Numismatic Alliance.

Meanwhile, I'll move the tail end of this thread to its proper board after our meeting.

Peter

[Xavier R]

Uncatalogued coins are turning up all the time due to the current huge popularity of Indian & Islamic coins, I have quite a few myself and therefore no printed reference is available, new unlisted varieties of known types I suppose could have the catalogue of the type (KM#3.2 for e.g) simply listed as KM#3.2 var  or KM#3.2 var A or whatever suits

The Numista field for cross-references to other catalogues is optional. If a new type is discovered and not listed yet in other catalogues, it can be listed with no reference (or with a reference with "var"), as long as enough other identifying elements are provided, especially pictures, size, and weight.
Minor varieties in the legend would usually not be listed as separate pages on Numista. They can be listed as separate lines in the mintage table and they can be described in the comment section. The new feature I mentioned previously will allow to better illustrate and describe individual specimens.
(see https://en.numista.com/help/coin-varieties-and-variations-146.html)