Since having the Numismatic Dictionary active for over a month, the reception has been more than my expectations!
According to the server statistics, there have been over 500 unique visitors to that page with more 20-percent returning for another look. Since I put a bit of work into that database, it is nice to see it is being used.
I also received feedback with corrections and requests for additions. Corrections are wonderful and encouraged. If you see something wrong, send me a note and I will make the correction.
Recently, I was notified that the company whose notebook-like program decided to close its virtual doors. Its concept was simple: act like a notebook that you can stuff anything into. Although other programs passed it in some features, it was still a solid way of keeping a digital notebook. Now that they are out of business, I do not want to rely on what we call “abandonware.”
As I was reviewing a few of the notebooks I created, I found now with a lot of numismatic notes. This notebook contains lists, ideas, and other items of numismatic information. Rather than keep them hidden from the public on my disk, I will start to publish what I find as part of my Collector’s Reference section.
Today begins with two additions:
Key Date Coins is a list of coins that may be considered key dates for their series. Determining key date coins sometimes is a matter of opinion, especially on older series. My notes had several lists which I used a basic polling system, mintage statistics, and third-party grading company’s population reports to determine what to add. This list only does this for non-gold coins. I will try to find similar references for gold coins and add them in the future.
Mints and Mintmarks documents every branch mint operated by the U.S. Mint and provides a little information paragraph about them including the branch mint in Manila while the Philippines was a colony of the United States.
When the Coin Collectors Blog reached its 10th Anniversary I decided it was time for a little sprucing up. It was time to paint the wall and update the furniture to make it comfortable while keeping the original charm.
Redesigns take time whether it is in your home or a website. As I have done for during the last 10 years I have been writing this blog, I did the work myself. Although my background is more technical than design—think of me as someone who would rather work on an engine than body or interior work of a car—I can enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone and do a little body work, too.
Without further ado, here are some of the things that this change offers:
With the growth of mobile devices I had to do something that would allow the blog to better appear on those smaller screens. In the vernacular of the web, this is called “responsive design,” which is design that responds to its environment. What you see should work better on your mobile devices.
All advertising has been removed. I added the advertising because I was being asked and thought it would help cover the hosting fees. Unfortunately, my hosting fees were more then I collected and I do not have time to manage this properly. Thank you to all my past advertisers but it is time we move on.
I changed the way to contact me to use a form. This will help those who use web-based mail services.
The social media sharing has changed. You can still share my posts on social media, and you are encouraged to do so. Rather than use a third-party to do the sharing the links will send you directly to those social media sites. As someone concerned with privacy I thought this was a better option!
Although I decided to keep the same color scheme, I made the layout simpler. Aside from helping with the responsive design, it is fashionable to have simpler and cleaner designs. It is difficult to update a live website without having a few stumbles. If you see something that is not right send me an email note or comment below with the information.
Yesterday I installed software that works in the background in order to improve the internals of the blog. While most of it should be invisible to the readers of the blog, it adds additional functionality. You should not notice anything different until I make the other changes. If you do, please let me know!
Part of this package allows me to better capture demographic statistics about when you read what I write. I am NOT collecting your personal information and I will NOT sell any of the data I collect. The statistics will help form a broad network-related demographic profile of my readership. I will learn how many people read my writing, when they read it, from which country you are reading this from (based on your IP address, which is then discarded after doing the lookup), and best-guess from where you came from to read my writing (e.g., are you subscribed to the RSS feed? subscribed via email, from Twitter, a search engine, etc.). All this software is doing is keeping tallies. NO individual information is saved!
This package has other features that I will be taking advantage of with the next upgrade.
In addition to watching football, do some paperwork, and going to a cruise-in, I plan to do more upgrades this weekend. If you see a page that says the site is under construction, then stay tuned for the upgrade!!
While it may look like a just a list of numismatic terms it is better. At the top of the page is a search box. Type in the term you are looking for an every definition where that term appears will be displayed.
You are told that someone will meet you on the bourse floor. The what? Where is the bourse floor? Just search for it to figure out what they are talking about!
Did you find an entry that says “See also” or “Synonym for?” Rather than making you type a new search, those terms are clickable links. Don’t type, just click! I think this is pretty neat stuff!!
Just about every term I can think of is in that list. If it isn’t, just contact me and let me know. Feel free to send corrections, too.
Stay tuned… I have a few more tricks up my sleeve that will be showing up very soon!
Sometime in 2005 I began to search the Internet for information about coins. The two major publications, Coin World and Numismatic News, were not quite fully engaged online at that time. There were other online services but there was not something that would be the voice of a collector. Chat boards are nice but they are fractured. I wanted to have a conversation with the community.
Although I have a technical background, I did not know how to create and run a blog. After doing some research I discovered Blogger, Google’s blogging platform. After playing with the administration and learning how to create a blog post, I wrote my first post on October 29, 2005.
In my first post, I said that the coins I like include “Adolph A. Weinman’s Walking Liberty Half-Dollar and Liberty Head “Mercury” Dime, James Earl Fraser’s Buffalo Nickel, Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ $20 Double Eagle, and Bela Lyon Pratt $5 Half-Eagle.” Not much has changed except for my interest in exonumia, especially those pieces with ties to New York City, and the addition of Canadian coins to my collection
The blog has changed, or I would like to think it has evolved over the years. The biggest change was moving away from Blogger to my own domain. As part of the move I decided to create a logo using the allegedly non-existent 1964-D Peace Dollar, and I now participate social media specifically Twitter and Pinterest. What has not changed is the amazed and humbling experience I feel when I look at the server logs to see that more than 1,000 people read my posts—even with the recent slowdown in writing.
To all my readers, past, present and future, THANK YOU for being part of my numismatic adventure!
Although many of us have agreed to speak in a common language, communities tend to take the language and mold it to make it unique to their situation. It is the most evident in the differences between terms we use here in the United States versus those used in Great Britain. Just look at your car and know that the compartment that contains the engine is under the hood here in the United States while the engine is in the bonnet in England. As George Bernard Shaw is credited with saying, “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”
Numismatics is no different. Tell a numismatist that a coin is in good condition and the novice does not understand why the numismatist is no longer interested in the coin. Depending on the coin, a fine coin does not excite either.
What does it mean?
What is a a “bourse?”
Or to say a coins has been plugged?
What is “mint state?”
Now you have a place to look up the words. Under the tab, “Collector’s Reference” at the top of this page there is a new submenu titled Numismatic Glossary. The Coinblog’s Numismatic Glossary is the result of a one year collection of numismatic terms and the attempt to write good (or just decent) definitions of those terms.
I am publishing the Numismatic Glossary is a resource to the numismatic community. While I tried to be as accurate as possible, it is possible that I made a mistake. It is also possible that I left something out. If you have a correction or a request for me to add a term, please drop me a note and let me know.
EDITED TO ADD: I also updated the U.S. Coins by Type page to include the 2013 American Buffalo reverse proof coin.
This is the earliest that Rosh Hashanah has appeared on the Gregorian Calendar since 1899. Later this year, Chanukah and Thanksgiving will occur on the same day for the first time in history. With the nuances of the calendars, this will not happen again for 77,789 years.
It will be 5774 on the Jewish calendar which is a leap year. Since the Jewish calendar is lunisolar, a calendar whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year, a leap year adds one month to the calendar. Adar I will begin on February 1 and last for 29 days. All Adar holidays, such as Purim, occur in Adar II.
A Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your family!
“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” — Democritus
The power of the opinion. Opinions drive us to do things based on what we hear, how we feel, and process the information around us. Opinions make us different and even binds us together as a species. Opinions can have a significant effect on society, like and election. Other times, opinions can be like screaming into the wind, like complaining about the U.S. Mint.
Sometimes, expressing our opinion can be fun. I have taken the fun part of expressing our opinions in collecting and numismatics and added the ability to express your opinion privately, without anyone knowing what you think. If you look in the right column of this page, there is Poll section where I will post a weekly poll asking for your opinion on something. Anything. All related to numismatics.
The first poll is asking which is your favorite dollar coin design of the six choices listed. Pick one, click on the “Vote” button, and your opinion will be recorded.
Polls will change every week on Monday. Some polls may be about something serious or I may ask less than serious questions. Regardless of the question, it is all in fun.
You can vote once per poll. Yes, I know there is a way to “beat the system.” But if you are that passionate about a question, go ahead!
“It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races.” — Mark Twain in The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson
Since having the Numismatic Dictionary active for over a month, the reception has been more than my expectations!
Recently, I was notified that the company whose notebook-like program decided to close its virtual doors. Its concept was simple: act like a notebook that you can stuff anything into. Although other programs passed it in some features, it was still a solid way of keeping a digital notebook. Now that they are out of business, I do not want to rely on what we call “abandonware.”
When the Coin Collectors Blog reached its 
Yesterday I installed software that works in the background in order to improve the internals of the blog. While most of it should be invisible to the readers of the blog, it adds additional functionality. You should not notice anything different until I make the other changes. If you do, please let me know!
Sometime in 2005 I began to search the Internet for information about coins. The two major publications, 
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