Picture Uploads Now Public!

This is a feature everyone has been asking for, and now it works!

So as a quick use-case to demonstrate how it works, I took a few photos with my iPhone (in some rather poor LED lighting, I admit) to use as examples. Above you’ll see one of them, the obverse of a 2010-P Grand Canyon America the Beautiful Quarter. Note that it’s simply an image with no attempt to center the coin in the frame. Just something quick and dirty.

With image in hand — as it were — you then visit your collection (note, we don’t have ATB quarter photos up yet). Next, view the coin you want to add pictures to and click “Options »”.

You’ll see there’s a new menu choice labeled “Edit Pictures (beta!).” Give it a click.

You’ll then be presented with the “Edit Pictures” interface. Note there are three types of pictures it has slots for: Obverse, Reverse, and Detail.

Since the picture I started with is of the obverse, I clicked the “Add »” link next to that section.

From there, the Add Picture dialog opens up and you’re presented with the upload form. Select the image you want, add a caption, and select how you would like to license it, or if you want it public or private.

NOTE: I’m still working on the privacy controls. Right now all images (except for the final Display Image) are treated as private as there is currently no place in the coin’s detail screen for them. I’ll post again once this is updated and the display interface is working.

Once it’s uploaded you can choose to Edit it by clicking on it, which will allow you to change all details you’ve entered so far.

However, here you can also Crop it. This is where things get neat! Select the area of the photo where the coin is, and you can square crop, circle crop (perfect for obverse/reverse shots) or rounded-edge crop (perfect for detail shots).

I’m going to be re-arranging the interface for this portion a bit to optimize it for both desktop and mobile viewing, so it may look different from what you see above.

Once you’ve uploaded and cropped all of your images, you can then change the Display by clicking on “Choose Display »”.

The Display is a single image, or a composite of two images of your choice, side by side. For ordinary coins, obverse and reverse work well. For special coins, the obverse or reverse on the left and a detail shot on the right might be best.

Finally, when all is said and done, the Edit Pictures screen shows you what your final image looks like.

And here is a shot of what it looks like in Album View.

Please send your bug reports in, and be aware that I am actively working on this. Because of that, if something is broken, wait a few minutes and try again before emailing. Chances are I’m actively tinkering with the problem.

Peace,
-Steve

Coin World: Solution to fake £1 coins simple, complex

To hear the queen’s assay master say it, the only solution to the counterfeiting problem plaguing the £1 coin is a simple answer with a most complex result.

“There is only one real solution, and that is recoinage that uses more modern technology than we had in 1983 that makes it more difficult to counterfeit,” said Phil Hawkins, head of Operations Support at Britain’s Royal Mint.

Hawkins’ traditional title is queen’s assay master, and in that role he is the Royal Mint’s point man with technical, financial and legal agencies that have a stake in coinage, especially counterfeits.

An estimated 48 million fake £1 coins are in circulation in the United Kingdom, according to the Royal Mint, based on figures from a semi-annual survey last conducted in November, results for which were released in early March.

Read the rest here: http://www.coinworld.com/articles/solution-to-fake-1-coins-simple-complex/

Coin Image Uploads Coming Along

Just to give you a little bit of a teaser of this feature as it’s being implemented, Numismetrica will allow you to upload images of your coins and combine them in various ways for display.

Images can be uploaded into one of three categories: Obverse, Reverse, and Detail. From there you can choose if you want your display to be the obverse and reverse side-by-side, the obverse and a blown up detail, the reverse and a blown up detail, or the obverse and reverse with a detail superimposed before or behind them. Each image can also have a 255 character caption.

Every image also has privacy controls. You can have each image be part of your coin’s public profile, or you can keep it private for your own use. You can also even publish it with a Creative Commons license that will allow it to be used elsewhere on the site for a variety of nifty purposes (such as grade comparisons, and better example images).

Want to make sure everything looks neat and tidy? You can crop the images of your coins to remove any background, and then combine them normally.

However, until I get all of the kinks worked out of it, this feature is in closed beta.

When it’s released publicly, the plan is that users with free accounts will be allowed one image per coin, where supporter memberships (a premium package we’ll be rolling out in the coming months with some *really* nifty features) will be allowed 5 or possibly even more.

All images, regardless, must be under 100KB each.

Peace,
-Steve

Fair Market Value Implementation Underway!

Right now, preliminary values for all Half Cents and Cents are in the database. Once I’m able to slog through the rest they’ll be up and we’ll have some new views and calculators to display them with.

You can now check out what *is* working by viewing a collection, and selecting Options -> Change View -> Market Value View (beta).

Watch this space for more updates!

UPDATE: We now have everything from Half Cents to Half Dimes in the database. There are a few holes here and there, but we’re going to try and plug them asap.

UPDATE: Now Dimes and Twenty Cent Pieces are in.

NOTE: State/Territory/ATB Quarters are a *pain* to normalize in a database!

UPDATE: All Quarter prices are now in!

UPDATE May 12: All Half Dollar prices are in. You may see some prices fluctuate a bit in the next few days. That’s because we’re calibrating them to current precious metal prices.

Peace,
-Steve

Database Migration Complete!

This means that you can fully edit your collections once more without fear of oddity.

However, if there are any bugs, please be sure to report them!

Peace,
-Steve

Counterfeiting Moved to New Blog

All of the counterfeiting information has been moved to http://fakes.numismetrica.com, which is looking rather spiffy.

Peace,
-Steve

The Cost of Counterfeits

A beautiful 1903-CC Morgan Dollar... a coin that doesn't exist!

Counterfeiting is even older than coin collecting, itself, and when you’re assembling a collection it is imperative that you know what you’re up against.

Because of this, we are launching a new series on the Numismetrica blog: The Cost of Counterfeits.

Every entry will expose a counterfeit of a classical or modern American coin with a full stat sheet for what to look out for. Our hope is that while you are building up your documented collection on Numismetrica that you’ll find these stat sheets helpful for keeping your collection fake-free.

Once we get enough entries in the database, we’ll be integrating it directly with our program, so that counterfeit coin alerts will go out as messages to your account if you have an un-checked possibility in your holdings.

Peace,
-Steve