Numis Forums Suggestions

[AETHER]

Hi, 

 

Would love a WTB (want to buy) section that is transparent and others can comment on fair deal or authenticity.  I'd like to suggest a coin and price range I'm looking for and others to see and consider selling.

 

Edit: ops, ignore, I found the wanted section. Thanks.

Edited December 17, 2022 by AETHER

[Valentinian]

I find the default font too small. It makes a line about 30 words long, which is twice as long as many lines in books. I've taken to blocking my posts and selecting a larger font. I suggest that, if possible, the default font be increased about two sizes. 

[Kaleun96]

1 hour ago, Valentinian said:

I find the default font too small. It makes a line about 30 words long, which is twice as long as many lines in books. I've taken to blocking my posts and selecting a larger font. I suggest that, if possible, the default font be increased about two sizes. 

This is usually something best solved on your end by setting a default "zoom" for the forum in your browser. This can be done in Chrome but unsure about other browsers:

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/96810?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

The reason I say this is because it's typically a bad idea to set the size of something so that it is fixed because people are browsing from many different screen sizes. For example, the 30 words per line you see depends on the width and resolution of your display. On mobile, you probably see only 15 wpl or so. Increasing the font size then can make the font size too big for others, even if it's perfect on your device.

You might be able to find some browser extensions that let you change the font for certain websites too, e.g.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/a -fontsize-changer/ckihgechpahhpompcinglebkgcdgpkil

That being said, if the majority of people here would prefer a large default font size then that is probably the best solution.

[Valentinian]

On 1/16/2023 at 3:04 PM, Kaleun96 said:

because people are browsing from many different screen sizes.

That must be true. For me, when a large coin photo displays (and it seems most posters use large photos), I can see it across most of the width of the screen and then the words are tiny in comparison. I use a laptop and don't know how people who use small screens see the images. Do they see the full image width at once and, if so, are the words then too small? 

You are right. I can use command+ (I have a Mac) and that changes the font size without making the image too large. I'll do that. Thank you.

[kirispupis]

Comparing NumisForums to "that other" site, it clearly has a larger default font size.

Yes, I'm aware how to increase it myself. Just CTRL + scroll up on Windows. However, I do agree with others that the default font is too small.

[DonnaML]

As far as I can tell, when I paste text here from other places directly (as opposed to hitting "paste as plain text"), a 12-point Times New Roman font elsewhere translates into something larger than the default font here -- specifically, to a "16" on the drop-down menu under the "Size" button. Whereas the default font appears to be about the same size as the "14" on the Size menu, or maybe a bit smaller.  Which is obviously equivalent to less than a 12-point font elsewhere. As I recall, the default font on Coin Talk is about the same size as the size "16" text here.

Also, I often have to reduce the size of photos I show here before I post them, which is easy to do by highlighting the photo and then right-clicking on it while hitting the CTRL button, and then selecting the "Edit Image" option. If I don't, the photos sometimes appear as way too enormous on my Windows 11 desktop screen -- with a width of up to 900 or 1000 px, which I usually reduce to no more than 650 or 700 px, making sure to check the "Keep original aspect ratio" box -- although the photo size generally isn't a problem when viewing my Android cellphone. 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by DonnaML

[Deinomenid]

Should we  have a "sticky" fakes thread? For example from reading  one of the German sites someone has been  buying legitimate Roma coins, copying them and adding a very impressive tint (aging patina)  and selling the results  on Catawiki - and these  purchases are then unwittingly disseminated.  I have no idea whether this sort of thing should have a general alert. Also a number of  fakes were kindly reported by a Numis Forums member concerning a recent UK sale and unless the relevant thread (it was a comment on the thread itself) was read it really wouldn't get the widest audience.

 

 

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

4 hours ago, Deinomenid said:

Should we  have a "sticky" fakes thread? For example from reading  one of the German sites someone has been  buying legitimate Roma coins, copying them and adding a very impressive tint (aging patina)  and selling the results  on Catawiki - and these  purchases are then unwittingly disseminated.  I have no idea whether this sort of thing should have a general alert. Also a number of  fakes were kindly reported by a Numis Forums member concerning a recent UK sale and unless the relevant thread (it was a comment on the thread itself) was read it really wouldn't get the widest audience.

 

 

Even better, one thread per group of fakes (ie greek, roman, etc)

[Severus Alexander]

Maybe a dedicated subforum for fake queries and reports would work best. Then searches within that forum would be easy too. 

[jfp7375]

Definitely support a fakes subforum w/ stickies for each major collecting area, or whatever other format would make it easy to pin specialized lists, resources, content, etc. 

[Valentinian]

I don't support the idea of a fakes forum here because there are already other places that discuss fakes and it is better to not have to look in umpteen places. There is a email list, the CoinForgeryDiscussionList
https://groups.io/g/CFDL/messages
that exposes fakesellers.

There is a large site on forgeries: ForgeryNetwork:
http://forgerynetwork.com/
I recommend fakes be published there.

There are two sites that list eBay fakesellers:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html

and the site hosted by Forum Ancient Coins:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=18502.0

EDIT:  A better URL for that:  https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/

We at NF are a small subset of ancient-coin collectors. If we have something to contribute, let's do it somewhere where the impact will be greater, such as pages already in existence. 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Valentinian
A more precise URL for a site (Thank you @DonnaML)

[DonnaML]

8 minutes ago, Valentinian said:

I don't support the idea of a fakes forum here because there are already other places that discuss fakes and it is better to not have to look in umpteen places. 

I agree. As important as any of the ones you mention, there's also https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/ -- "Dr. Ilya Prokopov's Fake Ancient Coin Reports" at Forvm. Not that people shouldn't be able to mention fake coins here, but I don't think there's any reason to dilute the existing resources.

[Deinomenid]

The main concern I'd have is all the sites Valentinian mentions do not easily (as in easy to find) mention fairly  high level fakes currently or very recently for sale by reputable  houses. They are fairly ebay-centric in terms  of new  posts too, and while I use and strongly recommend forgerynetwork and forumancientcoins they don't help too much with "live" information.. I'm restricting this  comment only  to areas I know, which admittedly is a subset of a subset.

For example

The recent Gela Leu issue.

The recent Roma/Catawiki fraudster who I suspect is more  prolific than realized. (To be clear  there is NO issue at Roma I'm aware of but it helps maybe for looking  it up.)

The recent Spink Greek issues kindly brought up  by  a member.

I'd be surprised if most members  knew (or  possibly cared 😀) about these. This all may be a case of caveat emptor or we could assume, probably correctly, that our members all know the sites Valentinian suggested PLUS the various  local language numismatic forums which sometimes alert their members.

I don't  have the time to post what I know (or at least think I know) on the other sites discussed, which  probably reflects  poorly on me. It is  just that with SO many fakes including  in "expert" collections and with the recent news of a major collection known to be full of fakes being donated to a museum I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kaleun96]

I agree with Deinomenid. The mailing list seems to be very eBay centric, I'd go as far as saying eBay fakes shouldn't be allowed in any future fake thread on NumisForums unless it's a fake with auction/dealer provenance or particularly dangerous. ForgeryNetwork is not great for searching, terrible for downloading photos from for die matching, and less than ideal for discussing a certain fake. Forum Ancient Coin's database is also not great for searching, often has low resolution images, often lacks info about the fake (e.g. where exactly it's from), and is also less than ideal for discussing.

Except for the email list, none of the existing options (except the German forum) are great for discussing fakes and I think this particular aspect is suited to a forum-based thread rather than a database of sorts that ForgeryNetwork and Forum are striving for.

We frequently discuss fakes on the Discord server that may or may not be in ForgeryNetwork or Forum and the discussion is often more enlightening than just finding out whether a particular fake has been recorded before or not. It'll also be a good to have a place here to discuss potential fakes, though it shouldn't become a place where people submit their coins to be "verified", rather only coins that people have good reason to suspect are fake.

[Valentinian]

16 minutes ago, Kaleun96 said:

The mailing list seems to be very eBay centric,

That is true, but only because that's what the members post. Please join and post discussions of coins from other sources. It could be a far better email list (which does have a website preserving posts) if people reading this thread joined and made it so. Now it has over 1000 members. That is more than double the reach of NF. It is already devoted to the topic. If it is not very good, that is because the members make it what it is and they don't yet include the NF members who would make it better. 

Again. it is:  https://groups.io/g/CFDL/messages

[jfp7375]

2 hours ago, Valentinian said:

I don't support the idea of a fakes forum here because there are already other places that discuss fakes and it is better to not have to look in umpteen places. There is a email list, the CoinForgeryDiscussionList
https://groups.io/g/CFDL/messages
that exposes fakesellers.

There is a large site on forgeries: ForgeryNetwork:
http://forgerynetwork.com/
I recommend fakes be published there.

There are two sites that list eBay fakesellers:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html

and the site hosted by Forum Ancient Coins:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=18502.0

EDIT:  A better URL for that:  https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/

We at NF are a small subset of ancient-coin collectors. If we have something to contribute, let's do it somewhere where the impact will be greater, such as pages already in existence. 

I think this is actually a fantastic argument in favor of having a subforum or some sticky threads - because I wasn't aware of all of these resources. 

Also, as another poster mentioned, some of these look out of date and there are new batches of fakes appearing on the market all the time.

Why not have a place to centralize external resources, and if people want to post updates or discuss recent fakes, ask for authenticity checks, even if some of that is redundant with other resources, all the better. 

[Valentinian]

1 hour ago, jfp7375 said:

even if some of that is redundant with other resources, all the better. 

That makes it easy on the reader, but harder on the posters who provide the information. I'm retired and have more free time than most, but even so it takes effort to post fakes.  I feel I have provided a service when I do it to once place. Now I am being asked to do it to several? 

[Coinmaster]

A suggestion is to make it possible to choose a 'dark modus' for the site. In the evening, watching NF at your smartphone, it's more relaxing for your eyes. 

[AETHER]

How about a live chat feature? 

[ACCLA-Mike]

Could you add a "hugs" emoji or equivalent? So we can send our supportive commiserations to posters who missed bids, lost coins etc.?

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Perhaps there could be a dedicated section for important coin current events?  I.e. stuff like the Beale thread.  I could then filter it more easily without zapping topics I actually want to see in the general section.

Also, what about a dedicated Games section?

[Salomons Cat]

On 8/26/2023 at 1:38 AM, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Also, what about a dedicated Games section?

I agree!

And the "Roman Empire" section of this forum is notably bustling with activity - it's the most active among all sections. However, the Roman Empire spans a vast period of time. Would it be prudent to consider dividing it into two distinct sub-sections: "Early Roman Empire (27 BC - 284 AD)" and "Late Roman Empire (284 AD - 641 AD)"?

Presently, the content within the Roman Empire section is rather amalgamated, which at times appears disorganized in my opinion.

[Egry]

Would  it be possible to add a forum for colonial coinage for Spanish, English, Dutch, Portugese, etc? 

I feel the threads get lost in the 'World Coins' forum.

 

Cheers

E

[DonnaML]

18 minutes ago, Egry said:

Would  it be possible to add a forum for colonial coinage for Spanish, English, Dutch, Portugese, etc? 

I feel the threads get lost in the 'World Coins' forum.

 

Cheers

E

My two cents is that people post so infrequently in the World Coins forum to begin with (compared to the Ancient Coins forum) that if one limits one's view to that forum only, nothing will get lost. When one views all topics, it's the World Coins forum itself that gets lost among all the posts about ancient coins. Medieval coins get more, for that matter.  In fact, out of the last 100 new threads started here, there have been exactly 4 in the World Coins forum. I see no good reason to fragment that forum further.

[Egry]

46 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

My two cents is that people post so infrequently in the World Coins forum to begin with (compared to the Ancient Coins forum) that if one limits one's view to that forum only, nothing will get lost. When one views all topics, it's the World Coins forum itself that gets lost among all the posts about ancient coins. Medieval coins get more, for that matter.  In fact, out of the last 100 new threads started here, there have been exactly 4 in the World Coins forum. I see no good reason to fragment that forum further.

I respectfully disagree.

Most of these coins were legal tender in North America up unit the 1850's. They deserve better representation than a thread in 'World Coins'

However, I'm not going to die in a ditch about it, just a suggestion.

 

thanks

 

E