Basic newbie questions [résolu]

I have a few questions that I can't get google to cooperate in answering so I've brought them here to the forum experts of Numista. You folks have a tendency to supply information in a way that the most detailed google search cannot. With that being said, my questions:

1. What exactly does "issuer" mean? Is it the country that minted it, the mint within that country, the country its being minted for, or something else entirely?

2. What's the best way to get clear scans of a coin? Every scan I've done so far has been blurry or unreadable.

3. Is there a Numisdoc dictionary of common numismatic words? I've read all the Numisdocs and they are all wonderful. Having a working knowledge of numismatic terminology helped while reading them.

I guess that's it for now. Most of my questions are more vague and less easily explained. Feedback is always appreciated!

Hi there and welcome to numista.

i can only confidently answer no 2. To get a good photo of your coins, you need to enable marco mode on your phone. If your phone do not have the marco mode, then i suggest to go further abit more until the coin becomes in focus, take a photo of it and crop later. Below is a very good tutorial on how to take good photos of the coin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS_n8jVLXgU

As for no 3, i do not think there is a standard as we follow the internet.
Example milled edge and reeded edge.
Slanted (right/left) milled edge. Slanted (right/left) Reeded edge.
They are the same. Some people use milled, some people used reeded.

1. Issuer means issuing entity (New Zealand, France, Poland, etc.) with legal rights to issue the coin.

• Generally speaking issuer = country (specifically in modern times).
  
• Depending on time periods an issuer can be a city, a region, a country, a territory, etc. that is/was granted with minting privileges given by ruling authority (King, Emperor, Republic, etc.).
  
• Several cities had minting rights under some medieval countries (1 country with several local issuers).
  
• The mint is not the issuer, solely the place where the coin is struck.
  

2. I guess it will depend on the material you use.

• Make sure to select a high resolution quality in your parameters (300dpi is generally good enough).
  
• Placing the coin a solid background (paper sheet).
  

3. Yes, there are actually 2 Numisdocs: here for terms with definition and here for French/English equivalent.

• But, both are to date on the French side only as they're not yet fully translated.
  
• But (again), both are currently being updated and combined.
  
• Meaning there should be one single document with numismatic terms, definitions and translations on both French and English sides in the coming 2-3 weeks.
  

You are both fantastic! Thank you! I'm sure I'll have more questions in time, and I can only hope ya'll will be here to answer them when that time comes.

Hi,

for numismatic terms I opened this thread:

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic83277.html

Ole

Citation: "Raibas"​2. What's the best way to get clear scans of a coin? Every scan I've done so far has been blurry or unreadable.
​

​I have rarely had any decent results trying to photograph coins and always use an Epson flatbed scanner. For a single coin, I usually set the resolution to 1200dpi but if I am scanning a few coins together (such as for a swap) then I have to reduce the resolutiion otherwise the file ends up being to large. The Epson Scan software has a bunch of settings that you can adjust to tweak the quality and appearance of the image produced and when scanning a single coin, I crop the area being scanned and use the zoom function so I am only focussing on the coin and not the whole A4 area. Photographing coins can acheive better results than scanning but it can take quite a while to get the right set-up - scanning coins is real easy.

Citation: "Raibas"​1. What exactly does "issuer" mean? Is it the country that minted it, the mint within that country, the country its being minted for, or something else entirely?
​

At least in the context of Numista, we say "issuer" here to refer to any one of these links on the country list:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pays.php

You are all being a fantastic help!

Citation: "CassTaylor"​

Citation: "Raibas"​​1. What exactly does "issuer" mean? Is it the country that minted it, the mint within that country, the country its being minted for, or something else entirely?
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​At least in the context of Numista, we say "issuer" here to refer to any one of these links on the country list:
​https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pays.php
​

​Does this mean that all the countries that the United Kingdom has invaded and then minted coinage for are considered to be issuers? Is the United Kingdom considered to be issuer instead?

What about coins like this:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces6378.html
Minted by the United States, but its issuer is Phillippines. That's why I'm trying to get as concise an answer as possible.

The United Kingdom is an issuer, and all its colonies are separate issuers. When we say "issuer" here to avoid controversy we don't usually mean a geopolitical or cultural entity, just a category under which coins are catalogued.

For example the coin you linked was minted by the US, but catalogued under the issuer Philippines.

As mentioned previously, Numista considers the Philippines to be the Issuer for the coin.

From my perspective, the coin is issued by the authority of the United States and issued for the Philippines. And the Numsta entry does have the information when it says "Country Philippines" on the right and "U.S. Administration" at the top.

I feel like I'm being difficult or nitpicky in my question, but I still don't have the clear answer I'm looking for. I now understand that when one entity mints coinage for another entity that the issuer is considered to be whichever is actually handing the physical coins out. That makes absolute perfect sense. At the same time, when I look at my coin data it says I have 100 countries and 109 issuers. I don't know the reason for the difference in numbers, so I'm still trying to learn. Thank you all for being so patient in your explanations.

Don't worry about being nitpicky--my coin collection would be much smaller if I wasn't nitpicky.

It may help us explain if you look through the county and issuer list and give us an example of where they differ (and the coins at fault if possible).

Citation: "bjherbison"​​It may help us explain if you look through the county and issuer list and give us an example of where they differ (and the coins at fault if possible).

​After comparing my country list with the issuer list (something that hadn't even occurred to me to do) I think I've got the answer. For example, Australia is one country, but its listings for Pound based coins are considered to be one issuer while its listings for Dollar based coins are considered another. The same goes for countries in the EU when they switched to the Euro. Now I understand. Thank you all so much for your help and consider this solved!