Galleries - for us or for others?

[Ron C2]

Musing out loud here, but are our galleries for ourselves, or are they for others?  Or both?

In reality, each of us has the real McCoy in a flip or cabinet.  We can look at them whenever we want to, but we choose to photograph the coins and post them here.  For some it's a hobby (macro photography), for others it's seen as a responsibility or duty by virtue of being part of this numismatic community.  (I do enjoy the photography aspect though... I even moderate the photography sub-forum!)

In my observations the last couple years, very few of the coins I post get looked at in detail by others.  A detailed look means someone went beyond the thumbnail and the gallery software counted that view as a "hit" so I can see it was viewed. This does not mean the image was even viewed in full resolution, just that they took the time to click on the thumbnail. Each time my PC refreshes its IP address, if I look at my own coins, the hit counter goes up.  So realistically, at least 1/3 of the views of my own coins are me revisiting my own collection because it's convenient at the computer to look at the coins in my gallery like a catalogue of what I own. 

The number of hits slows to a veritable crawl once I bury my own "hey look what I just posted" note in the gallery board with new additions to my gallery that cause me to post to my gallery thread, like a little announcement that I've just created a new, short, Forum webpage others can click on.  None of my coins has seen more than 100 hits over the last 2 years, meaning likely fewer than 50 or 60 actual hits from people who are not me for even my best images of my rarest coins.

So what is the real reason I (and all of you) keep adding to our galleries?  (besides perhaps a touch of OCD). 

I think for me, it's a few things and I'm curious what motivates others.  In my case, I like having a digital inventory I can quickly reference from my phone when coin shopping.  I can quickly see if I have an issue, and if the coin I'm looking at is a new type for me or a notable upgrade in terms of condition. 

Part of me likes to think some researcher somewhere will look at one of my images and draw some conclusion that will end up a footnote in a book only a few numismatists will prize on their shelves, but realistically that's not likely for the vast majority of our coins where better reference examples exist in museum collections available to researchers.  In the end, I think I do it for me, but with a vain hope others on the board will find the info useful some day

What motivates you to create and maintain your galleries?

[*Alex]

Hi Ron,

The personal galleries are for whatever you want them to be. Some people use them for their own personal records, others put up their collections for others to use for research, and some just want to show off their coins. It's up to the user.
Nobody much visits my gallery either and, from what I see, the galleries with a high number of visit "hits" are often because of the multiple visits made to them by the gallery owner themselves rather than by visitors from the wider community.
In the case of my own gallery, because of my position with FORVM, only visitor hits are registered, not my own visits, so it is easy for me to see how few visitors there are to it.

I would like to think that other people would be able to take something from their visits to my gallery, I often repeatedly visit other member's galleries for my own research and I think it would be great if other people did that as well. There is a lot of information out there.

*Alex

[v-drome]

I look at almost every new entry, but I have a fairly big screen desktop, so I don't always have to click on the thumbnail to get a good view.  Many times I use our member's galleries to identify my coins, and I have been contacted quite a few times by people researching coins and artifacts who would like more information or higher resolution photos of mine.  Also, I find it is much easier on my eyes to look at my own coins in the gallery, than to take out the slips and fumble around with them, or go to the bank to see the ones I put away.  Lastly, when my computer died just while I was making a new backup, the Forum gallery was essential in saving many of my photos and descriptions, literally years of work.  Thank you, Joe, and Forum Ancient Coins!

[Tracy Aiello]

Ron,

Great question, and I sometimes ponder it with respect to my gallery. I think that Alex makes a good point, something of which I try to remind myself, that the galleries that Joe at Forum generously hosts are for whatever we want them to be.

For me it is primarily a “one-stop-shop” for my collection where I can organize into different themes or focuses, see all of my coins and their write-ups at a glance, easily access an individual coin/write-up with the click of a mouse, and for my Larissa gallery quickly survey my collection chronologically from oldest to newest.

Of course everything that I have on my Forum gallery I have on a drive in Word documents and jpgs, but it is much easier and quicker to access my collection via my gallery. That also holds true for my physical collection stored in archival flips and arranged in a curio cabinet. Of course I can “hold” much more information in my gallery write-ups (and their respective Word docs on a drive) than I can on a tiny piece of cardboard inside a coin flip. The biggest reason that the gallery is easier to access, for information, than my physical collection.

Nonetheless I also hold out a hope that others will peruse my gallery and learn something from it. Often I go overboard in my research, write-ups, and sources listed (at least in my mind anyway) and a tiny part of me hopes that others will in some way benefit from that research and its attending write-ups. I try to spend time going through galleries of others, but I must admit that I don’t do that enough. Many of them are outstanding resources from which I know that I could learn a lot.

Tracy

[Dominic T]

520 different galleries, 120,810 files, 4574 albums, 52,514 comments, 5,478,350 views,
and an average of 25 members who votes every year for Gallery of the year.
DT

[Jay GT4]

I agree with all of the above statements.  Primarily my gallery is for myself but I do enjoy when people see and comment on my coins.  I try to leave comments on others coins, especially if it is a new member.  Dominic's post is pretty eye opening isn't it?  Seems that there is a core group that is engaged in the Forum, whether that's posting, replying or commenting.  Many of the old timers have retired or moved on. 

I have always believed that the gallery is an untapped resource for identifying and referencing coins.  Look at David Atherton's gallery for example.  The vast majority of Flavian coins both in RIC and RPC are cataloged with correct attributions.  It's an amazing resource.  I've just reorganized mine by RIC number rather than by obverse portrait because of David's.  It's a game changer for me and puts coins together in a way that really helps you understand the issues.  I think many more people could use the galleries in this way, but it means the attributions need to be correct.  Still, I go to the galleries first before acsearch, coinarchives or wildwinds.

 

[Virgil H]

These are indeed great questions. It took me a long time to start a Gallery and a long time being here before I actually started looking at them. It is why the Member's Gallery Forum posts are so important. When someone posts new coins, I now look, it doesn't matter if I collect them or not. That will sometimes lead me down a rabbit hole of looking at that person's gallery and looking at others.

I did my gallery mainly for myself and my heirs, although I have all my coins on a spreadsheet that is backed up on the cloud. Most of my coins are not particularly amazing, but I did have a PHD student ask if he could study my collection of Elymais coins (I also told him there were a few other Elymais galleries). That is one reason I put those coins up first, plus it is a more developed area as my interests can be pretty scattershot. So, of course, I hope others may benefit from it. I have had a couple of my attributions corrected by members (Robert L3) and Jay GT4 has pointed out once when I cut and paste the wrong reverse description on a couple of coins. So, in some cases, the Gallery has helped me correct things and I am grateful for that. One of the reasons I nominated Jay for Member of the Year is because he goes out of his way to comment. He and a few others inspired me to try and do the same.

For the past few months I have tried to make it a point to visit the galleries regularly and make a few comments. I certainly like getting comments on mine. And I like seeing everyone's interests. Also, when I talk about galleries, I include Meepzorp's web site, as I also look at that when I am in "gallery" mode.

Finally, regarding using the galleries to identify coins, this I haven't really figured out. But, acsearch and coinarchives usually aren't helpful, either, other than to verify a coin I have tentatively identified already. I need to get in there and figure it out, I guess.

And, this post reminds me, I need to get off my butt and add the many coins I haven't put on there yet.

Virgil

[Ron C2]

  Still, I go to the galleries first before acsearch, coinarchives or wildwinds.

I'm famously distrusting of attributions I find online.  I tend to go to the primary references first to ID new coins, and it's amazing how often dealer and large auction house coins are misattributed, or are attributed with details that aren't correct or verifiable.  For example, Roma Numismatics will almost always list the workshop and officina of issues where that knowledge is either unknown or is being deeply debated.  In such cases, I don't quote attributions I can't myself verify.

[lawrence c]

I would agree with the above. None of my coins are particularly "wow", so it is unlikely that they are going to be fascinating to others. It's largely a suspenders and belt situation: I have (at least my Roman coins; have not yet gotten around to the others) my coins on the Forum as an easy reference along with a similar hard drive system. Beyond this -- if this comment is allowed -- I'm getting to the age where I have to think about mortality, and I've already given Forum's web address to my wife for when things fall into her hands. The gallery should make things easier. Joe, I need you to stick around for a while.

[Callimachus]

  Still, I go to the galleries first before acsearch, coinarchives or wildwinds.

I'm famously distrusting of attributions I find online.  I tend to go to the primary references first to ID new coins, and it's amazing how often dealer and large auction house coins are misattributed, or are attributed with details that aren't correct or verifiable. 

I generally agree with this.

Before Dane took over Wildwinds, the attributions there were very unreliable because they just quoted from 1000s of different dealers and eBay sellers. Hats off to Dane for cleaning up this resource and providing accurate attributions.

I often find looking at the "Last Uploads" and "Last Comments" part of the Members' Gallery to be the most interesting part of my online visit here. I check them daily, and  have learned a lot about areas that I do not collect -- such as Parthian coins or the STKP's medieval Hungarian coins.  Too bad more members do not take advantage of this resource.

[v-drome]

Yes, last uploads and last comments are something I check at least once a day, right after unread posts.  Lawrence C, you have some spectacular coins!  If you like, you could always add your gallery URL to your profile signature to make it easier for members to find your coins.  I have commented on two of your additions recently that I found very interesting and really loved.

Best regards, Jimi