Addition to implement a field for Mintmasters Initials and Symbol to Coin sheets. [Risolto]

Hello,

currently we have when creating or improving a coin sheet under Mintage the possibility to add the Mint letter which is perfect as it is and important as well.
Mint letters however appeared on coins mostly only in the 19th century.

Before that at least in Europe it was often the Mintmasters initials which indicated where a coin has been minted and who was the mintmaster.

On plenty of coin sheets this mintmasters initials is misused as Mint letter.

I would like to therefore ask for the addition for a field next to Mint letter with
"Mintmasters Initial/Symbol"
I believe this is an important information in numismatics and should be implemented into our coin sheets.

I wrote the naming as initial/Symbol as on especially older coins there was in most cases a symbol and not letters to indicate the mintmaster.

It would be excellent if this new field would become visible only in the /catalogue/contributions/modifier and then if it is added to a coin as this will not be relevant to most of the coins minted after 1800


Thank you,

Paul

And if it was a symbol what would you put in the field?

Mike

For now probably only a written desciption of it.
Example: crescent moon
Addition of a pictore of that would also be great but not sure what would be the best unified way to do this.

For Mexico and Spanish Colonial coins, this would be the "Assayer's Mark" and I think this field would be homogenous for that use case as well.

Text would be far to broad especially if the year lines have comments.
Also you would have to translate them unless they become useless.

The field could take the approach of catalogs and use (w) or [XY] to indicate a symbol, and have a listing of the abbreviations.

The listings could be similar to the mint table, with columns for:

• The letters or symbol abbreviation.
  
• What the abbreviation means (p) Pentagram.
  
• The name of the person or group associated with the letters or symbol.
  
• The date range.
  

Tables like this occur at the start of country listings in Krause and Schön DM and other catalogs.

The listings could be free-form, or with standard entries like the mint field.

Looks like it could end up being a dogs breakfast of symbols, abbreviations and text that would be very difficult to maintain. Just my thoughts.

Mike

Hello,

 

It's now possible to enter marks (letters or symbols) of mintmasters, as well as privy marks, magistrate monograms, etc.

This new feature is intended for all marks other than mint marks, which have their dedicated field.

 

Such marks are visible in the year lines. They are also visible on the type description (between the mints and the comments), with the name of the person represented by the mark (if applicable and known) and the title.

 

Only a few marks are available for the moment. You can request the addition of new marks with the dedicated forum topic type. Please provide a black and white image in PNG format (100px × 100px) or SVG format. For initials, no picture is needed.
If possible, please provide: the name of the person, the title, the years when the mark was used, a very short description, the Wikidata ID of the person, the Nomisma URL of the symbol.

For example: Joaquin Jimenez; General coin engraver; 2022-date; rhinoceros; Q3179749

Or: Lorber Monogram 165; Greek letters Μ, Υ; http://numismatics.org/pco/symbol/monogram.lorber.165

This is a super feature!

Xavier

Hello,

 

It's now possible to enter marks (letters or symbols) of mintmasters, as well as privy marks, magistrate monograms, etc.

This new feature is intended for all marks other than mint marks, which have their dedicated field.

 

Such marks are visible in the year lines. They are also visible on the type description (between the mints and the comments), with the name of the person represented by the mark (if applicable and known) and the title.

 

Only a few marks are available for the moment. You can request the addition of new marks with the dedicated forum topic type. Please provide a black and white image in PNG format (100px × 100px) or SVG format. For initials, no picture is needed.
If possible, please provide: the name of the person, the title, the years when the mark was used, a very short description, the Wikidata ID of the person, the Nomisma URL of the symbol.

For example: Joaquin Jimenez; General coin engraver; 2022-date; rhinoceros; Q3179749

Or: Lorber Monogram 165; Greek letters Μ, Υ; http://numismatics.org/pco/symbol/monogram.lorber.165

Is this also for designers initials ?

 

In canada the designer initials are so small, people don't really see them until they use a magnifier. It might be a good thing to remove those initials from the Lettering and add them to this new field. Is this a use you want us to implement ?

 

Best regards,

Québécois

 

Is this also for designers initials ?

 

In canada the designer initials are so small, people don't really see them until they use a magnifier. It might be a good thing to remove those initials from the Lettering and add them to this new field. Is this a use you want us to implement ?

 

Best regards,

Designer Initials are constant across a type so they shouldn't be in the new field in the mintage lines.

I would prefer focusing on mintmaster marks, dies marks, assayer marks, privy marks, etc., especially for symbols.

I don't really see a need to change the way we currently indicate the engraver initials in the lettering field.

Also, this feature can be used even for marks which are common to all the mintage lines.

Ok thanks for the Quick answer. 

This feature will be extremely helpful in the identifiaction of the mint of 16th and 17th century Polish (PLC) coins.

 

I will submit some lists of initials in the next few days, but I don't think I will be able to find Wikidata for most of the people.  I will be able to cite references (Gumowski) that are in our list of references.

 

For symbols, I will probably need to draw them by hand then photograph, as the examples in Gumowski are too small.