Hello,
As 2024 comes to a close, it’s time to look back on an exciting year for Numista.
In terms of developments, we focused on revamping the catalogue categories, strengthening the structure of the database, and attaching more information to the types, the year lines and the database entities.
Catalogue
- The categories of the catalogue were completely redesigned. We now have more detailed categories, especially for tokens, and a unified search to search within one or multiple categories at a time.
- The galleries of examples were introduced in January. 7 984 examples were added during the year. Together with the 350 173 sales records, they help illustrate the different varieties and conditions of coin types.
- It also became possible to modify sales records.
- The year lines were enriched with yearline-specific reference numbers, and pictures from the associated examples or sales records.
- Engraver and designer pages were created to better describe these artists.
- Pages for coin manufacturing techniques were also created, with a description and an illustration for some of them.
- The series became a structured entity with description pages.
- We implemented a database of cities. So far it is used for outings, printer locations, and book publication place. We plan to use it for mints too in the future.
- We allowed to attach a second issuing entity per type. This was especially needed as signatures became associated with issuing entities, not with issuers anymore.
- Following a big technical refactoring of modification requests, we implemented a history of catalogue modification requests as well as the possibility to comment and reply to modification requests.
- The API for search by image was enhanced with the ability to detect the date and grade using AI.
- With the tracker of catalogue entity changes, we gave better visibility to all the changes impacting the structure of the catalogue.
- The administration back office was continually improved to better manage the catalogue entities.
Forum
- We introduced links between forum topics and catalogue pages.
- Moderators are now assisted by an AI moderator, which speeds up reporting suspicious messages to moderators.
Collection
- We improved the calculation of the price of bullion coins, which prices fluctuate with the price of the precious metal.
Literature
- Preliminary changes for the future literature section have been released, including the new structure for books (one or multiple volumes, one or multiple editions), periodicals and articles. We also have pages for authors and publishers, and you can already request the creation and modification of books and periodicals. The full release will arrive in the coming weeks.
The year 2024 was an important year for internationalization. One and a half year after the Spanish version, the German version was launched at the World Money Fair in February as the 4th language of Numista. It was soon followed by Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Russian.
The catalogue continued to grow steadily and we just passed the milestone of 400 000 types referenced in the catalogue. We are especially catching up in areas previously less covered, such as ancient Greek coins and medals.
- 4 505 people contributed to the catalogue (+8% compared to 2023).
- 945 659 modifications were made to the catalogue (-18%), that is 1.8 modifications per minute, not counting automatic modifications.
- 50 514 new types were added to the catalogue (+32%), reaching the milestone of 400k types described!
- Rulers
- The number of rulers in the database increased from 10 431 to 11 466 (+10%).
- 71% of the types in the catalogue have a ruler.
- Artists (engravers and designers)
- The number of artists in the database increased from 1094 to 2214 (+102%).
- 21% of the types in the catalogue have an engraver or a designer.
- References to other catalogues
- The number of reference catalogues in the database increased from 2396 to 2837 (+18%).
- 70% of the types in the catalogue have cross-references to other catalogues.
- Scripts
- The number of scripts in the database increased from 101 to 110 (+9%)
- 81% of the types in the catalogue have lettering scripts.
- Mints and printers
- The number of mints in the database increased from 4215 to 4469 (+6%).
- The number of printers in the database increased from 773 to 815 (+5%)
- 51% of the types in the catalogue have a mint or a printer.
- Marks and signatures
- The number of mint marks and other marks in the database increased from 2493 to 2752 (+10%).
- The number of signatures in the database increased from 1450 to 2110 (+46%).
- 18% of the types in the catalogue have mint letters, mintmarks, marks or signatures.
A warm thank you to all the people who contribute to the development of Numista: the catalogue admin team (ArsenEverlast, Compendium, Indomini16, Jarcek, tdziemia), the developer (dzmitry.huletski), the translators, the referees, the moderators (VieillePile, ystankous, ZacUK), and all the contributors.
