OK, here's my thinking so far.

I have over the years amassed a few fakes, some deliberately, some through being totally green when they slipped past my untrained eye and some because even though I thought I was `worldly wise' I wasn't quite as sharp as I had thought.

I am of a mind to show a few of these fakes in a number of stages, say 15 or so at a time. I am also thinking of placing one or maybe even two genuine coins in their midst.

The competition element would be seeing who correctly spots the most genuine coins over the stages involved (and explain how they arrived at their conclusion. The winner(s) might receive a fake. They might receive a bona fide coin. That choice will be mine based upon how well I think they did :-).

I'm not intending this as being a `first past the post' event, but rather an opportunity to learn what to be on the look out for and a few pointers on helping separating the real from the not so real. I claim no particular expertise on the subject but I do know that I wish I knew then what I know now.

Although I will only initially provide scans of the items concerned, I might give out further details to the open forum if asked and if convinced that the visual data provided is not enough to resolve.

It could be fun. It could be a bit of an education /sharing. It might be a total pain in the butt in which case it would be better left unstarted. So if the idea is of some interest then let me know and i'll develop it further.

Ian

this sounds like a great idea

I could use to be schooled, I like it

An interesting (and very useful) test.

Yes, please.

It does sound fun and educational

Excellent idea.

Sounds lovely!!
I'll love for sure!

It's time to learn something new!

I too think it would be quite interesting if it's not to big of a pain for you.

Sounds like fun. I'm always up for fun and learning at the same time.

Knowledge is a wonderfull thing to share, sounds like a great idea.

I concur

OK so we have 12 expressions of interest. That would make it a manageable and viable exercise

I've been thinking (always a bad sign) that in order to make it work i'm going to have to email the images directly to the participants. That way everyone will have the same starting point and there is no chance of outside interference with the proceedings/ no `chance' guesses possibly spoiling the learning process.

We can discuss the `coins' in open forum here by direct reference and any questions asked in relation to them can be responded to here so everyone has the benefit of everyone else's thoughts and line of thinking.

Once everyone is all questioned out we can set a deadline for sending back the answers (which should be emailed back to me directly). Once I have everyone's answers we can go over them in open forum again, one at a time as necessary.

Sounds pretty convoluted I know, but I think it might work pretty well this way and we can always play it by ear for the first batch. If it works we can do another batch. if it doesn't, well at least we tried

I'll leave it till Friday 21st for any others who want to join in to express an interest, after which no new entrants will be allowed and we can get started.

PS i'm open to anyones ideas on how best to organise the proceedings.

Ian

I'd like to participate. My grading skills and error detection need to be sharpened.