Okay two competitions ideas. The first one has been tried out on CP before the second one... well don't ask.




1) The Chronocoin Competition

Take the following centuries;

1001
1101
1201
1301
1401
1501
1601
1701
1801
1901
2001


The aim; Connect coins by historical events, design elements, or by themes. 10 people enter the competition. They are then randomly given a century. Here's three categories;

1st) design (e.g shields, crosses, allegorical images)
2nd) historical events
3rd) themes (e.g animals, religion, wars etc.)

These are put to the group in a poll and the members can choose which type of connection they want the entrants in the competition to make. The most popular as chosen by the forum is then the criteria that the contestants must work to. So if history is picked;

E.g; 1492 Columbus discovers America (now debatable whether he was the first or not matters little in this instance)

Coin to pick is of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Or you could get a coin from where Columbus came from.

Next person has to find a coin from the 1500s that links in with the previous coin on an historical level. So perhaps a Spanish coin salvaged from a ship that sunk whilst on route to Spain from the New World (as discovered by Columbus in the previous century).

1600s connection might be some token coinage from the new world issued by the settlers there that were decended from the orginal conquistadors who were bringing back the previous century's 'loot'.

1700s first US coinage perhaps? Or Spanish 8 reales overstruck for use in Britain...

1800s could then divert one way or the other...

1900s runs on from the 1800s...

2000s from 1900s.

Not an easy game by any means. You'll note that criteria is quite fluid. E.g design element. The starter coin from 1001-1100 might have a cross on it, so the first contestant who has got 1101-1200 might go for another coin with a cross on it. This coin however, might have a cross on one side and a shield on the other. Second person with their century 1201-1300 might go in for the shield aspect and find a nice coin from their century with a shield design with a lion in it. Third person with 1301-1400 might take the lion approach... which might be holding a sword... etc. And so on.

Once all the contestants have posted their coin answer then we put it to the forum to vote for who they think deserves the title of winner.

No prizes in this instance, except for the satisfaction of getting a damn good answer!

Time limits on finding a coin with a description of why it's relevant will be implemented.


Anyone interested?



Now for something totally different;

2) The Coin Big Brother/Survivor


Not unlike PCI but done very differently. Ten members enter a coin. Ten coins are put into a 'room' together. Each member has to introduce their coin, it's history, where it came from, why they bought it or whatever. At the end of the first week one of the ten coins will be evicted.

The next week the nine surviving members are given a task to do. It could be anything, from the fairly okay to the totally ridiculous, i.e "write a story involving your coin" or "if your coin was transformed into an animal what would it turn into and why?" (which is akin to asking what kind of personality it would have). or even..."Harry Potter is about to be killed by Lord Voldermort, how would your coin save him? (or not as the case would be)"

Then the members of the forum choose which coin to evict at the end of the week, which leaves us 8 members and so forth...

Of course some weeks will bring deadly serious tasks such as "your coin has witnessed history, what stories could it tell?" or "who might have held this coin?"... But do watch out for the more... well unforseen surreal questions.

The coins can no doubt get through on sheer beauty, but perhaps a really, really good witty or indepth response might save it's bacon.


Thoughts, suggestions? Would anybody willing to take part in either competition? For fun?

Here are my humble personal opinions of the two:

Regarding about first idea, while originally I thought it certainly is an excellent idea but what I fear is that this will be just a "one-sided" chronology debate. Suppose if you, Aetherling puts a silver cross penny in the beginning, the history has to be almost British till the late 1600s until there is decent global trading and that will toss people out who aren't in British coinage. Alternatively, if I were to put down, suppose Chinese spade coins, doesn't that throw quite a fair bit of people out?

Chonology is definately good, but not when it comes down to various countries in my opinion. I personally find it difficult to link European coinage with let's say Middle East coinage history. However, a numismatic scholar might prove me very wrong... Perhaps it might be a good try to run a trial test in the British Specialized forum?

I think option 2 might be good, but of course there might be flaws. Sometimes with ridicious questions might lead to inaccurate or exaggerated answers. Are there any ways to verify it? Perhaps not, unless someone else who collects the same area might be able to notice it. (perhaps, that is when people who vote the "wrong" fact out?)

I can see what you are trying to do Aetherling, that is to try to get people to know more about world coins, which is indeed a difficult task. PCI most certainly doing a good job but it is too daunting and tiring for the mods here, which I can understand, and hence an easier game to moderate.

That's exactly what the aim of all this is GX, finding new inspiring ways for people to share their collections and find out more about the world of coins i general. PCI has done wonders in that respect, to the point where as Stujoe joked, US coins are an endangered species on this forum!

Your points are the same kind of things i was concerned about. I wasn't intending to post a British coin as the starter coin, i was thinking Germany actually. However, the point still stands that it would be US and eurocentric... if anyone posted something from the middle or far east i think alot of us would be sunk from the off.

Google becomes your friend.


This forum has a lot of good stuff going on, within it, and hopefully some new ideas and new projects can enrich user's experience even more! At least that's my aim.

That is one thing i am aware of. PCI requires alot of organisation and dedication and Stu and I have between us managed fairly well up until now to run it (although not at the same time). Although as Stu has pointed out and the results are quite clear to see PCI is growing and getting bigger and bigger. Members enjoy it, and both Stu and I, have enjoyed or are enjoying running it. The practical problem is though that it will presumably just keep getting bigger and running two or three a year to satisfy demand is, well time consuming, i mean they're running to three months now! Geeze i used to spend like two hours in a row just posting half the competitions for Round 1! (It decreased considerably as the rounds went on of course), but that was in the days when PCI was probably only half the size it is now!

It'd be nice to have smaller, shorter and more managable competitions to run between the PCIs so that the forum gets entertained and isn't sat round thinking, "PCI three months away and counting... can't wait...".


PCI can take between two and three months to complete and running only one or two a year seems adequate. Lately we've had a rather fast turn over between 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. I can't speak for Stujoe, but by the end of Season 3, i can tell you i was exhausted, i really needed the break. The forum was crying out for more PCI (which is nice!) but i hadn't the motivation left and Stujoe has done sterling work running the last two.

So anyway i'm trying to think of things to fill the gap, to enable a PCI recovery period for the person running the competition.

As it stands at the moment, Stu has done PCI4 and 5 and by the sound of it would love a break, but as luck would have it for you guys i've been on leave since PCI3 so i feel refreshed enough to pick up for PCI6 pretty much as and when required.


Anyway maybe there's something out there, as yet undiscovered, that's even better than PCI. I remember when it all started many people had their doubts as to whether it'd take off... i think it's safe to say it did.

Option 2 sounds like a great idea. I think all "facts" presented could be challengable where the presenter could provide references, links if challenged. This sounds like a wonderful way to learn more about the histories of more coins.

Both could work. Option 1 IMO would likely work much better as post-1800 by the decade to intorduce variety.

I like the both ideas, and the second one is kinda interesting, i'd be in on it.

Yeah i've considered an 1800-present by decade approach too, don't go thinking it's any easier though!

Both ideas are interesting. The first one we even did once. The second suggestion might be a better option in terms of general participation. I think it would be easier for the general collectors on the site to participate in that one.

I'll give the second idea a little more thought over the next few days and iron out some potential problems. Then i'll see if we can get 8 or 10 people to take part and watch how it goes from there. Hopefully we'll get some members joining in that can do Sisu-esque posting (a la Ugly coin competition), because those posts of yours were funny, and very witty.

The Witty Coin Survivor.

Thank you for your kind words. I am sorry that I have not been able to keep up with it. (After the birth of our third child, I have not found the time to concentrate on coming up with posting new ones.) And since I started with a themed approach, I would hate to just put up a new one without continuing that approach. If I can get myself organized soon, perhaps I can start again; yet make each competition last for 2 or 3 weeks instead to reduce the "deadline stress" that comes with a one week approach.



I look forward to reading your ideas on the second contest idea!

I totally understand about the lack of time Sisu! Afterall ain't that how you ended up with the UCC in the first place?

I really love the second one!
I don't actually get the first one

will post more opinions later.

The first one's hard to explain without pictures. I'll have to get around to that.

Here's the chronocoin competition explained i pictures. For ease of explanation lets say two people have entered the competition.

It has been decided that the coins should be linked by an historical point.

The two contestants have each been given a century. Contestant 1 is given the 20th century, contestant 2 is given the 21st century.


I post a 'starter coin'. Here it is;

It's from the 19th century and i'm sure you'll recognise the design. (I borrowed this image as i don't have a Morgan on hand)




The first contestant has been given the whole of the 20th century to work with, any coin minted in any place in the world. The coin has to have some kind of historical connection to the Morgan dollar though. It could be something direct.

If our contestant was to post this;





Then the connection would be as follows: Barber and George T Morgan both worked at the US mint simultaneously, Barber had a design ready for the dollar coin but the Morgan design was chosen instead. That would be an historical link between the two coins.

Contestant 2 then has to find a 21st century coin that links in with the Barber half on an historical level.


Depending upon what the forum decides though, can change the 'criteria' that contestants make the connection with. In the example above it was an historical connection. But lets say they had chosen a design theme connection for the contestants to link the coins with instead.

Using the above example but now using a design 'theme', well both have a Liberty theme, so that's one connection. Both have an eagle theme, so that's another.

There is potential to switch countries though and move elsewhere. So take the Morgan Dollar starter coin. Contestant 1 this time posts this coin from the 20th century to link in with it;




Design theme link; The Morgan has the US depiction of Liberty, the French sower has the French depiction of Liberty.

Historical link; The Morgan has the US liberty that is a symbol of the nation and the freedoms it gained when it broke away from royal authority (GB), The French liberty is likewise a symbol of the nation that broke away from royal authority (this time their own). The French helped the US against the Brits, and the French republic drew its ideals from the newly found USA.


Hopefully that makes it more clear?

I like both ideas, it wouldn't hurt to try either.

bump. I'm way too tired to read this now but it looks interesting.