THE NUMISMATIC CD

"...another significant evolutionary event has come to pass. The numismatic catalogue compact disc has now become a reality. Heritage released the first American CD for the May 2000 Central States sale. Several years ago I wrote that there will be a time coming in the near future when no more auction catalogues will be printed. Now I predict it will take less than 10 years before this form of catalogue CD becomes the accepted norm in the entire marketplace. Anyone care to make some friendly wagers payable at the 2010 ANA convention?"

Establishing a 'first' requires a solid definition as well as a good bit of investigation. The Heritage CD probably is a first among the major U.S. numismatic auction houses; have any other firms around the world issued one? Should the definition exclude web-based catalogs? For example, Dennis Kroh's Empire Numismatics dropped print catalogs in favor of online sales a year or two ago.

What about a CD which duplicates web site listings? One firm, Cybercoins, offers a CD of their web site to people who want faster access to pictures and other content than they can get via modems; Will numismatic CD's become obsolete as fast internet connections become more prevalent?

Your editor's guess is that the numismatic CD is an interim step, but one which will continue to have a place as a fixed long-term record of electronic information, which changes and disappears quickly on the web. Case in point: Empire Coins ceased operations January 1, 2000; Dennis now focusses on another business, Empire Arms. Empire Coins catalogs are still available on the web, but for how long?

Wayne Homren, Editor

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The E-Sylum: Volume 3, Number 29, July 16, 2000, Article 6

THE NUMISMATIC CD

Wayne Homren, Editor