The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 26, July 1, 2007, Article 12

EARLY HISTORY OF CLASSIFIED COIN ADS

Dick Johnson (founding editor of Coin World) writes: "Here are some further
comments on John Meissner's study of classified ads. Numismatic News existed

before Coin World and their format was largely the tiny ads placed by
individual collectors to buy, sell or trade numismatic items. Strictly
speaking, these were not "classified ads" but were instead, "word ads"
as NN did not arrange them under any classification system. I believe
they had only three different headings at the top of any column: For Sale,
Wanted, For Trade. They were placed indiscriminately under one of these
three columns.

"Before I started Coin World I had studied those NN ads. How could this
be improved? I had been classified ad manager on the Kansas City Kansan
so I was familiar with the concept of classified advertising pages. Also
I had created a scheme of arranging ads for numismatic items under useful
categories. Basically these were denominations that were collected by
the readers, or subjects of collector interest.

"These were spelled out in the Pilot issue of Coin World. The concept
stuck and was used right from the beginning. I chose numbers for these
categories under 100 and left room in this schedule for new categories
to be added where I thought this could occur (called "open numeric").
The ads came in from readers and the text was pasted on forms that had
the classification number in the upper right hand corner.

"The forms were arranged by this classification number. When the deadline
came, the new ads were sent to the typesetter who set the text from the
original copy. Meanwhile pages from the previous week were marked up as
to those to kill and those that would run again.

"A compositor would merge the old and new ads as he laid out the columns.
Remember this was metal type he was handling. The entire operation was
highly manual, labor intensive.  Oh, what a contrast today! Today
classified ads are all handled by computer -- not only setting the
text image -- but also arranging them in the proper classification.

"It can be said I invented the classification system for coin ads as
it appeared in the first issues of Coin World. The  schedule remained
in use, and was modified from time to time as new classifications were
needed over the years (like, "bullion items" when these came on the
scene). The basic scheme is still in use 46 years later.

"A requirement of classified ads is accuracy. In addition to editorial
duties in the early Coin World days, I processed all the classified ads.
I prided myself in this accuracy. When I left CW the processing of the
classified ads was turned over to someone who did not have this concept.
For months afterwards CW ran a form in the classified ad pages for an
advertiser to use to correct a missfiled or misclassified ad (or ad
with any other error).

"Later, Numismatic News followed Coin World's innovations, not only
moving up to weekly publication but also creating their own
classification system for their individual ads."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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