NEWMAN PORTAL WEB SEARCH

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 46, November 15, 2020, Article 8

As mentioned in some earlier issues, I've been gradually compiling a list of numismatic web sites for the Newman Numismatic Portal. Eventually these sites will be incorporated into NNP somehow, and they are already being actively archived using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

As an interim step I recently created a Google Custom Search Engine using this list of over 625 websites. Think of it as Google laser-focused on just websites about numismatics. All the nonrelevant results go away, leaving just the content created by fellow numismatists.

Sound useful? Give it a try. You may find higher quality results than you're used to getting from everyday Google / Bing / whatever search engine you use. For example, near the top of a regular Google search for "trime" is the top definition from the Urban Dictionary: trime. same as "try me". bess trime then !!!. Other results include the TriMe Swim Clinic and a video with 59 views for the British lighting tower specialist company TRIME.

By contrast, the top NNP web search results are articles about the U.S. three cent silver coin from CoinWeek, NGC, the Greysheet, Numismatic News and the American Numismatic Association.

Which do you prefer? Now of course, regular Google still finds a lot of the same content, it's just that it's mixed with stuff you may not be interested in. Take the new NNP search for a spin with some of your favorite search topics and see what you think.

There is also a way to filter your results further to just websites in certain categories. Today these categories include museums, discussion forums, blogs, organizations, and what we expect will be a popular choice - auctions. Auction sites currently include Heritage, Stack's Bowers, Goldberg's Great Collections, Classical Numismatic Group, Spink, Dix Noonan Webb, Noble Auctions, and more. Enter your search string, then choose the Auction button to filter out everything but auction results.

NOTE: if you enter a new search you'll have to click the Auction button again to stay focused on auction results. And we are seeing some unexplained results, such as Coin World articles showing up under Auction results even though that's not one of the sites on the auction list. Undoubtedly, more problems could be discovered. Still, this may become a useful tool for many of you.

Like the Newman Portal itself, while we focus primarily on American numismatics, our scope is not strictly limited. Websites from around the world are included. While we're only attempting to be comprehensive for the U.S., we welcome suggestions of sites worth including, as long as they are primarily numismatic in nature.

This is a work in progress and your feedback is welcome. Please let us know what you think. -Editor