Dear all,
following a conversation with our Dédalo-heroes during the Bari meeting, I would like to propose a possible extension to the current URI-based import system.
I think it would be useful to support URI-based imports not only for coin types (such as those provided by CRRO, OCRE, etc), but also for individual coin specimens published and identified by stable URIs.
In our case, the project ANDcoins.org also aims to reconstruct virtually groups of coins with a shared territorial provenance that have subsequently been dispersed. In some cases, we are dealing with hoards whose coins are now divided among museums, other institutions, private collections and the antiquities market.
I give an example: the hoard IGCH 1916. Some of its coins have appeared on the market, as shown by the records collected by acsearch.info, while other specimens are preserved and published by institutional collections, including:
- American Numismatic Society, 1944.100.19204
- British Museum, 1946,0101.406
Both institutional specimens are already associated with IGCH 1916 in Coin Hoards.
I am not proposing the import of records from commercial aggregators such as acsearch.info, but the idea would be to use the specimen links associated with the hoard record in Coin Hoards to identify coins held by institutional collections, and then import their structured data directly.
Could Dédalo therefore consider to extend the import also to individual specimens that have a stable identifier and a compatible structured description?
Ideally, Dédalo would retain the original URI, institutional identifier, holding institution, source attribution and date of import, while allowing the specimen to be connected locally to the relevant hoard, findspot, coin type and other entities.
It would also be important to distinguish clearly between data imported from the original institutional source and information subsequently added, corrected or interpreted within the local project. In this way, projects could enrich the record without attributing their own additions or interpretations to the institution that published the original data.
Could the same process also include specimen images when their licences and conditions of use allow it?
Such a function would allow projects (such as ANDcoins) to reconstruct dispersed assemblages virtually while preserving the identity, current location, provenance and source of each individual specimen.
Would this kind of integration be technically and conceptually feasible within numisdata?
Many thanks for your opinions, ideas and kindness!
Federico
