On The Nature Of Smackdowns

I love seeing the coins of other ancient-coin collectors. Smackdowns give us an excuse to show coins. But, I see the same people submitting coins again and again. Even a six-point bonus for new submitters does not bring many people out of the woodwork. Pretty soon, at this Smackdown-a-week rate, some of us will have shown most of our coins and we will run out of new themes. As it is, we have covered many good general topics and I'm not sure how easy it will be the next few hosts to find new topics that are broad enough that many readers would have eligible coins they have not already shown. So, I don't see how we can keep up this pace. Maybe we can if we get new members. Just this week I recruited a collecting friend to be a new member and I hope he will submit something before Wednesday.

Coins with Lions on them ...

Coins with ROMA on them ...

Coins between 50 BC and 50 AD ...

Coins between 200 AD and 300 AD ...

etc, etc ...

You know I was pondering something...remember when we had the smackdown with the coins of the 7 wonders of the ancient world? Yea, then you might recall one of the guys suggesting it was impossible to find a coin with the pyramids on it, or anything from Giza mint. Well another guy comes back with a modern coin and says this is the first time its used on a coin. Well if that modern coin was in the smackdown it would have got my vote. Anyone see what whats going on here. I think there are plenty of topics to choose from pots, more gods even obscure symbolism. neat scripts, a lot of text no text...so many topics. In the contest section, as to attract modern collectors. Id like to see some of those guys vote. ...Food for thought....

I too have enjoyed the Smackdowns, kudos to Steve for starting them and indeed to his 'unorthodox' but enjoyable posting style

I think these and Jangos 'Guess the Price' have attracted 'lurkers' and none 'darksiders' to post here and maybe sparked an interest in ancients in them which is a good thing.

In the last few months we have seen new members who have become regular posters and its been great seeing their coins and conversing with them, perhaps they can tell us why they joined this site?

I do hope more lurkers still join the site and participate in the discussions and post their coins and questions. Even though I had collected for 15 years before joining CCF I lurked here for about 12 months before posting.

I lurked because I knew very little about my coins and had seen the often rude and unfriendly responses on other ancient forums that lower grade, lower value coins received. Everyone collects differently, I like to see used coins, coins hat have passed thought ancient hands rather than won the preservation lottery and not circulated. I joined here knowing that the board possessed fewer 'experts' but that these 'experts' were friendly and gave their time and expertise without belittling anyone.

I also fear that perhaps newcomers could be scared away by a catwalk of high value, eye-popping coins. Dont get me wrong, I have loved seeing them and they certainly have an important place here but maybe they would be better off on a stage of their own in posts along the lines of 'I've bought this and now I'm going to tell you all about it' or 'I've bought this can anyone tell me all about it'.

I still derive more pleasure helping a beginner understand a barely legible $1 coin than I do agreeing with others that I would 'give my right knacker' for a $1000 beauty Sadly we seem to have fewer people asking for help atm.

Maybe we could try limiting all smackdowns entries to a $50 purchase price? And only every two weeks? It would be a shame to see them disappear altogether but it would also be a shame to scare new members away, if we get to a point where a new member posts a $1 coin and is ignored or belittled my reason for supporting this site is gone and so will I be.

I think that, in the current format, Smackdowns can't survive very long. With one+ every week we will soon run out of [interesting] subjects or of [new] coins to show. I don't think that many of us have a large enough collection to sustain this rythm without eventually having to post the same coins again and again