Registry View Counts: Another Way of Keeping Score by JAA USA/Philippines Collection

[CSJournals-migration]

As you can probably guess from my journal postings the area of numismatics that I am most passionate over is the coins, medals and notes issued by the United States for the Philippine Islands while they were under U.S. sovereignty (1898 -- 1945). I have a special emotional connection with this area of numismatics that is rooted in my father's participation in the liberation of the Philippines during the Second World War.

 

One of the main reasons for my participation in the Collector's Society is to share my excitement over this often overlooked area of U. S. numismatics with the larger numismatic community. I strongly believe that the Registry and Collector's Society Journals are fantastic mechanisms for numismatic education. That is why all of the coins in my competitive and custom registry sets are 100% illustrated and described and I put a lot of time and effort into my set descriptions and journal postings. Of course all of this effort would be for naught if my registry sets and journal postings were not viewed. Keeping track of registry and journal view counts is my way of "Keeping Score".

 

Interestingly NGC uses different criteria for measuring view counts in competitive and custom registry sets so comparing the two is a little like comparing apples and oranges. The view count for Competitive Registry Sets is an unduplicated count. Under this method only one visit from any given IP address is recorded regardless of how many times a competitive set is viewed from that IP address. This method tends to underreport the number of viewers as it fails to count multiple individuals who may share an IP address. Public computers in libraries, school districts, and Universities, are commonly networked together to use a common IP address. No matter how many different individuals use that network to view a Competitive Registry Set it will only count once. The view count for Custom Registry Sets measures the number of times a set has been visited. Under this method every visit is recorded including repeat visits from the same IP address.

 

Of all of my Competitive Registry Sets the one that I am most proud of is my award winning (2011 Best Present Set Award) USA-Philippines Type Set:

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=51257&Ranking=ngc

 

One of my major disappointments last year was the low number of views for my USA-Philippines Type Set which had only 275 views as of 12/2/2011. I have been monitoring the view count on this set over the past year and am very pleased with the increased volume of views. A few weeks ago this set passed a major mile stone when it reached a thousand views. As of today my USA-Philippines Type Set is at 1079 views which is an 804 increase over 12/2/2011.

 

I am sure that winning a Best Presented Set award contributed to the increased interest in this set. Other contributing factors may have been my journal postings (107 in the past year) and high listings on "Bing" and "Google" internet search engines. If you type in "USA-Philippines Type Set" or "Philippines Type Set" this set consistently comes up at or near the top of the list of choices on both Bing and Google. Apparently NGC must be doing something to promote Registry Sets to the major internet search engines as there is no other explanation as to why my set appears so high up on the list of Bing and Google search results.

 

Another Registry Set that I have put a lot of work into and am very proud of is my "United States Manila Mint" Custom Registry Set:

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=1113

 

This set is currently at 2601 views and ranks highly in both Bing and Google internet searches. If you type in "United States Manila Mint" or "Manila Mint" this set consistently comes up at or near the top of the list of choices on both Bing and Google. Again thank you NGC for promoting Registry Sets with the major internet search engines.

 

The attached picture is the 1904 PF67RB One Centavo featured in my USA-Philippines Type Set. This rare beauty has a combined NGC/PCGS population of only two specimens in this lofty grade with none graded higher.

 

See more journals by JAA USA/Philippines Collection

[coin928]

Very informative. I knew there must be a different mechanism for tracking view counts between the competitive and custom sets, but I wasn't aware of exactly how it worked. The thing that gets me most is that the view count is incremented AND the last modified date is updated when I just look at my own custom set even while I'm logged in. That seems to me like a bug in the NGC tracking system for custom sets.

 

I also agree that there's a lot of work involved in providing pictures and a meaningful description for each coin. With a full time job, and a family, it's taken me several months to research and write all of the descriptions that I have. That's why I haven't written any journals lately.

 

I still have quite a few "throw down" descriptions for my non-bronze USPI coins, but I hope to slowly work those off now that the bronze sets are done.

 

Nice write-up.

[jackson64]

Interesting thoughts. I never really have paid any attention to the view counts.

 

Your post made me check some of my sets...my highest view count is 9075 ( nearing 10 thousand is pretty cool)..for my Signature Set...and I have the most viewedf Walker Set--also a best presented set- which has a view count of 2052.

 

Incidentally I have another custom/signature set that has 4613..but that is a very old set from back in the year 2004 or 2005...I've never tried to google my sets. I hope that I'm flying under the radar as a collector because in our increasingly uncivil society it might be best to not be recognized or known a a collector of coins, gold, silver or items of value.....

[RWB]

JAA USA/Philippines Collection:

 

If you will PM your email address, I will send you a PDF file about initial weeks of the Philippine invation from a numismatic book I am working on.