Talk:Early United States commemorative coins

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At this point, this page is a simple list of the early commemoratives with a little history at the beginning. It's a little light, but I'm not sure how far to go here.

Can someone give a little direction about how much detail Wikipedia is looking for? Would they want a page on each coin? or is that just too much? Should I start a CoinWiki? I have the technology to do so... that would allow people to input stuff that should never be in a general encyclopedia, like the 14 doubled dies made in 1992 on some coin from Bolivia? But that would be useful in a CoinWiki...

I welcome comments from the masses.

Have you seen History of the English penny? It's been much admired, despite being rather long and detailed. My personal view is that Wikipedia is the union of a generic encyclopedia and specialized "encyclopedias of X" for various X, including numismatics. Based on experience with stamp stuff, I'd say to dig down gradually; in most cases, a 1-2 page description of a country's postal history plus a few representative images exhausts my information (and interest :-) ), but then there are articles like British Guiana 1c magenta that go into depth on a single stamp. Another rule of thumb I use is that as an encyclopedia, WP works better as a summary than as a replacement; there is a whole book on the Inverted Jenny cited in the stamp's article if the reader wants maximal detail. But these are just my views, and basically you can go just about as deep and wide as you have sources to cite and energy to edit. Stan 07:08, 28 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Naming

I have a question. I've recently done my first article here. First, I welcome any criticism as I believe that I can get roughly 1 early commemorative done per week. If I am making any errors in style, It would be terrific to know now. Also, is it acceptable to create a user subpage as I did to "play"?

My real question is though, how to name the article. There are so many options.

Oregon Trail Memorial Commemorative Half Dollar

Oregon Trail Commemorative Coin

Oregon Trail Half Dollar Commemorative

Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollar Commemorative Coin

Well, you get the idea. Since this seems to be the first one, I think its important to get this right. Opinions? Bobby 22:26, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

You can get a sense of commemoratives here: Marine Corps 230th Anniversary Silver Dollar (anniversary silver dollar shouldn't be caps) 2000 Library of Congress bimetallic ten dollar coin Modern United States commemorative coins and Early United States commemorative coins. I think I would prefer a naming such as Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar. And yes a subpage is acceptable and in some cases preferable. You can see mine at User:Searchme/CoinBox2.

You can post on the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Numismatics page to get a wider consensous. Joe I 00:47, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Joe, I posted over there for some more opinions. Bobby 02:11, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Norfolk, Virginia Bicentennial vs. Tricentennial

The 1936 Norfolk commemorative coin actually says "Bicentennial" on the obverse. Apparently, the original land grant for Norfolk was in 1636 (tricentennial) and then the city was incorporated in 1736 (bicentennial). Quoting from A Guide Book of United States Coins (2010, p. 296): "To provide funds for the celebration of Norfolk's anniversary of its growth from a township in 1682 to a royal borough in 1736, Congress first passed a law for the striking of medals. The proponents, however, being dissatisfied, finally succeeded in winning authority for half dollars commemorating the 300th anniversary of the original Norfolk land grant and the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the borough." This is, admittedly, and awkward situation, but I would call the coin by a) what it actually says on it and b) by what a standard U.S. coin catalog calls it: "(1936) Norfolk, Virginia, Bicentennial". —Diiscool (talk) 15:33, 20 April 2010 (UTC)