As some might have noticed, my CCF account's first anniversary is due in two days. (Probably a bit less than two days by now, though I can't recall when I registered precisely.)
Over that time, I've made well over a thousand posts, replied to many different threads, and apparently built myself a reputation as CCF's main Russian member.
However, even over all that time, I still haven't done one very significant thing - and this is what this contest is for.
Sorry if this is the wrong forum, incidentally.
I actually wanted to schedule this contest for my 1000th post, but kinda missed the actual post number 1000, couldn't find the coins I wanted soon enough, and decided to make it a first anniversary contest... which was probably cooler anyway.
(Also, even with several extra months of preparation time, I still couldn't find the specific coins I wanted. But I think I did well enough with the coins I did choose anyway.)
Anyway, the contest statement: guess the dates of the coins on the following photo!
(By the initial rules, you only need to guess the dates of the three big coppers. But I might change that if there are too many - or too few - answers... or even if there aren't I might change that anyway. I'm still not sure really.)
(Also, because it won't really fit in the next section, a clarification: "three big coppers" refers to the three biggest coins - which happen to be all made mainly of copper - and not to the three big coins that look the most coppery. In other words, the upper left coin is included in the three, while the upper right one isn't.)
Here's some initial "clues" (more like general statements):
1. Yes, all six of these coins are actually supposed to have a specific date on them.
2. The date might or might not be physically visible on the actual coin, however (I'll immediately say that, in fact, at least one is not).
3. The date might or might not be given in the regular (Gregorian) calendar. (Again, I'll immediately say that, in fact, at least one is not.) If it is not, the date to be guessed is the closest equivalent in the regular calendar (though you may also mention the other version if you think you know what it is).
4. The date is, in any case (even if perhaps not physically visible), supposed to be located on the side not shown in the photo. So it wouldn't have been visible anyway.
5. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, the visible side still has, or at least is supposed to have, enough information to uniquely identify the date. (I believe there's enough left even on the actual coins, but opinions may differ.)
6. All six of the coins were bought by me at some point during the last year. The three big coppers, as it happens, were bought during the same day (several months ago).
7. This is the big clue: the dates of the three big coppers are within 10 years of each other. The other three coins are all more recent (but not necessarily close in time to each other).
8. Some of you might have recognized one of the coins as a US nickel with a buffalo. (For those who didn't, yes, it is a US nickel with a buffalo.) It is mainly there to provide a scale for the other coins' size, but yes, it is included in the six coins this contest asks the dates for.
9. I tried my best to put the coins in the correct position as far as design orientation goes. So what is "up" on the relevant coin's design is probably within 30 degrees of the "up" of the photo itself. Not that you can easily see it in some of the cases, obviously.
10. Oh, and sorry if the photo is blurry. It was the best of approximately fifteen attempts, but turned out to suck anyway. (It also had to be downsized a bit, because even though the Free Image Optimiser now proposes 1000 pixels as default picture size instead of 600, and allows resulting file sizes of up to 200 kilobytes instead of 100, it still can't deal with original dimensions of over 2000 pixels properly - even for crops - and the photos my camera makes are larger.)
Oh, right, the photo...
Have fun trying to figure out the dates!
Sorry, almost forgot: the prize.
I live in a rather far-away country, so I usually have complications with sending actual coins to other CCF members. Complications that start with "postage costs almost more money than what I'm sending" and end with "as far as I can tell sending coins by mail is technically illegal".
So the prize, unlike most contests here, will not be any physical item mailed to you. Instead, it will be your personal participation (within reasonable limits) in a certain significant thing that I still neglected to do for my account (as I have mentioned earlier in this post).
You might try to guess what this thing is. This guessing is not at all included in the contest itself, but might be funny. I'm probably going to tell directly in a while anyway.
("Anyway" totally stopped looking like a real word. Anyway. Anyway.)
Posted 02/27/2016 10:52 pm
