Belien abstract 2008
The future of NUMIS, the Dutch portal on coin finds
One of the tasks the Geldmuseum has set itself is to record, as thoroughly and completely as possible, coin finds from The Netherlands. It is well known that this is a daunting job as finds are numerous and there is never enough time. Recently the collections and research department of the Geldmuseum went though a painful reorganization. This resulted in budget cuts and the dismissal of six colleagues, including the ones responsible for recording and identifying coin finds. The amount of time that can be spent on the processing of finds by the museum’s staff is now severely reduced. This situation requires new solutions to keep the Dutch coin finds database running and to look for innovative ways to keep adding high quality data to it. To achieve this, the museum is now working on a plan involving volunteers. The success or failure of the experiment will determine how the museum will progress with NUMIS in the future.