Lost Change

Lost Change: mapping coins from
the Portable Antiquities Scheme
© Trustees of the British Museum

Yesterday, the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme launched Lost Change, a coin find visualization tool developed by Gavin Baily and Sarah Bagshaw of Tracemedia.

After following the directions in the first link, I opened the start page and decided to select Sego as the ruler's name but soon discovered that this name was not yet present. Apparently, more funding is required for more records to be included. The drop-down list also included two different uncertain's, each showing different data but no indication of why there should be two listings for uncertain rulers. Presumably, such bugs will soon be corrected.

Hopefully, more drop-down categories will eventually be included -- for Celtic coins, a choice of Van Arsdell numbers is essential. I would also like to see hoard/multiple/stray finds as an option (with links to other coins in the hoard/multiple finds category). While I might criticize the current state of the project, Cultural Property Observer reminds us all that even in its current state it beats anything from other countries who have no Portable Antiquities Scheme equivalent whatsoever.