Linking physical specimens to coin type URIs

There are two avenues by which a physical specimen may be linked to a coin type URI:

• By setting the URI in the Description and Typology tab (for certain attributions only)
• By inserting a URI for a reference in the References tab (when there may be multiple uncertain attributions from the same corpus or multiple URIs in different corpora, e.g., Ptolemaic coins in both PELLA and Ptolemaic Coins Online).

Note: So far these directions only apply to American Numismatic Society or other online type corpora published in Numishare. Machine-readable data and protocols have not been standardized across all type corpora, even among Nomisma partners. We hope that projects like Corpus Nummorum Thracorum and RPC Online will eventually provide machine-readable data through conventional HTTP content negotiation that will allow these data to be incorporated into Numishare.

Automated cataloging via typeDesc URI

The default interface in the Description and Typology tab allows the user to manually insert dates, mints, authorities, legends, and other typological characteristics. Many of these categories can be connected directly to Nomisma URIs for those concepts through drop-down menus (for more narrowly-defined categories such as material or manufacture method) or look-up mechanisms where thousands of possibilities might be available (mints, people). However, the <typeDesc> element has always provided for a direct link to a coin type URI through the xlink:href XML attribute. In Numishare, the underlying code that constructs HTML pages, geoJSON for maps, Solr XML documents for indexing, etc., are able to read the machine-readable NUDS XML data behind that URI to construct human- and machine- readable documents that rely on the authoritative cataloging of individual coin type corpus projects. These NUDS XML files for coin types include Nomisma URIs as well, making it possible to generate maps and multilingual interfaces. This reduces the burden of cataloging physical specimens. Catalogers can focus their energy on inserting physical characteristics or findspot information rather than typologies--which also improves consistency across larger collections (reducing typos, incomplete data, etc.).

To use this feature:

1. Select the radio button for "Web Resource" in the Description and Typology tab.
2. Paste a coin type URI into the Resource input box and click the "Search" button.
3. This will trigger a lookup to extract NUDS XML from the target URI and ask you if the information presented on the screen is correct. If so, click "Yes," and if not, click "No" to clear the interface.

After clicking "Yes", this URI will be embedded in the <typeDesc> @xlink:href, and Numishare will extract the data from the target source in real-time. The URI will also be made available in the RDF export for the project, enabling the integration of specimens into the Nomisma.org SPARQL endpoint for broader dissemination through OCRE, CRRO, etc.

Multiple type references

It may be necessary to insert two type references into the data for a coin if the attribution is uncertain or that the specimen is represented by type URIs in more than one corpus.

In the References tab, add a new reference.

The default action is to type a free-form "Title," and an optional "Identifier" can be inserted. For example:

Title: RRC

Identifier: 14/3

However, this does not map to an existing CRRO URI, which in turn enables you to export RDF that can be ingested into Nomisma's SPARQL endpoint in order to make the object accessible in CRRO.

1. There is now a "Link" icon to the right of the Title input box. Clicking this will insert a new input for a URI.
2. Click the "Search" button to the right of the URI input box to trigger a lookup of the machine-readable data for that URI.
3. If the URI is a valid coin type URI, it will be embedded as an xlink:href attribute in the <reference> NUDS XML element. The reference Title will be set to the coin type title. In the case of more recent type corpora, such as SCO or PCO, the type number and type series will also be extracted from the URI and embedded as additional metadata in the <reference> element. The value of nmo:hasTypeSeriesItem will be set in the reference xlink:arcrole XML attribute, which will be transformed into the correct property in the RDF export, as well as trigger some additional indexing features in Numishare.
4. Optionally, you can click on a link for "Uncertain". In the user interface, it was display Uncertain: true, but in the XML itself, the certainty attribute for <reference> will be set to http://nomisma.org/id/uncertain_value. Numishare is now capable of extracting preferred labels in other languages for nm:uncertain_value and displaying them in the HTML interface (provided they are available in Nomisma).