Mint of Finland Joins AI
AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is increasingly becoming part of our lives, and it’s finding its way into coin collecting and numismatics.
Time marches on. So does innovation. AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is increasingly becoming part of our lives. Yes, AI is beginning to be used as a tool to aid coin collecting and numismatics as well.
If you are interested in anything regarding the history of specific coins, want to learn more about an area of numismatics, or if you want advice on how to care for your coins, you may want to consider the coin-collecting app Coiniverse. As of February, Coiniverse has more than 130,000 registered users. Even more interesting is that Coiniverse is owned by the Mint of Finland! The app is currently being shared with Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre (Mint of Spain), Lieutovos Monetu Kalykla (Lithuania State Mint), Monnaie de Paris (Mint of France), Münze Deutschland (Mint of Germany), South African Mint, Swissmint, Zecca di Stato (Italian State Mint), and the privately owned mint Vera Valor.
According to Coiniverse, “The rise of generative AI and new language models brings a lot of new possibilities, apart from the enormous hype around them. We want to help coin collectors easily use this technology to learn from the coins and the hobby.”
According to Coiniverse Chief Executive Officer Mikko Sievänen, the company’s AI is currently in beta testing.
Coiniverse is looking to expand into dealer networks and additional mints. They aren’t alone. Coinstrail.com is another recent AI start-up, this being a price guide and catalog of European countries. Based in Poland, the catalog covers coins from countries including Germany since 1800, Poland, Russia, and others. At last count, the program was tracking 18,756 coin types. Coinstrail plans to make coins searchable by a photo image and to search the archive of coin and bank note sales.
The app Coinoscope is likely more familiar to U.S. collectors since it is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Coinoscope’s AI recognizes and identifies U.S. coins by matching the image you take with their technology.
CoinSnap also recognizes coins via an image you provide through your phone camera. Developed by Next Vision Limited, CoinSnap has a storage capability, so a collection can be cataloged. There is a pitfall. According to the terms of service agreement, you grant the company “a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid, perpetual, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers), fully transferable license to use, distribute, reproduce, create derivative works from, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display any content that you upload or publish.” This app is available for both iOS and Android users. However, there is a charge for what CoinSnap calls its “premium” value.
You need to be aware that with any of these AI apps, the identification or grade the app assigns to your coin is based solely on the quality of the image you provide.
Professional Coin Grading Service has been applying AI technology for some time. Coins encapsulated by PCGS may have one of several different labels. The Gold Shield label “benefits from artificial intelligence and machine learning, helping our graders quickly identify and remove counterfeits from the market. PCGS Gold Shield may then identify lost or stolen pieces resubmitted to us, ensuring your coin’s maximum value.”
Charles Morgan published what he learned using the AI service Jasper to create lifelike images of both real and imaged coins. Morgan published his findings in the June 13, 2023, issue of the online publication Coin Week, of which he is the editor. Among what was tested was a proposed photorealistic design for a new United States coin, using photographic techniques to make real coins look ultra-realistic and imaging a certified Morgan silver dollar to learn if Jasper could make a “passable image of an actual coin.”
Morgan concluded, “None of the images could pass as real, and the software’s understanding of the scientific concepts of numismatics aren’t on par with that of a beginner-level collector.”
Morgan continued, “If AI gets better and goes beyond the novelty phase, then the governments of the world will need to have safeguards in place against the malicious uses of machine learning and collectors might want to look out as the image of the coin they are looking at might not be real.”
Coin AI has gone beyond the novelty phase. In May 2022, the Computational Design & Visualization Lab applied AI to produce a coin for INCM-Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, the Portuguese State Mint. One side was designed by AI for humans; the other side was designed by humans for AI. The resulting 4,000 0.925 fine silver 10-euro proofs were unveiled on Dec.11, 2023.
According to the lab, “For each coin, we also created a unique digital artifact that includes a digital offspring of the coin. Anyone acquiring a physical coin also obtains this digital asset, which was crafted to illustrate the evolutionary process that created the minted coin…Each of the 4,000 coins is accompanied by a unique digital asset.”
Numismatic Guaranty Corporation has an online forum. On Sept. 6, 2023, a 0.999 fine silver 1-ounce round was depicted at the site, accompanied by the comments, “The reality is that we’re already experiencing the impact of intelligent machines in our daily lives. Take this coin, for instance. It’s the world’s first silver coin designed using Artificial Intelligence!”
An accompanying comment reads, “I have many issues with AI technology. It is going to be used improperly for certain. It is already creating its own artwork and there was a group of artists that sued the AI company that fed their data into it while it produced artwork from the original artists that ended up being sold.”
The same writer asks, “Can it be used to counterfeit already struck U.S. Mint specimens?”
AI offers some disturbing innovations. Hong Kong University graduate student Chung To Kong has written a paper titled “The possibility of making $138,000 from shredded bank note pieces using computer vision.” The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing is one of several bank note-producing facilities that has sold bags of shredded bank notes as souvenirs in the past. Could Chung or others reassemble shredded bank notes using AI?
Perhaps AI isn’t ready to begin designing coins for mints, but according to the Nov. 12, 2023, issue of Iran International, “leveraged AI [has been used] to orchestrate fictitious pricing and futures trading of gold and currency through the deployment of robots and the establishment of Telegram channels, all without actual physical exchanges.”
This accusation was used to arrest and execute Vahid Mazloumin, known as the “Sultan of Coins,” in 2018 when he was found holding “two tons of gold coins” acquired through illegal currency transactions allegedly using AI.
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