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I guess something that has always concerned me with Facebook is security. It’s always bothered me here, for example, that Coin Acquisition of the Week is unprotected, it’s not even in the Members’ section, and is basically a great big ‘hello’ to all the world that there are valuables around if they can only work out where you live (this is a little more challenging on a forum, I know, and some of us bank/alternatively store collections…but not everyone)? However, with Facebook that risk is multiplied near-infinitely, I’d say, with ill-considered page profiles making it very easy to track individuals down, almost to their door in some cases. With FB you can, in many cases, quickly find out where people regularly drink/eat, what they drive, where they work, etc. all within a few seconds…I guess this would be a major consideration of mine re FB coin groups!

Is the restricted scope generally typical of FB? The above all have specific fields of interest unlike this or other forums. Is there anything with unrestricted cover? As Richard notes above, there are a few well known names about, but if the scope is limited, then it seems a wasted opportunity. Realistically, when dealing with more knowledgeable minds, you would probably be better speaking at a fair, phoning or emailing, which trumps any forum/group discussion which tend to have short posts because many people can't be bothered formulating or reading lengthy replies. From a personal perspective, I regularly end up discussing a query for anything from 10 minutes to an hour because few things are that straightforward.

Believe me. It won't. You now have another Master.😁

They all seem to be platforms for selling rather than educating

Yes. Facebook search is poor. Mainly I suspect because the FB format wasn't really designed for such things as detailed discussion. However it has the numbers as it's still commonly used by people of my age to keep in touch with far-spread family members. A few of us did set up a series of posts detailing the coinage of Charles I on the The Coins of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland group, but even those seem to be buried now. And yes, @Coinery that's the one. Though like others it's still a sales site for the admins there, it's a bit more active than many and has reasonably interesting content. @Rob I think groups tend to specialise so they don't get swamped with content which, for most members, is of limited interest. Still get Roman, European and modern coins on the English Hammered group Stu highlighted above, but Admins remove them promptly as they fall outside the scope of that group. There are places that have a broader coverage, such as Coin Community Forum, but even there they set aside sub-forums for different areas ... Agreed. The setup here is much better for keeping tabs on things of interest and getting alerts for what's new. And yes, I'm on 'the internet' a lot. About 70 permanently open tabs, several hours every day .. and I still miss things that interest me at times. 😕 But then I don't go to coin fairs, so buying online or bidding, again online, at auction is how I keep building my collection. It's also easier than a trip to the British Museum or Library when I want to do a bit of research, so to me the time 'invested' is worth it ..

there is indeed - rather than the overall Facebook search, groups have their own search field (side rather than top) where you can restrict search to only the posts in that group. The only thing s - I don't know how far back it will go.

I agree. I'm a member of a halfpenny group. Very little to no discussion. More a platform to show beautiful coins.(Which is informative in its own right. I'm not knocking it.) Which is a shame really, because there is a wealth of knowledge amongst some of the bigger name members.

Hi Jerry, Here are a few of the more useful and/or busy ones. https://facebook.com/groups/259534051467342/ https://facebook.com/groups/2465098747044680/ https://facebook.com/groups/1612487989090789/ https://facebook.com/groups/ConderCafe/

I belong to a couple which, occasionally, have more interesting posts. Most I agree appear to have been set up primarily as a selling platform. But a few have a lot of expertise to hand. For example English Hammered and Early Milled has Dave Greenhalgh, Paul Withers, Gary Oddie who a few here may know. But it's hard to keep a group 'educational' and free (or at least not overwhelmed) from 'Need an ID an what's it worth' posts .. Plus, perhaps not unsurprisingly, a fair few dealers are offering their stock on FB before ebay and sometimes in preference to (or at least before) listing on their own sites. It makes it more of a challenge to find things you want before they're snapped up, though I perfectly understand a sale is a sale and when there are over 15000 members to a group, even if only 5% are really active it's a pretty effective platform .. As for here .. I do pop in regularly. However my collecting interests are really very narrow these days and there's not much overlap with the forum content ...

That's not too surprising, as everyone wants to make a quick buck and education improves decision making, which is unhelpful for sales in most instances. A comparison between rare as in half a dozen known and rare as in only a million struck puts things into perspective.

I’m really not convinced that Facebook offers the useful archive of information going back years that the forum does, and its excellent search facility. However I don’t use Facebook for coins…..any particularly recommended groups? Jerry

I've seen a couple of Facebook groups, but they seem to be relatively inexperienced collectors excited by very average stuff. Oh and convinced that the odd cud is a rare variety!

The facebook groups are certainly busy but the wealth of knowledge here is superb.