How Coin Says Hi works

This page explains how a reading is produced, what its labels mean, what the tool does not do, and how the site's guides are made and corrected.

How a reading is produced

Choosing a photo keeps it in your browser — nothing is sent on selection. When you select Continue to analysis, the browser resizes each photo to a maximum 1600-pixel edge, compresses it as a JPEG, and sends the front photo, any reverse photo and your optional note of up to 600 characters to this site's Cloudflare Worker. The Worker checks the request's shape and size, applies an abuse limit, and passes it through a service binding to Qomza's analysis gateway. An AI model then returns a structured answer that must match a fixed reading schema — status, heading, summary, possible match, visible clues, alternatives, historical context and next checks — before the site displays it. The finished reading lives in the page's memory only; it has no shareable address.

A reading comes from an AI model

Every reading is generated by an AI model from your photos and note. Models misread worn lettering, confuse similar designs and miss what a photo does not show, so a reading can be wrong. Treat it as a starting point for your own comparison, never a verdict. The separate example result is invented and labeled as such.

How uncertainty is shown

Each reading carries one of four statuses. “Possible match” means a plausible visual candidate worth comparing — the result lists it as a possible match to compare, not a confirmed identification. “Uncertain reading” means more than one explanation remains. “More detail needed” means important features are not clear enough. “Not a coin” means the subject does not look like a coin. Numbered pins mark approximate positions on your photos, and when no reliable position exists the reading says so. Fields the response leaves empty — an issuer, a date, a whole candidate — stay absent rather than filled in.

What the tool doesn't do

Coin Says Hi does not authenticate coins, assign grades, assess condition, establish rarity or provide market values. It reads only what is visible in the submitted photos, and without a reverse photo no reverse-side clue is possible. The page keeps your reading in memory only, so it cannot be restored from a link or a later visit — though Qomza's gateway keeps a record of each lookup and its result until the operator removes it, as the Privacy page describes. For value or authenticity questions, the coin guides point to independent catalogues and qualified numismatic professionals.

How the guides are made

The coin guides are written by the Coin Says Hi editorial team from named authoritative sources — mints, conservation institutes and grading services — and each guide links its sources in its “Sources and scope” section. A visible “Sources reviewed” date records when a guide's references were last checked, and an “Updated” date records the last change. Hero photographs are labeled as illustrative scenes with anonymous objects, and the teaching figures are authored diagrams that cite the evidence behind them.

Corrections

We read every report of a wrong reading or a guide error. When an error is confirmed we correct the page, and its “Updated” date changes — a guide's “Sources reviewed” date still records when its references were last checked. To report a problem, follow the steps on the support page.