Introduction
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The past
It all started back in June 1997, when I first decided to build my own homepage. Surprisingly enough, this site was still available on-line until only recently. For several years I could not update it, because my password suddenly stopped working and I was unable to contact Geocities because of their infamous burocracy! Take a look at it and see how dramatically my web design skills have been improved! Since collecting coins was -and still is- one of my favorite hobbies, I decided to include a webpage about the coins I had managed to collect and the coins I was offering for trading. Slowly but steadily, I kept adding more pages with information about the currencies world-wide and it soon grew out of proportion. To overcome this problem, I quickly put together a new section about coin collecting, but it soon became apparent that I would have to build a new web-site dedicated to my hobby. I did just that...
The new website was absolutely great and helped me a lot in making new friends and trading with people around the world. Unfortunately, in March 1999 I had to let it go for 23 months while I was serving in the Hellenic Armed Forces as a Cadet at first and a 2nd Lieutenant later. When I came back I started coding and developed a coin collectors database. Why? Because I thought it would be better for all collectors to be able to add, edit and remove their names from this dynamically updated list. The database was a relative success, so I started adding new features in order to make it more functional.
| Old Design | New Design |
|---|---|
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| The old design looked nice, so the colors and overall visual impression remained unchanged. I only needed to find some room for banners and more complicated menus. | The new design is based on Javascript and Active Server Pages, providing better management, improved functionality and more possibilities for future updates. |
Old Sitemap
When I first started developing this site, I tried hard to come up with a relatively classic design, as I knew I wouldn't be able to update it often. I believe the final choice was absolutely great, as the design looked quite modern and fresh even after 3 whole years had passed. The name I had chosen was -the rather generic- "Coin Site", but when I found out that the name was already taken I switched to "Coin Fever", which included the following sections:
- Personal Information: This section is quite obvious and included everything about me that I was willing to share on-line.
- Readers Unite: The site desperately called for the help of its visitors. Your participation was -and still is- valuable, although few people have responded thus far...
- Coin Information: A few words about the coinage, mints and currencies of several countries, plus related terminology. Moreover, a coin gallery with a variety of coin pictures coupled with a brief description.
- Coin Articles: Coin articles submitted by myself and the readers of the site. I have always been calling for the help of everyone reading these lines, as my free time is very limited.
- Trade Coins: The most important section of the site obviously, as it generated most of the traffic. The title is pretty self-explanatory, and the database that has been formed can be found in the new site too.
- Links & F.A.Q.s: When my visitors got tired of my webpages, they could escape to another worthwhile site that was included in this section.
- Little-known Facts: Useless, funny, strange, call them what you will.
The present
On August 31, 2003, I decided to purchase a domain. The visitors of this site completely covered the cost of the domain, by purchasing the coins I was selling on-line. As I had promised, I returned the money I earned to the visitors of the site, by completely redesigning the site from scratch. It was a tedious and time consuming task which lasted several weeks. My first and formost concern, was to present a very different layout which wouldn't be based so much on javascript. As a matter of fact, eliminating javascript completely was a priority, which unfortunately I was not able to accomplish. Still, the overall impression is good and i will be fixing any glitches as I discover them.
| Previous Design | Current Design |
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| Although I did like the old design, I wanted to get rid of the dynamic javascript menus. This was probably the most important reason behind the change of the site, as I wanted the design to be as backwards compatible as possible. | The new design is based heavily on Cascading Style Sheets and Active Server Pages, but includes much less javascript which does not intefer with its functionality even if it is turned of. |
Logo and motto
Finding a name for my site was harder than most people would assume. At first I tried a rather generic title, such as "Coin Site", but pretty soon I wanted to change it and for a while I used "Coin World" instead. Unfortunately, I soon found out the name was already taken by a rather famous publication so I had no other option than to let it go. While I was searching for a better title, I decided to go for something original that -at the same time- would represent the excitement coin collectors feel when dealing with their collections. I came up with "Coin Fever", coupled with the motto "Discover your coins" which I still use today. I soon got tired of this name too however, so I switched to "Coin Collecting". Not very original, but it improved my page ranking in Google so I kept it for quite some time.
After a while, I decided to register a domain and soon realized I would have to find yet another title for my site. Every single cobination of the words "coin", "collect", "site" etc were already taken, apart from "Coins4you" which was suggested by my girfriend and was my second best choice. After a couple of days, it hit me ... "Fleur de coin". It is a coin term with a poetic touch into it and since it denotes to a flawless coin it was an obvious choice for my flawless website(!!). Unfortunately it was taken too, but "Fleur-de-coin" was not and I quickly registered it for 3 years on August 22, 2003. I also kept the motto "Discover your coins..." and started searching for a new logo.
