Feedback from Coin Collectors & Dealers on the value of an AI Coin-Sorting Robot

After a few weeks of much-needed rest, I thought E-Sylum readers would enjoy hearing the feedback I received about Numi's public prototype debut.

Earlier this month, I attended both the Colorado Springs Coin Club Show and the ANA Summer Seminar as a scholarship recipient. I had one clear mission in mind: to gather honest feedback from the coin community about the utility of an automated AI coin-sorting robot.

At the show, attendees had the opportunity to get their hands on Numi. At Summer Seminar, I took the Advanced Coin Dealing course, taught by Rob Obert from Gold & Coin Exchange and Seth Chandler from Witter Coin. I got to demo Numi to the entire class, and both Rob and Seth were impressed and encouraged me to push Numi further.

The feedback from everyone was eye-opening. I heard everything from expanding beyond wheat cents to Mercury dimes and Buffalo Nickels, to the insight that larger coin shops would require a processing speed of 10,000+ coins per day for Numi to be valuable. People were consistently amazed that it only cost $6 to analyze 10,000 coins. A year ago, it would have been $100.

The top request? Physical sorting capability to automatically separate valuable finds from rejected coins. While Numi doesn't have this feature yet since it's an initial prototype, attendees could see past the current limitations and envision the future Numi promises. Physical sorting is the next planned feature.

The Advanced Coin Dealing course provided me with the most crucial insight for dealers; it's all about velocity and turnover. I specifically sought out this course because if Numi is going to be valuable to dealers, I need to understand how dealers think. It turns out that it's not enough for Numi to unlock additional revenue. It also has to unlock it quickly and profitably enough to justify their time.

Justin Hinh, aka Dansco Dude

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NUMI: AI-POWERED COIN IDENTIFICATION APP(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n47a10.html)
UPDATE: AI-POWERED APP NUMI(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n52a12.html)
REVISITING NUMI(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n16a09.html)
NUMI V2.0 COIN IDENTIFIER & SORTER(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n28a14.html)
NUMI V3: AUTOMATED AI COIN SORTING PROTOTYPE(https://www.coinbooks.org/v28/esylum_v28n26a15.html)