Fitzwilliam Dataset for Coin Identification
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The Fitzwilliam dataset for coin identification is intended to be used for the evaluation of image-based 
coin/object identification methods.

The dataset was kindly provided by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, and consists of 2400 images
of 240 different ancient coins of the same class. Coins were acquired by different devices at 
varying conditions and different orientations. In particular each coin side was acquired at three
different angles of rotation using a scanner device ('_120','_240','_360') and two acquisitions
were made using a digital camera and varying illumination ('_brigth', '_dim'). 

The dataset can be used to thoroughly test identification methods due to the high similarity of 
the coins. All the images are tetradrachm issued in the time of, or at least in the name of, 
Alexander the Great, who came to power in Macedonia in 336 BCE and died as emperor in 323 BCE.
Some of the coins are from much later and were minted in places around the Black Sea, in Egypt,
in modern-day Turkey, Iran and so on. All coins follow the same basic standard: On the obverse 
side there is a head of Heracles in a lion-skin. The reverse side shows the god Zeus, seated left
on a throne. Nevertheless, there is a huge range of detail in the minor variations that experts use
to deduce the mint and date of the coin.

Each image is encoded by the coin number, the acquisition device/conditions and the side of the coin. 
For instance, '0002_bright(1).tif' is an image of the obverse side of coin number 2, photographed with
a digital camera in bright illumination conditions.

Images by courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. The dataset can be freely used only for
for academic purposes.

If you have any questions regarding the dataset please contact any of the following people:

Reinhold Huber-Mörk, Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria, reinhold.huber-moerk@ait.ac.at
Sebastian Zambanini, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, zamba@prip.tuwien.ac.at
Martin Kampel, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, kampel@prip.tuwien.ac.at