Throughout the course, you'll be working on a course project--a database that you create and maintain. This lets you apply the skills you're learning to a real-world situation.
For your project, you are a consultant working for Half-Eagle Rarities, an auction house specializing in rare coins from around the world. Like everyone else, Half-Eagle Rarities wants to get on the Internet and establish a niche in the world of online commerce. Your client has just purchased a software package designed to manage coin auctions over the Internet using a Web-based interface. Your mission is to set up and create the database to support that software. The logical design already exists and looks like this:

Your job is to create the database, create the tables to match the design shown above, and work with the systems integrators to make minor changes as they customize the software.

As we proceed, you'll build this database incrementally through project-related exercises. You'll start on this once you begin learning the tasks involved.

Here are some of the real-world aspects of this project scenario:

1. There really is a company, Teletrade™, that conducts coin auctions online. You can view its Web page at www.teletrade.com.
   
   
2. The design includes one potentially very “hot” table. This is the bid table, and it will likely sustain a high volume of inserts while auctions are taking place. Insert performance on this table is crucial to the success of the application.
   
   
3. Referential integrity needs to be enforced.
   
   
4. There is a many-to-many relationship between the Lot and Coin tables. This has been resolved into two one-to-many relationships through the use of the Coins_in_lot table.