Am I missing anything critical?

My advice about magnifiers would be the same as my dealer provided to me -- a good quality, large field 5X magnifier is the most versatile and useful for ancient coins.

You can certainly spot bronze tooling with 5X or less, and any detail for which you need higher magnification is probably not going to be a factor in valuing the coin. Higher magnification might uncover smaller scratches that rarely, if ever affect a coin's desirability.

It's possible, though, that if you're worried about bronzes that might have bronze disease, higher magnification would be useful. I don't have a lot of direct experience with such coins so maybe someone on this site with more expertise could chime in about the usefulness of higher magnifications in these circumstances.

 

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My 'scope is x20 and I find it very useful, especially when I am cleaning coins. Stick with your x10 for now. Experience will let you know if you want another x5 or x20, but there is absolutely no point in spending money which could be put towards the cost of a nice coin.

 

I think I'm going to start drinking my own tags in regular paper just like you. I started with the first one by writing it by hand, but it doesn't look anywhere near as professional as you. I have awful doctor's handwriting.

 

What's the difference between Bronze disease and green patina? I'm terrified of buying any silver coin or Bronze coin with any green on it.

 

Here is the template I use. It is an ODT file that you can open with OpenOffice/LibreOffice(and probably MS Word too) and will fit 2x2 flips well. https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=8C2FC4CE553F5B1C!7979&authkey=!AETW40AVbNr5ZtY&ithint=file,odt

 

BD will eat your coin. It is imperative that you get to recognise it and treat it immediately. BD is normally a light green flakey, dusty substance on the surface or edge of the coin that can be removed with your fingernail or cocktail stick. Have a look on the internet for examples.

 

Oh and ignore the Microsoft Word online thing that pops up when you click this link. It doesn't display it correctly. Just click the "..." out to the side and click "download" to download the actual file

 

Uh huh, see, Freudian slip already.

 

Yeah. Do you mean writing your own tags? Or printing?

 

While mentioned above, I am a real fan of 3D magnification as provided by reading glasses too strong for use with books. For $1 Dollar Tree stores sell reading glasses. I use 3.25 for coins over my regular glasses. Your eyes may vary. Thry them in the store looking at the coins you will use to buy the ones you select. I also have a stereomicroscope that I find fun but not necessary. Being able to see in 3D is a real plus IMHO.

I also suggest a good bright light that puts off very little heat. Mine is an LED daylight balance desk lamp that can double as a light for photography when you are ready for that.

A good camera system for coin photos and the device that allows you to project your images to your big screen TV is another good magnifier. You should see an obol on a 65" flat screen. I don't have a TV that big so I take photos to my daughter's place for viewing every so often.

At the price of TV's on Black Friday sales, you could buy one that accepts USB drives and have a running slideshow of coins whenever you want. That is guaranteed to get on the nerves of other family members in no time!

 

This has done wonders for my collection!

Seriously though create some type of database/excel/spreadsheet to record all the information Bing suggested and start doing it now while you only have a couple. I didn't start until I had around 20 coins and it took some effort. I put together a crude database in Access and I'm really happy with what I learned and how useful it is.

 

All the talk about alcohol in the first page messed with my brain. Cut me some slack, it's Friday. I bet most people at work today are thinking about having a refreshing drink when they get home this evening. I already have a bottle of wine standing by for later tonight.

 

Is this article about drinks, or coins? Let's get back on track.

 

By the way, many magnifiers labeled "x5" are really just "x2". The manufacturers lie on the box. The magnifier really changes the linear size by a factor of about two (more or less so an 18 mm diameter coin looks as a 36 mm diameter coin would at that distance). They can argue they change the area by a factor of four but that is not how labeling is supposed to be done.

If you have two rulers, here is one way to tell. Put them parallel to each other so that you can look through the magnifier at one and see the other off to the side. Compare the visual distance of one centimeter through the glass to the corresponding length on the other ruler. (For high power, this is not so easy to do, but it is for most "x5" glasses which are really x2.) My two-power glass makes one centimeter take up the visual space of two. Two-power.

I find my two-power glass works well for most purposes and appreciating the coin. With more power than that and you will often see scratches and pits that look bad under magnification but do not detract from the usual view by eye. You will want higher power for cleaning and questions of authenticity.

I have an eight-power jeweler's loupe which you stick close to your eye and have the coin at its end, only two inches from the eye. I just checked it with one ruler through the glass in focus and with a second ruler at normal focal length and, low and behold, one centimeter through the loupe corresponds to eight on the second ruler, as it should.

 

Money. Lots.

 

I would suggest that you give each coin a unique number, which will follow the coin across your spreadsheet, through labels etc. Your photographs should incorporate this number also.

Finally, after everyone has had their say, cut the suggestions that appeal to you, and
and paste them into a document and print it out. Take your time and pick and choose, and adapt those ideas into something that works for you. I also have a Word template, it works for Roman and Greek coins, not so much for RRs. Big deal. It takes 2 minutes to knock up a new template.

Once you have come up with your own "system", post it here and we can tell you if there are any holes in it (and perhaps nick some of your ideas)

 

Well, if any of you ever need an attorney in South Florida I'll be happy to take your money and spend it on ancient coins. That's got to be a lot better than what most other attorneys would spend the money on. I'll even throw in a Gordian III denarii to make you feel better about spending $200 on your first consultation

 

I believe Tucows and/or CNET has a basic coin collecting program, either freeware or cheap shareware that will help out in keeping an electronic cataloging system for you in doing all of the basics mentioned above. You can usually print from these programs as well. It's a far cry from the expensive ones offered from Krause Publication. but will be easy to navigate. A tip tho...try to encrpt any type program like this in case your computer is hacked. True Crypt is good for this and free also.

 

I just got in and am impressed with all the input to help you along. For the flip tags I use a template I made on Word and I print it off on card stock. If you would like a copy of my latest, send me a PM with your email and I can forward a copy. I tried to attach here, but wrong file type.

 

Red Spork has a really nice 2x2 label system. I do something similar on plain paper which is cut to 4” x 2” and & folded to 2x2. On the inside of my resulting 2x2 I keep all the previous owner’s tags. Those tags should be kept IMHO.


If the coin is in a slab, then the 2x4 label does not get folded:

The inside of my folded 2x2 includes my basic contact data and the price paid & date the coin was purchased. The price paid is typically hand written in a code. The date purchased & the amount paid may be very important to you someday if you really have to calculate profit/loss.

Do you have a code that you might use to secretly note prices paid? Some folks pick a 10 character word or combination of words and make each letter represent the ten digits. [Example: "Neighborly" N=1, E=2, I=3, ......Y=0]. I know one dealer that uses Greek letters (his code was too easily cracked).

I guess my main recommendations are (1) keep all the previous owner’s tags and (2) note the price & date paid.

Have fun collecting ancient coins & ancient books.