In any kind of consistency, I only search cents at the moment. In Excel I post the date, how many $ searched, # copper stashed, # wheats, # foreign, and # IHC if am ever that lucky. At the end of the year then I have totals and percentages. It's overkill since the copper goes into a canvas bag in the safe. A few fine specimens may make it into the dansco. I guess it's nerd pleasure having "data." If I find silver, I add it to my silver list and label it as CRF.
I have Excel sheets for wheats and jeffersons. I have the years in rows and the P, D, S mintmarks in columns. Then at the bottom I have it automatically calculate the overall total and also totals of each mintmark.
Nope. I just fill the Whitman and Dansco books. When I have duplicates, I throw them into a coin tube. If needed, I buy more Whitman folders. I find it easier to count filled folders and tubes than the time and effort to build a database.
This is how I keep track of my coin roll finds from circulation. After I go through the rolls from the banks, I add them to the roll count and record the dates. This is what my statistics look like for cents, for example: Pennies searched (1,040 rolls) 1889 1919Dx2 1919S 1920 1930x2 1934 1935x2 1937 1941D 1942x4 1942Dx2 1942Sx2 1943D 1944x8 1944Dx2 1944S 1945x7 1945D 1945Sx3 1946x3 1946Dx2 1946S 1947 1947D 1947S 1948 1948Dx2 1948S 1950 1950Dx4 1950Sx3 1951Dx2 1951S 1952 1952Dx4 1952Sx4 1953Dx6 1953Sx4 1954D 1954Sx4 1955 1955Dx8 1955S 1956x2 1956Dx7 1957 1957Dx11 1958x4 1958Dx13(1 AU) Foreign or miscellaneous: 1964D Ten Cent US Dime 1966x2 Ten Cent US Dime 1989D Ten Cent US Dime 1995D Ten Cent US Dime 2001D Ten Cent US Dime 2007D Ten Cent US Dime 1963J Germany 2 Pfennig 1966D Germany 2 Pfennig 1994G Germany 2 Pfennig 1986 Venezuela 5 Centimos 1992 Sweden 50 ORE 1977 1 Centesimo de Panama 2001 1 Centesimo de Panama Canadian: 1963x2 1965x2 1967x2 1968x2 1969 1971 1972x3 1973x2 1974x2 1975x2 1976 1977 1978 1979x3 1981 1982x3 1983x4 1984 1985x2 1987x3 1988 1989x3 1991 1992 1993x3 1994x2 1995 1997 1998x2 1999 2001 2003 2004x2 2005 2006 2008x2 I don't bother recording what I've found by month or year but these statistics are my collective cent roll finds from about 2009 to the present. I didn't keep statistics before then. Looking back on things, I wish I had started keeping stats sooner. I keep stats for other denominations in the same way.
I keep records but not too extensively. I record 'keeper' finds, the date I found them a where I found them and CWR vs. BWR on a Word program. At the end of the year, I just summarize the finds, print them out and file them in a notebook. I do not keep up with how many rolls I've seached because I don't want to get discouraged and don't want the additional paperwork. I'm finding that I can go months at a time without finding any silver at all, which is very discouraging, but I do not search on a large scale. I''m finding some wheats and "S" mints, so they kind of keep me going. My searching is averaging two to three times a week, one roll of quarters, four rolls of dimes, four rolls of nickels and eight rolls of pennies each time. I realize this is a small scale, slow process but do not want to invest an extensive amount of time with this hobby.
I have spreadsheets spreadsheets and spreadsheets. Each denomination searched, amount searched, things found, each date/mm I have, etc... I'm a bit obsessed with spreadsheets I also record all my finds in a notebook that I use to update my spreadsheets. It's also good to have a paper copy for when my laptop craps the bed and dies.
If your lap top were to exercise more often it would be less likely to die, and even if it did die would be less likely to do so in bed. The other part depends.
Here is my problem with logging anything more than the source of good finds. Let us say your database shows the rolls obtained on June 3, 2010 generated 8 good coins. What are you going to do with that information? Search that roll again? How? It doesn't exist anymore, so what would the point of recording that be?
