I'm helping my daughter start her coin collecting pursuits with world coins we search for in the "junk world coin box" at the local dealer (as well as trying to restore my lost collection). I'll be honest, I have an obsession with every coin and every country and she likes anything that looks unique or shiny, so we are already wondering how to keep things organized on a budget. When I was a kid, I used to use mailing envelopes with the country name printed on them but it was always confusing and never allowed me to really see the different denominations easily or separate them. I am hoping you could share some different ideas that help you keep things more organized and approachable than say ziploc bags that won't cost more than the coins or take up a whole room. Especially interested in ideas when you are interested in everywhere and everything. Thank you in advance!
Keep it simple. 2x2's can hold a lot of information. Put them in boxes made for 2x2's or in sheets for a binder. Her (and your) interests are going to change over time. This gives the best budget way to view your coins.
Thank you for the recommendation. Are there certain sizes that come most in handy for world coins? Or sizes that you use most often? Do you do this with all of your coins, or do you pick the best examples/favorites? Thank you!
Most use flips for all of their coins. Just like coins, flips come in all sizes. I recommend you start with the basic sizes, cent, nickel, dime , and quarter. Make sure they are free of pvc.
I tend to always have some for each size on my desk. Dime through silver dollar size will be 2"x2". If you get into collecting world crowns, they also make larger 2.5"x2.5" flips. My philosophy is, if it's good enough to keep it goes in a flip.
I use 2x2s for my collection and my 6-year-old's coins as well. I just buy some of each of the standard sizes and then you put them in whatever is the best fit. With world coins some of them don't fit any of the holders exactly. Then we put them in plastic pages in an album. My son insists on doing it alphabetically by country, which means whenever we get a new one we need to move every one after it. I don't like it but he insists. It's really up to you how you want to organize them within the pages though. You could do it by continent or subject matter or a whole page for a country if you have enough. There's lots of options. Depending on how old your kid is it's a good learning experience. My son knows a ton of countries now. I'd definitely recommend the plastic pages over a box or envelope or something though because they're easy to look at that way.
2x2, write the country, year, denomination and anything else on it, put in album pages by country and then into a 3-ring binder. That's what I did as a kid anyway. You can store a couple hundred coins in one binder and it takes up very little space. I still have my world coins stored this way after 50+ years.
I use 1 1/2 X 1 1/2's because you then ket 30 coins per page. I use that size for Canada Large Cents down to foreign small coins. Even with the size of a Large Cent (1"), there is still plenty of room to write.
How old is your daughter? I like @KBBPLL suggestion. I have so many foreign coins that I use the small coin envelops you can buy at Staples or Office Depot, but for a young collector, I think putting the coins in 2x2's allows them to write inform and see the coin easily whenever they want. It is also inexpensive compared to coin envelops and boxes. Please let me know if there are any countries or coins she is particularly interested in. If I have them, they are hers as a gift from me. I love to encourage young people to get involved in collecting.
Welp, part of my organization will be to send coins to budding young numismatists. . And for the love of Pete take SOMEONE's suggestion here. Anyone. I am so wildly disorganized from impulsive buying starting my OFEC (one from every country) to stuff in my SDB (when I found out 'one' was optimistic for some countries I somehow ended up with a rather nice Albanian coin collection...which I've sold off a good chunk of....so be aware and at least try and get past the letter A). If your daughter would like a goody bag pm me. Need to grow the next generation!
