No better way to spend a saturday evening

You do know Douglas Adams the author has been dead for a few years now? As cool as it would be to have Zombie Douglas Adams posting here, I doubt it's him.

 

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It is Douglas Adams, and has been pointed out, he is dead. I'm a fan of Bill Bryson too - received my doctorate from him (he was the chancellor of my university - mostly honorary role)

Yessir! I like the size of the binder, and blank slots for 2x2 - couldn't make this work with their sliding Windows thing (nor would I want to...)

 

Nothing wrong with being a hotel clerk - you've probably escaped the crippling debt I'm stuck with! (Hence why I buy very few coins myself... Just can't afford them). Lovely short cross penny!

 

My coins are also in Saflips with custom folded labels. I had them in a binder but moved them into a box due to the weight of the binder. Its also a bit annoying to organize whenever I get new coins.

I've also thought about using trays but its just not practical for me. While touching the coins are great, I wouldn't want the coins to gather dust.

@Sallent I don't have any personal experience with them self sealing flips. But I've heard of people complaining that the glue turns into a gooey mess and leaks over time. I'm guessing humidity and heat plays a role so use your judgement before using.

 

My trays are stackable and have lids. No dust.

 

Same here. Abafil trays, stacked on top of each other and in cases. No dust issues.

Organization is likely what drives most to place and store their coins in the manner that they do. Everyone has different ideas. By date, type, denomination, etc. The methods are as numerous as collecting themes. For me it is incredibly simple. I have no theme: I just collect what catches my eye. So, organization means nothing to me and my coins are arranged randomly. Greek mixed with Roman, silver with bronze, etc. I find this ideal for me as I dont remember what will be in any particular tray, so there is a surprise in each one. Works for me!

 

My envelopes look a lot like red_spork's but with fewer details. Details are on my computer but I see no need for them on the envelopes. When I started my database, I had fields for things like reign dates for the ruler which I have since discontinued. I am not a dealer. I might want to know if a coin of Septimius Severus is from 194 AD, I don't need a 192-211 on every file. If you buy a coin from me and want a detailed tag, I can make you one but you will want one in your format anyway. Softcopy files make a lot of sense when you collection gets to a certain size. I still make a hand written 3x5 card for new coins just like the omes I made decades ago (before computer) because they make typing in details easier. I wish you all well finding a system you like now and when you have a few thousand coins. I asked a couple dealers what they would prefer on coins if they were to buy my collection. Both said it really made no difference since they would have to work up and reenter everything anyway. After all, I would not think much of a dealer who copied my mistakes when selling the coins. I still disapprove of copying catalog references you have not checked in the book yourself being of the opinion that you should own RIC if you feel you need RIC numbers. I still copy them sometimes but feel cheap when I do it.

A game or question (you don't actually have to do it but could you????):
Lets pretend a mischievious imp got hold of your collection and separated all the coins from their tags/envelopes/whatever. How many of them could you put back in the right place without references? 100% Few? This gets harder when you have a dozen coins of the same RIC number (yes, some of us do). Some series are harder than others. A collection of 30 coins should be no problem. By the time you have 300, you should have developed some skills. 3000? Well, you should know better. Take the average number of coins you have been buying a year or plan to buy when you are out of college/poverty status and multiply that by the number of years until you turn 100 or whenever you plan to check out. Add that to the number of coins you have now. Using your current storage system, calculate the number of pages, albums, shelves, bank boxes or gun safes you might want. Happy cataloging!

 

Sort of happened to me when I dropped a tray of about 70 coins. Some of the labels were easy to match to the coins, others were not. I stopped what I was doing, referred to the spreadsheet to sort it all out. It took a while.

Then I went through every tray. The front of the label has the emperor's name and the inventory number. On the back of the label, I wrote on a description of the reverse and where I knew I had similar coins, the weight.

 

This is true. Most dealers (well, those who are professional anyway) will not transfer your attributions (unless of course they are correct). They will independently verify and add to those that you may have. I am astonished by some of the attributions some 'dealers' give. From a simple 'Hadrian Denarius' (nothing else) to really odd and irrelevant things, like Van Meter. I have seen many mistakes copied over and over (and by some of your favorite and most well known dealers). Just because they have a giant website which is appreciated by many thousands, their many mistakes are simply copied endlessly. That is where books come in. I can verify the reference, but the vast majority cannot. Its why they copy the same mistake over and over. One of the pitfalls of the internet (am I advocating the purchase of books? Darned right! I dont want to be political, but 'trust, but verify').

I do appreciate obscure references, like 'Foss' (Roman collectors should have a copy), but for others I just shake my head. And it works both ways. Some dealers list insanely obscure references (some of which perhaps less than a dozen in the world have). I do get that. They are saying that they are the best of the best, they have a world class reference library. But does it do any good if only a few on earth can appreciate it? I dont think so.

BUT, demand for books and knowledge is the only way (economically) such information will be preserved. If there is a demand, more books will be printed. If not, well, the vast darkness of the internet and its ignorant mistakes will just take over.

I say, go out and buy a few books! Forget the 'free' internet and its vast repetetive ignorance.

Wow. Re-reading this, seems like a rant. Maybe. Not really, I just wish to promote knowledge. In this age it is sometimes free, but frequently entirely wrong.

 

From no better way to spend a Saturday (doing tags), to no better way to spend a wednesday/thursday (dodging a category 4 hurricane...hopefully). I can't say I have a shortage of interesting moments.

I have family all over the eastern coast of Florida too, and this thing seems to be taking more of a path towards grazing the eastern coast of Florida in the latest track released.

 

Perhaps we should consider how waterproof our boxes are. We are scheduled to see Matthew Saturday give or take a day. I heard a report of several small earthquakes in Southern California that some see as precursors of 'the big one'. I'm not sure what an earthquake proof coin box looks like. Best wishes to all.

 

No earthquake here, yet. Warning was suppose to expire today.

 

Ken, your basic format is practical but the text needs a margin. It's all bumping right up against the border, a bit of an uncomfortable read. Also flush right ("align right" Word) would fix the ginormous wordspacing that's occurring on some of your descriptions, and would reclaim the extra horizontal space you will need to incorporate the needed margins.

 

While I admire some of the organizing solutions shared here — or at least the ambition and devotion of the organizers — the majority seem very space hungry, with lots of time and energy devoted to cutting out little tags. One of the solutions here has only six coins to an album insert! That adds up to a lot of album pages just for a modest collection of say 100 coins. It would take nearly 17 album inserts to house 100 coins. If the information on a tag spans both front and back, that means I'd have to hunt around on 34 pages of tags (front and back of each insert), each tag printed with 8-point text, just to find a single bit of information such as a particular provenance. Such a cumbersome process even for a small collection.

It's hard for me to understand why so much space is devoted to information that can easily be stored separately from the coins, but yet is readily accessible from anywhere and searchable within seconds.

For example, if all the information is catalogued using a web-based document like those available in Google docs, it can be electronically indexed. It is keyword searchable, easily editable, doesn't consume printer paper, ink, or toner, doesn't hog album or tray space, and can be easily be shared with anyone anywhere. You can insert photos of the coins in line with the text. Hyperlinks can be incorporated into the descriptive text to link with dealer websites, other documents such as invoices, reference websites, online databases, web-based provenance information, and the like. Using such a method, any information about any coin can be found in a matter of seconds, even for the largest collection of tens of thousands of coins.

Another advantage of a web-based catalogue is that it is backed up automatically offsite. You might lose your coins during a natural disaster such as a hurricane, but at least the data about them will be preserved indefinitely! Moreover you can print information as needed. So for example, say you want to sell a coin. You can copy and paste the corresponding text, then print it out to accompany that coin. No need to fuss with tags.

 

Most of us have searchable spreadsheet or database where we can find out information. The whole point of designing, printing or writing tags is that is is all part of the fun.

 

I ENJOY my 6 per page alternative and the compactness of my storage. The open flip alternative of being able to see both sides is appealing to me. None of my tags are cut out, rather they are pre-cut, and I enjoy hand writing the attributes. I have used other methods, and find my method works well for my taste. All other info and backup is stored online and in files.

Additionally, I use this storage method for my Ancients. When showing, it is nice to have the attributes with the coin. My modern coins, that are only differentiated by a date or mint mark, are stored as you suggest. However, I find THAT to be a very boring and unimaginative collection, in my opinion.

I was sharing my method only to share an idea that someone may adapt to their collection; not to be critiqued or "graded" by another's OPINION.

 

One of my great joys is to show my coins to non collectors. I enjoy seeing their eyes widen and their jaws drop when they read about the coins on the labels.