Research is time consuming, writing the legends is time consuming, but the hardest thing is trying to say and write Trebonianus Antoninianus correctly without looking at the words at the same time and a hooked on phonics course. Treboninianus Antoninianus...no Trebonianus Antonianus...no Treboninianus Antonianus...no Trebonianus Antoninianus...yes...I think.
Pics or it didn't happen! Just jokes! When I started cataloging my collection it wasn't a lot of coins maybe 40. Maybe. But at the time I was working midnights and didn't have much time except an hour or so before bed to to it. Took me several days. Now when I started on my token collection I had over 200 so it was a bit of a job!
You obviously haven't collected any coins of Sriman Rajadhiraja Raja Parameshvara Praudha-pratapa Apratima-vira Narapati Birud-antembara-ganda Maharaja Sri Krishnaraja Wadiyar III Bahadur.
Or Abu al-Mawahib al-Ḥasan ibn Sulaymān al-Mat'un ibn Hasan ibn Talut al-Mahdali. East Africa - Kilwa Sultanate al-Hasan ibn Sulayman, r. 1310-1333 Kisiwani mint, AE Fals, 20.13 mm x 2.2 grams Obv.: احسن بن / سليمان / عزذصز (al-Hasan ibn / Sulaiman / yathiku (May his victory be glorious!)). Inscription in three lines Rev.: يتق / بالواحل / النان (trusts / in the One (God) / the Bountiful). Inscription in three lines Ref.: SICA 10, #616, Freeman-Grenville 1954, pg. 223 no. xv, Walker obv: XVII, Rev.: XXIII, Album 1183 Note: Found on Kilwa Island in 1982 (Please forgive my Arabic writing - I know it is not correct and am working on fixing it...)
'Round these parts that emperor goes by T-Bone A-Pi, Gordie, T-Bone... we spend so much time with these ancient coins they end up with nicknames.
If I start to spell the full names of the rulers for all my Islamic coins, forget it, it will drive you insane. I can't even spell them, much less remember their entire names, so I just shorten their names down to something I can more or less try to remember. Why couldn't Islamic rulers pick simple names like Bob, Tim, or Joe.
T-Bone! Trebonianus Gallus, AD 251-253 Roman AR Antoninianus, 4.70 g Antioch, AD 251-252 Obv: IMP C C VIB TREB GALLVS P F AVG, radiate bust right, IIV below bust Rev: SAECVLLVM NOVVM, Hexastyle temple containing seated statue of Rome, IIV in exergue Refs: RIC 91; Cohen 111; RCV 9648
I've given up on writing coin labels. They're just too small of a space to write all the info. down. Which also means I need to write tiny. Because of all this I now use my computer for everything. Copying and pasting is so much easier, I may be a bit lazy but I try not to get too worked up over making a database whether physical or database.
Call me old fashioned, but I hand-write my notes on the paper holder using a fountain pen and archival waterproof fountain pen ink.
I, for one, appreciate your handwritten envelopes, but once they age 30 years how cool will that be - more than awesome I'd say!
Ditto. Like to write mine out, except if I receive a nice, fully attributed, printed version. Just my added info, and CATALOGED!
I just put everything away as I received it. I still have JAs old slips of paper folded up in the flips in my 3-ring binder.
If you type the names, titles and reverse legends over and over you'll actually develop a muscle-memory for typing the names and details, many of which repeat in piece after piece, relatively quickly. There are, of course, coin-management apps if you want to cheat - but after putting captions under a couple thousand photos in a website gallery, I find I can definitely type things like D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG and FEL TEMP REPARATIO, GLORIA ROMANORVM or PROVIDENTIAE CAESS in my sleep. You'll quickly master TREBONIANVS GALLVS & ANTONINIANVS, CONSTANTINOPOLIS, or even the dread "AURELIANIANVS", a term for the ants created after Aurelian's reforms and before Diocletian's (~ 272 - 294) which, thankfully, virtually no one without some sort of an active OCD condition actually uses. (My apologies in advance to anyone who normally uses the term "Aurelianianus" or self-identifies as being OCD - I assure you no offense was meant - these terms were chosen for their illustrative value and not as any sort of criticism.)