Your Coin Cataloging Method?

One of the threads I've been following recently is the "World Coins Time Machine." In that thread, another year pops up (or down, in this case...) and *SHAZAAM* people post their lovely coin, with wonderful photos, and a historical overview of the coin. Now obviously, one can be aware of the years we are approaching, laboriously dig through their accumulated numismatic acquisitions, locate appropriate coins by year, snap and put together photos, write and edit a short treatise on the coin, and then wait with bated breath for the thread to arrive at that year. Or, it occurred to me just now, people here may actually have brilliant organizational and reference systems for their collections! Who woulda thunk it? Golly!

So, would anyone care to share with me what types of database-type system they are using to keep track of coins, dates, countries, photos, costs, obscure privy marks, and/or whatnot?

Thank you!

 

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Simple Excel spreadsheet.

 

I use a program called Coin Elite. It makes it easy to keep track of everything you wish.

 

I was wondering which was best to use. And then I need decent photographs. Thanks for posting your question, @Oxford Punter. It confirms that I am not the only one who needs to get her collection organized but also urges me on to do so.

 

I have all my photos here: https://public.fotki.com/sjbrian/
I use pic monkey to make all my photos. I give credit to Stork for telling about Pic Monkey. I think its worth the $7.99 I pay a month.

 

All the coins are cataloged in a complex spreadsheet. All photos are in a folder tree with top level being the metal, second level the country. They are then cross-referenced to a folder in the tree which has a subfolder for each year.

 

I use US Coins for Mac. You can load a ton of data and your own pics.

 

They don't have one for ancients, apparently.

 

ditto, plenty of room for notes, and not expensive

 

It's made by SaintSoft. I checked and apparently you are right.

 

When I was focused on being a completist and collecting every coin for certain countries, I kept a series of Google docs for each country with either the coins I had or the coins I still needed, whichever was less. Eventually I gave that up, and now I just keep a list of the coins I want whenever I see a new one. I don't focus on keeping lists of the coins I have now, but for the things I'm focusing on (like coins with certain animals) I have scans saved of all the ones I have so I can quickly check.

As for the time machine thread, about a month ago I went through my coins, pulled out all the pre-1870s, and scanned them. So that's why I have the photos ready.

 

I think it's too late for me to start cataloging them into a database. I have 110 1 inch binders with approx 10~12 pages in each binder and nearly all the pages are full.
Approx: 27500 +/- coins. I know for some collectors it's not a lot, but for me it seems like a heavy load. Especially having to move the damn things 3x over the past 5 years.
Unless I get some help, I would need another lifetime to enter everything I have manually catalogued plus the ton of coins that I haven't even started on yet.

 

I wish I was so organized.

I ended up putting a bunch of the slabbed ones into the coin manager software over at NGC and put together a few sets. I also have boxes/piles etc. and a couple binders I'm trying to sort the unslabbed into. Slabbed coins are in Intercept boxes organized by country. Sort of.

The only reason I'm able to participate in the Counting Backwards thread is that I also started trying to photo my coins.

I basically ran through my slabs and the box/folder with my keepers (leftover from an abandoned 'one from every country' attempt) and started shooting pictures.

I now have the shots organized by region, country, denomination, then year. I then uploaded any to post up to Collective Coin for photo hosting, but have more on my cloud drive.

 

I'm glad it's not just me...

 

I feel for you, and not just for the moving part of it... Perhaps we can make money by selling the networks on a spinoff show of "Hoarders." I'm thinking, "Hoarders: Numismatic Nightmares." But, I'm open to suggestions.

 

Hmmmm... As far as software, I see people using Excel (or another spreadsheet), "Coin Elite," and "US Coins for Mac."

Has anyone ever looked at or tried "Exact Change?" (http://www.exactchange.info/compare.htm) An offline acquaintance apparently uses that. But, I have no idea.

Perhaps I should be collecting Bentley's or McLaren's. That way, I'd be absolutely assured of having a very, very, very, very small inventory to keep track of.

 

Just curious... how far did you get with the OFEC attempt? And, why did you stop? I've been mucking about with one for a while, and still enjoy being surprised/amused by something I've never seen before. (Kind of the reason I started the collection...)

[Hey, I'm the original poster, so I'll apologize to myself for going off on an unrelated tangent. ]

 

I found the problem (for me) had several components.

First, how does one define the country list? Eventually I settled on using Krause...but that was a bit unsatisfactory. A few things that may or may not qualify, some astonishing rarities (ie costly for what was supposed to be a low cost and fun set), and did I need to count EACH German State/Italian State/Indian...well you get the idea.

Second, how far back to go? Getting into medievals and ancients would completely magnify the problem of #1. Still, could use Krause to set an end point, but that was arbitrary. But, at the time I had the ~1900-present version so that helped to narrow it down to start the OFEC attempt.

Third, what about proofs, provas, trial strikes, NCLT? I didn't really want to use those, but some of them were cool. How could I justify it for some countries and not others? And some countries only seem to produce NCLT. I've never checked but does Niue even have it's own money?

Fourth, I'm a terrible record keeper and as I started this activity on active duty there was an extended period where a large portion of my accumulation was in storage. I could not remember every country I had...and that, timing wise, was the official 'stop' of the endeavor.

And most importantly--HOW CAN I CHOOSE JUST ONE COIN PER COUNTRY? Did I have to choose a single government entity/ruler? French Indo-China and Viet Nam..North and South? I did settle on one per 'official' government, and/or did they have a listing in Krause.

And the designs for some were so lovely, well let's just say I am now the owner of a somewhat extensive early 20th century Albanian coin collection because I just couldn't get all the way past 'A' in Krause.
https://collectivecoin.com/Stork/YEnowt7HgWrXQHiLKEnt
https://collectivecoin.com/Stork/NFOrAfaOZ0a1LORGE5yB
(and this isn't even all of it...)

That said, now that I have a bit more free time (retired from the Navy and though working, not quite the same hours) I've been occasionally hitting my old coin boxes and have started filling a binder with the 'keepers from whatever country I did accumulate from'. I suspect I may pick up the set again someday...

 

@Stork, Maybe this rabbit trail is worthy of it's own thread...?

I understand your problems, and encounter them myself. I have relaxed into these issues a bit and allowed myself to "wander" wherever it all takes me. I use Krause as my basic structure. As far as I'm concerned, each category and subcategory is fair game. (With a few exceptions.) Thus, Germany in the 1900's on (not including German States or German territories of any type) includes:
Germany, Democratic Republic [DDR], Standard Coinage, 1949-1990
Germany, Federal Republic, Standard Coinage, 1948-2001
Germany, Federal Republic, Commemorative Coinage, 1952-2001
Germany, Federal Republic, Euro Coinage, 2002-
Germany, Empire, Standard Coinage, 1871-1918
Germany, Empire, Military Coinage, WWI, 1916
Germany, Third Reich, Standard Coinage, 1933-1945
Germany, Third Reich, Military Coinage, WWII
Germany, Third Reich, Allied Occupation
Germany, Weimar Republic, Reichsmark Coinage, 1924-1938
Germany, Weimar Republic, Rentenmark Coinage, 1923-1929
Germany, Weimar Republic, Mark Coinage, 1922-1923

I ignore trade coinages and patterns. I do most NCLT if reasonable. I do Krause Unusual World Coins when I feel like it. I don't discard States and Cantons when I come across them. I do it to amuse myself and to try to get back that feeling as a kid of seeing something I've never seen before. (It works!) Occasionally, if I am taken by some category, it may even spawn another collection. (i.e. Albanian coins in your case.)

 

For my tokens I use excel...I have about 500 total.

For my ancients I used a database I made.

My U.S. and world collection sits in piles until it all goes.