I have been keeping my coin inventory in an excell spreadsheet and it has been fine but i think my collection is outgrowing my little spreadsheet. i would love to be able to print out wishlist and such. i would love to hear from anyone with some reccomendations. there are a couple out there that look good and i can't decide.
Well I use coin elite, but many others just stick with excel. The only problem I have with coin elite is about 1 a year I have to update the prices(anywhere for 20 -40 bucks). I know I don't really need to do that but it makes it easier to list coins in the future. As a matter of fact search on software and you will find many threads on this.
Maybe it's because I'm old and set in my ways but I love Excel. I use it for my coins and although it is truely becoming excessive, I am to old to start over on some program that may actually be better. Some of the things I like about Excel is there are so many books and web sites that explain how to use it. Almost everyone I know knows how to use it so If I'm stuck, I just ask someone and get an answer. Not always true with othe coin types of programs. You can download your Excel information onto one of of the silly little stick things you put into a USB port and take the info almost anywhere on Earth. HMM.Wonder if how it would look on a Chinese computer. Again if using another program, not to easy to move around. After using Excel for many years I just learned how to make all cells have two digits after the dollars even if $0.00 or even $0.000. I just emailed someone I knew and they told me how to do it. Not easy with other coin programs. Like I said there maybe many other better programs but I'm way to old to start over.
As others have said there have been many threads about this in the past. Excel Rocks, in works on almost any computer around, even Macs. I have tried, on the Mac, Numismatic Notebook, which worked reasonably well, just not really my thing. I currently use Access, which is like Excel on Steroids. It takes a lot more work, but it really works well once it is up and running. I spent about a month setting mine up, and it keeps track of all my coins, books, wish lists and the such. I'm still working on a form for my paper money (which I currently keep track of in Excel...) Cheers, David
I'm just about to start an inventory of my collection. I'll be using Open Office (free, open source word processing suite) which has an spreadsheet program that looks exactly like Excel.
I,ve been using pro-coin for a few years. It works very well and the staff there are great. mpsoftware.com
Just one note about other than Excel or Access usage. If for some reason something happens to your computer and you get a new one or have yours fixed, if that other program is lost, and you can't find it, all your info is also lost. Maybe not but I sure like all the backup possibilities of Excel.
thanks for the feedback I like the arguments for excel. I do have the file on a thumb drive for backup it is pretty much universal and i have a lot of time into the sheets i made up. i have colums totaled columns with invested and estimated value for those coins i didnt pay for. i have a column for actual meta weight and current bullion value that computs the BV for each coin. i guess at htis point i might just as well stay with what i know. thanks again all.
As I already noted about the flexibility of Excel, I was at someone's house over the weekend and they too collect coins. So I just took out this little Memorex, Traveldrive thing you insert into a USB port and showed this person the status of some of my collections. Can't do that with almost any other program but since he too like the rest of Earth has Microsoft Office, no problem.
i use a modified spreadsheet from http://typesets.wikidot.com that works in Excel/Open Office/Gnumeric et al. for each series i'm working on i create a row for each possible date/mint mark/variety. in the "Set Description" column i put "Want List" if it's something i'm looking for. i can then sort the spreadsheet to see only the coins on my want list. very quick and very easy. -steve
Looks like Excel is the best for coin collecting As for me I'm using for my collection Excel files, but now I'm trying & thinking about specialized software, maybe CoinManage 2008 (http://www.libertystreet.com/shots21.htm) or Collection Studio (http://collectionstudio.com/). Anybody used them?
+1 for Excel. My needs, wish, upgrade lists are all on Excel. The worksheet is then transferred into a database on my Palm Treo 700p so I can keep my list with me at all times. No fuss no muss.
I must admit, I am really surprised that a spreadsheet is the prime choice for inventory. Don't me wrong, I love excel and use it extensively (at work and at home). but I would have thought that any application which provides for ease of data entry, robust reporting capabilities and the ability to upload new yearly coin values automatically would have been the application of choice. wait... maybe said application does not exist. :smile I've downloaded one off the internet to experiment with; however, if it does not feel right, I'll obviously jump on the excel band wagon. Good info.
I bought the SuperCombo which includes CoinManage, CurrencyManage, and StampManage. A really good investment in my opinion. They offer 30 day free trails as well, but watch out for StampManage... once the trial runs out, there's no way to upgrade to a full version!
