What filename format do you use for coin pictures? I'm thinking of a format that, when sorted alphabetically, makes it easy to find a specific coin. Maybe... 25 cent Liberty Seated 1867-S Obverse.jpg 25 cent Liberty Seated 1867-S Reverse.jpg Any thoughts?
It depends on how you want to sort them. By Year? By Denomination? By Type? Examples: By Year: 1867-S 25 Cent Liberty Seated Obverse.jpg By Denomination: 25 cent Liberty Seated 1867-S Obverse.jpg By Type: Liberty Seated 1867-S 25 Cent Obverse.jpg So many options, it all depends on how you want them sorted.
In my tracking spreadsheet, I assign each coin a serial number. I then name the picture with that serial number obv and rev. That way, if for some reason I ever buy 2 25 cent Liberty Seated 1867-S, I know which one I'm looking for. It also makes sorting really easy, and it all links up with my spreadsheet.
Do your serial numbers correlate to denomination, type, etc? Or are they just "random" - i.e. a new coin gets the next available number regardless of denomination, type, etc.?
In my inventory spreadsheet, they are categorized by denomination. In my pictures folder they are by date. For the most part, I do not have any coins of the same date so it's pretty easy to find the pictures by date.
I have it broken down into categories, but then each coin gets the next sequential number. This is very similar to how museums catalog their acquisitions (although they usually also break it down by year of acquisition). So, my serial number would be JPA1015 - Jason Poe, American, #1015. Or JPW, World, etc. I don't have too many categories, to keep it simple. I've used the same system for 25 years now, and I like it. In my spreadsheet, I have different tabs for different denominations and different collections. In order to keep it all straight, I wrote a little macro to just automatically create the next serial number when I press a button.
I do this: Country_DateMM_Denom_Ordinal_OBV.JPG Country_DateMM_Denom_Ordinal_REV.JPG Country_DateMM_Denom_Ordinal_SLAB_OBV.JPG Country_DateMM_Denom_Ordinal_SLAB_REV.JPG so my 5th Hungarian 1915KB korona would be: HUN_1915KB_KOR_005_OBV.jpg HUN_1915KB_KOR_005_REV.jpg HUN_1915KB_KOR_005_SLAB_OBV.jpg HUN_1915KB_KOR_005_SLAB_REV.jpg
I would assume that the "ordinal" number is the sequential number. The first one he bought would be 001, second 002 and so forth.
I would use date mintmark obv or rev then a number to indicate the different examples I have of each, and separate denominations each into their own folders.
I have Coinmanage software, I list common duplicate coins in one account by the amount of coins I have, saves time and paper backup space. If the coin duplicates are of value all the pedigree info: purchase date, where purchased, price, pictures, grading serial numbers and grading company are listed. If your going to take the time to enter all that info do it right! By the way the program let's me choose the file format to print or send files and reports.
It’s always a good idea to use a unique identifier. In my case it’s the NGC/PCGS cert number. You can add a digit or two for older numbers to have the same length as the newer cert numbers. Almost all of my coins are NGC/PCGS slabbed and if they aren’t, then they don’t need to be mentioned in a spreadsheet.
Example 1934 dol Pcgs 64 obv 1934 dol Pcgs 64 rev 1931 Mexico 50P 65 obv 1881-s DOL MS65 Slab OBV#4351 1881-s Dol MS65 Obv 2018 Niue $2 PCGS 69 Slab Obv If multiple coins same date I use last 4 digits of Cert number. When filling eBay listing can select them by date / then insert. Slab obv - entire slab, obv (without slab in descr) means cropped photo of obv. For listing can be photo of entire slab obv and rev or that plus cropped photos showing just obv and reverse (larger).
Your filename pattern lets you pick one characteristic for sorting. If you make it easy to sort/pick by date, it's harder to do it by denomination, and vice versa. If I were doing this, I'd put them all in a database with columns for year, denom, grade, and whatnot, so I could sort on anything I wanted. Or a spreadsheet. Or a big disorganized pile, which is what I actually have.
Yeah but they are filenames. Your filename maps back to your inventory system. It's not in place of one. You could just use arbitrary inventory numbers, and match the filenames to them, but it's nice to have human readable photo filenames.
You can also tag your photos to be searched later based on the tags. This take a little extra work but nice in the grand scheme of things.
