I find that half the fun of this hobby is the catologing of the coins. I have a spreadsheet that identifies every coin that I own, its denomination, year, mint mark, condition, mintage, quantity, unit cost, total cost (quantity times unit cost), purchased price, reference location, page number if applicable, received from, received date, and comments. I have numerous tabs that show the coins and thus missing coins for every denomination. I use it to bid on things on the net. I tend to be a little anal on organization but I think it is pretty typical for coin collectors. How do you keep track of your hoard?
I totally agree. My system is very similar to yours. In addition to a spreadsheet, I like taking pictures of many of my coins so that I can look at them on the computer while they remain in their safe keeping location(s).
I think you would be surprised at the large number of collectors that keep no records whatsoever. Yeah they know what the coin is. But they haven't got a clue what they paid for a coin, who they got it from or when they bought it.
I agree. I've put together a basic, custom spreadsheet with excel with around 12 sheets to sort through at the bottom. Each sheet is a type of coin (silver dollars, half dollars, state quarters, quarters, commems..etc..) If I get a new Morgan, I just go in, click on the silver dollars sheet and the first page on that sheet is for Morgans. Date,MM, grading co.(if applicable), grade/approx. grade, qty.,purch. date, purch. price, book value, and then a space for a brief comment at the end. Usually, who or where I got it from. They're also set up so that any sheet/page with silver coins, the quantity automatically is added to a total and the bullion weight is calc'd automatically and totaled on each page as coins are added to the quantity columns. I take pics of stuff like my commemoratives and shrink them down to about 1x1 squares. If, I ever want to look at one, I can just grab on the corner and stretch it out full screen. Then I can just click undo and it goes back to the size I had it. This allows me to get a lot on a page. I only photograph the nicer stuff. If I buy a roll of silver dimes, I'll just enter in the quantity on the dimes sheet with a beginning and ending date for them. And price paid. Trying to photograph everything would be too much. It's so easy to do once you get everything cataloged. I'm glad I started early. I know some people put it off because their collections are so extensive now that they don't know where to start and just don't want to do it now. Others have stuff coming in and going out so much, it isn't worth it to catalog. I think it's worth it for me and I enjoy keeping track. It will be interesting to look at down the road. I also keep this backed up on an external hard drive that I update once in a while. If my computer crashes, I've still got it all. Edit: I should also add that it's great having the info available when going to a show. If I'm headed to a show, I'll go to the half dollars sheet, page 4. I'll print only page 4 and it's a list of Franklins that I have or don't have. Any date that I have a MS one for which are in my IS album, I have an asterick (*) by the date. Circulated ones don't have an (*). And of course the ones I don't have just have the date, MM and the rest of the fields are blank. A perfect, instant list with grid lines, always available.
I didn't keep serious records until about 03 when I purchased a Whitman check list and record book, featuring all American and Canadian coins as denominations through 2002. I still have that book and it travels with me everywhere I go coin hunting, but I also keep a duplicate second book locked up and one online. Because I can remember what I paid for the great deals, like the 79CC and 90CC morgans I bought at the flea market in 1992 for $20 each (VG and F respectively) but because I couldn't remember what that 09 S and 14 D lincoln cost me from ebay in 2001, best guess was $40 and $80, but what about those coins I can't even remember buying. Now there's the rub. Hence the books.
My collection is small. I use the CoinTalk picture album feature in my profile to catalogue my pieces and I include ID info, when I bought it, and from who. I try to include some comments about each piece whether it's a story behind the piece or why I like the piece. I don't include what I paid, but keep the hard copy receipts separately. I've really enjoy the picture album feature of this site and wish others would do the same.
I'm a bit old fashioned....I don't use my computer at all to catalog my collection. I use an old accounting book. It has all the columns I need and plenty of space for comments. I like this method because I travel a lot and it's a lot easier to carry a book to shows and coin stores when 3,000 miles away from home than it is to find a computer and carry discs or flash drives everywhere. I just open the book and I have a complete inventory anytime I need it. Guy~
I like the computer because I can querry and sort easy, tabulate values, create tabs, link to websites that may contain other information about the coin, link to other spreadsheets, and quickly see the coins that I need. As far as travel, I have a laptop and a blackberry. They are always with me when I travel. I keep copies of my spreadsheet(s) on my PC, my laptop, and a memory stick. I don't know what I did before the invention of this marvelous toy!
