Hi guys. I was wondering how everyone keeps up with there coins. I currently have a red book and highlight what coins I have and there grade to the best of my ability. I find myself dragging along my Blue book as well as my Redbook when im browsing the local shop or the internet so i can upgrade my coin or not purchase a duplicate. I know I should make a shopping list and stick to it but I find little bargain boxes irresistable as well as a bucket or box of Wheats. I was just curious if there was a listing or tracking system that would help me out. Maybe the web has a printable one. Thanks for any replies.:goofer:
I have Whitman's Red Book Collector's Inventory book which is nice because it has a box for notes next to each coin that I can fit a lot into. The one I have stops at 2006. I don't know if it's been updated or not.
I have all my collection on Excel. For the US, each denomination gets it's own sheet, up to the half dollar. (everything else, Dollars, 2 cents, three cents, proofs and NCLT are on one sheet, I don't have enough of any of them to warrant their own sheet) Here is an example of the Quarters page. I did not remove all of the names of where I got them from here. For Canadian coins, I have them all on one sheet. I have a column for each denomination, color coded for easy reference. I list the coin itself, the date I got it, and where I got it from. All the coins dated 10/10/08 were the new issues in my collection that my friend from Canada gave me. Since I took this screen cap a few months ago I have redone the page a bit to add in where I got them as well as the date. For World coins, they are all on one sheet. Each country is listed by itself, with the coins from that country listed in chronological order by denomination. See this old screen shot. I have removed the names of the places or people I have gotten these from, but that would go in the column to the right of the date I got it. What I did so I know what I am looking for, either at shows, or just simply going through my change, is make a sheet, that can be printed out on one page, of what I Need. The coins I don't have are in black, the coins I have but want a better example of are in blue. I put the Dollar coins and the Candian coins as what I HAVE, because what I need is much more then what I have. When I get coins I am after, I cross them out on my sheet. I see that I have been slacking in keeping this sheet updated, as I know I found a 1989 Quarter at least that was good for my collection, so later today I will get the sheet, and correct the file on Excel. I print the sheet about twice a year, OR if I find a lot of things, and it really needs to be updated. I mostly limit this sheet to current circulating coins, although I did put the silver Roosevelt coins on there, as I am working on completing them when I can. Here is a screen shot of it: For the classic coins that I have, well, I didn't have too many of them. I was out traveling one day and came across an antique shop that had a lot of coins. I thought I could remember what I had, but it turned out, I couldn't, as I ended up purchasing a duplicate. Later that day, I created the Classics I have chart. It is very similar to the coins I need chart, in that each denomination gets their own column. Within each column, each type has it's own section where I list the dates I have. When I get something new, I write in the dates I've purchased or, in the rare instance, found. I recently added a seperate column on there for cents that are fully original red. It's not a very large number that I have, maybe 20-25 coins, mostly all from the 70s to today. But I have them there anyway, because eventually I will purchase the others in full mint red. This sheet needs to be reprinted after my first coin show, CoinFest, this past October. For classic currency, they are also listed on there. I don't have too much classic currency yet, but I hope someday I will need a sheet for them as well. I also hope that I will need a sheet for classic world coins. Most of my world coins are modern issues that I get from bulk lots or dealer bins. Not something I saw for sale at CoinFest, so I don't think I have to worry about it. And at 10 cents or less a coin, I wouldn't worry about a duplicate or multiple duplicates, it gives me something to use as trade bait or to give away. I am going to have to adjust this sheet soon, as I have been purchasing mostly dimes when I purchase new coins. I more then tripled my Barber Dime collection at coin Fest, of cource, I only had two before the show. One of my local shop also had quite a few silver Roosevelts which I purchased the dates I needed, unfortunatly he had less then 10 that I didn't have, and at a dollar each I would have gotten every date I needed. Maybe next time! I am not going to share my Classics I have chart right now.
I agree with Bill, Excell is a great program to use, its printable and once set up its very easy to keep updated. I use the yellow highlighter color on the ones I already own. Its very easy to see what I need. Im going to also try Bills use of blue on the "too upgrade ones" (thanks). Each sheet is a denomination. The rows are dates, and I have a column for mintage, grade, location bought, price paid, and notes. The notes are where I put important info from red book or my Whitman guides. Very useful. I have also learned a bit more about Excell and set it up so that I have a running tally of how much I have spent on each denomination, this shows up on the bottom of each sheet. You can also add small photos or links to large photos. There is a ton of amazing stuff you can do with Excell, and I am still learning tricks each day. I even have a cool page with the precious metals with spot value updated each time I open it, I got this from a free downloaded template I found on the net. I use my smart phone (Palm Pro by Treo) which runs win6.1 and has office mobile, and I update my spreed sheet on my phone each time I add or change stuff. I always have it with me. I use it every time I go into a coin shop and Its come in handy a few times on vacation visiting small antique stores. You can even download some templates doing a Google search for coin Excell templates. Here are a couple of links. http://typesets.wikidot.com/free-coin-templates http://www.uscollectacoin.com/ Good luck and happy collecting.
Glad my idea was of some assistance to you When you get into the charts and graphs, it can really be fun! After I took this screen cap, I removed Canada from the chart because it was just too overpowering. I don't list what I paid because I don't want to know (it's better that way) and because I don't really care...For me it's about the coins, not about how much I paid for them. I am thinking of adding mintage figures into my charts, for the US at least. Just for the heck of it, mainly The great thing about Excel is that you can choose what you want to put. If you don't want to put something, you don't have to, and if you want to put something, you can! I love Excel, I spend tons of time just having fun with it, I have charts for everything...that's fun for me And I know there's lots of other features and whatnot that I have not learned how to do yet.
I catalogue my coins with pen and paper in a notebook. It will work until I lose it =D. I've thought about having a database on the computer, with links to pictures of my coins, but I've gone off the idea slightly due to the amount of time needed to do it properly.
The longest journey begins with but a single step. Just START! Do as little as you care to each day and you'll soon be done! BTW, you can link the excel spreadsheet listings to your pictures.
Jerome, all of what I posted above took maybe 20 minutes to create, if that much. More time is spent researching then anything else! I have a pretty small collection, so a larger collection would probably be longer time, though.
I have a pre computer version of excell I like to use. In other words, a spreadsheet on paper. This way it's portable and I can take it to shows and coin shops without lugging around a laptop. I just use an old book keeping ledger that I found at a swap meet. Works great. Guy~
I used to do that a long, long time ago. I had many mishaps where I would either loose the list, forget it in a pants pocket, shirt pocket and it would end up in a washing machine. So naturally over time I learned that I should put it in a place where nothing could happen like that. Naturally, I never could remember where that was. Every once in a while I still find one from many years ago. I started to use Excel. NO, nothing like the one shown previously here. I would never spend that much time on a spread sheet. I just started with a spread sheet with columns for type, dates, Mint, purchase price, grade and many other items. I used to print these out. One sheet for each Album. However, over time, with now well over 100 Albums, boxes full of plastic rolls of coins, proof and uncirc sets from possilbly the beginning of time, many of those Whitman two row boxes full of 2x2's, the ability to even continue all that info per coin would take the rest of my life. For example I recently counted 2,650 1943 Steel Cents, well over 3,000 Mercury Dimes and lots more STUFF. Now I'm back to a piece of paper with a list of coins I need, page 1, coins I want, page 2, possible coins, page 3.
I have an excell speadsheet with values and descriptions of each coin. Its by far the best thing to use. If i ever take my collection anywhere for a presentation (like for American History in high school) i have a sheet of paper with every coin written down.
I'm an old fogy. I still use Lotus and I still use some of the old DOS commands, even though I have the newer point and click version. \WTB is just easier than finding it's counterpoint on a menu.
I can understand how dealing with that many coins on paper could be problematic ! Due to my specialism, my note-book only lists 250 or so pieces, although my collection is expanding pretty quickly. I've also got lists of coins I'm interested in purchasing and so forth. I'm going to make a copy in another notebook in case of disaster at some point.
Thanks for the replies. I will be checking into the above sites and charts and let you guys know how it goes.
Actually it is not really difficult to acquire that many. I've been collecting for well over 60 years now. Although I've always liked those and collected a lot of them when they were the present coin in change, I've acquired most of them recently at a flea market. There is seller there that just dumps coins in bins and you look through them for what you want. He USED to sell all Mercuy Dimes for $1/each. However, the more you purchased, the lower the price so I would usually buy about 20 to 30 of them and would get them for about $0.75/each. Eventually after finding ones like a 42/41, several 21 and 21D, many 26S's, I finally told him what he was missing and gave him a Numismedia price list. Now he sells coins for a real, real lot more. Now here is a really mind boggling story. Way, way back when I was a kid, a coin store had 10 1916D Mercury Dimes in the window for $1.50 each. Don't remember where I got that much money, a real lot back then, but I bought them all. Presently have 12 Whitman Classic Albums of them full.
Looking at these spreadsheets has inspired me to revamp my own meager inventory lists. Thanks for all the great tips! And Carl, mind boggling does not even begin to describe that story. I think my brain just melted thinking about that!
