Am I missing anything critical?

I need some advise. What other tools do I need to study and check ancient coins? I have a coin scale, caliper, and coin gloves (purchased the gloves before being told it wasn't necesary) being shipped. I have coin flips (PVC free) and coin album pages that I already purchased. Do I need any other tools in order to examine and test ancient coins? Can you please let me know if I'm missing anything?

And no, no witty comments about the needless white gloves, please. At least my coins will be getting a little extra love, and I look good in white gloves. Seriously though, is there anything else I need?

I do also have a cheapo x10 loop I bought back in 1997, do I need higher magnification or is that good enough?

 

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Coin scale, ruler (caliper), loop or magnifying glass, storage system (flip or tray.) That is it. Unless you plan on buying uncleaned coins. If so, I can't help u there.

 

You don't want too high of magnification, so I think 10x is sufficient.

Word to the wise: Start cataloging your coins and maintaining all pertinent info such as date purchased, where purchased, price in addition to the info on the coins.

 

You mean like a log book?

 

Well, mine is kept on a spreadsheet and backed up in three or four different places. In my catalog, I have a description of the coin, date of the coin, mint where the coin was struck, images of both obverse and reverse, date purchased, where purchased and from whom, special notes, where I have the coin filed, and total cost of coin (which includes shipping - I used to separate cost from shipping but found no purpose for the information).

 

I use a google doc to keep the information, I can open it at shows on my phone to make sure I am not buying a duplicate.

 

That's almost more work than maintaining my law firm's trust account. That's an impressive amount of info Bing.

 

for the money, i've got quite a bit of mileage out of cheap pair of 2x reading glasses...for me just the right magnification 9 times out of ten.

 

References including books, websites, etc.

 

I keep images of my coins on tantaluscoins.com. That way, if I am burgled, there is an on line record of what I have.

Keep a text file on your desktop, keep links to interesting sites. I keep coin details in a spreadsheet, make sure that you back up any records to more than one place.

Storage is down to your budget. Don't rush into anything, albums are fine. You may want to move into trays etc, but give yourself time to find what you need.

Magnification and a light source is necessary (in my opinion).

 

Yes- a bottle of olive oil - not extra virgin. In case you run into an uncleaned or one caked with dirt, don't ever use soap and water. Soak in olive oil for a few days up to a week. And yes, white gloves are good.

 

Chances are you have olive oil in your kitchen. Personally, I prefer distilled water, however, if you are going down the cleaning route, come here first for advice.

 

You're forgetting one very important tool...



Just kidding of course - do NOT mix this product with bidding!!

 

Don't they say, never bring food or drink around your coins?!!!

 

...oh, and some verdi-care will be needed some day. but can wait for a bit.

go ahead and get the jim beam now.

 

But I hope your 21 already!

 

And verdi-care yes as chrsmat71 said

 

One very important thing: contacts (people!), you need lots of contacts for help and guidance! But you know that already.

 

I've been 21 for 9 years. Personally, I prefer a bottle of Zacapa Centenario, with a Cohiba Cuban cigar, or a bottle of 1977 Taylor Fadgate port wine with a Romeo y Julieta Cuban cigar, or a bottle of vodka with an Aurora cigar (Domenican cigar, but good).

And yeah, I'm originally Cuban, which explains my love of Cuban cigars. It's in the blood.

 

One thing I recommend is flip tags, you don't necessarily have to buy them but I recommend figuring them out before you have a ton of coins. I keep all the data in a spreadsheet as well, but I also keep a tag with every coin that has the full attribution, provenance, catalog numbers, any comments(i.e. "overstruck on X", "banker's marks"). I don't buy them, I simply print mine off on standard paper and fold them over, but others buy specific paper or just buy pre-cut tags and handwrite them. Here is an example of one of mine.


The front of the tag(when holding the flip unopened the front is facing the same direction as the obverse of the coin) has the important "at a glance" info, the back has the full attribution/ID like I'd post on here when sharing a coin.