Attribution Labels/Cards, Any Thoughts?

Like the template, thanks @Mat!

 

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Indeed. As I have already shown, I only display the coin, on a field of velvet, with no distractions. I keep all other info separate. I keep the flip inserts and a full page with photo and all attribution info and provenance separately.

The fact is that, on the rare occasion that I show them to friends, I can verbally tell them all they want to know. They don't care about reference numbers and weights. They want who, when and where. Then the questions are generic to any coin (what could this buy, how do you know its real, where do you get them, etc)

I know that is not possible when people own hundreds or thousands of coins, but I guess that is why I don't own that many.

 

As an example, I write the following info on each 2x2:

Emperor/major rev. device
denomination
RIC -, BMC -, RSC - , RPC -
mint, year struck, grade

 

It has been really fun reading all of the different approaches that everyone uses. I have picked up a couple of pointers too. Unfortunately I don't have the space to adopt stevex6's method nor the time and patience for tif's, however I think that they are both fantastic.

Dougsmit's point about letting the card (or lack thereof) serve the desired need of the user is a good one. Since I am relativity new to collecting ancients (2 years or so), I wanted to avoid leaving out information that I would someday want to include on a tag. When I first started I didn't see the need to include size and weight but now find that information valuable.

It's true that all of this information will be housed in a spreadsheet database but for my needs it would be handy to have most of it on a tag in a 2x2 flip with the coin. I collect ancients with my daughter and she enjoys pulling out a couple of coins and reading about them. Having to go to a spreadsheet to find out more about the coin would get in the way of our fun.

We have picked up a couple of coins that at one time were sold by Littleton. They usually have tags with a light historical background on the emperor or ruler. While short on technical information, my daughter enjoys reading these the most. So I guess I need to devise a hybrid system.

 

I agree that coins look best, and most impressive, when displayed in an Abafil or NomosAG case without any tags at all. Of those, I prefer the look of the NomosAG case and have considered buying one in case I want to show someone my better coins. However, there probably aren't any collectors of people who would be interested within a thousand miles of me. I'm trying to justify buying one anyway because they look so nice.

Actually, I'd like to design and construct my own tray or system but just haven't put time and effort to the project yet.

 

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned cabinets as yet. I have always liked them, but never invested in one.

 

They look great but they are too big to store discretely at home or in a bank. And they make it very handy for a thief to walk off with everything. Otherwise I would definitely go with a cabinet.

 

Loads on ebay, all unsuitable wood as far as I can make out. Wood gassing seems to be a big problem.

 

The security factor is one of the biggest reasons not to buy one. It's like a jewelry box. It just says, "Come steal me". If one had a secure home (is that possible these days?) I would say yes. But I'd be afraid of the loss.

As for gasses, that may not be such a bad thing. One can always tell old silver which has been stored in a cabinet for 50-100 years. They have a distinctive toning, and most people will pay a premium for the patina on such coins. But, that is a personal taste.

 

The Littleton flips are well done in my estimation, because they give a bit of historical information, perhaps just enough to entice the reader into further research.

 

Forvm usually puts info on the back of their flip tags too. I like their flip labeling.

Zach of Beast Coins, labels are well done too.

 

Agreed with that. The Access database that we are creating will have facility for multiple pics (if you want close ups on features, comparatives, etc), and also to attach files for history or other pertinent info (like what @stevex6 does with his added pages). Even if I never show my coins, it is still nice to be able to know why the coin was minted, what was going on, the history wrapped around it, etc etc...

 

A large collection is really hard to document in hard copy but a system of the style Steve uses will probably soon strike Steve as less desirable at the rate he is adding coins. I have photos of all my coins on a Nook which is now what I carry to shows. They are sorted into folders and in an order so I can see thumbs and find coins when I need to access them at shows. It would seem someone could develop an app for handling such a collection record much more efficiently than any hard copy or set of file cards could. My problem is that I have been using my basic computer file system for so long that I would want any app to be compatible with it and be able to read the data I typed in over the last 30 years without requiring me to do them all over again. Just making out hand written tags for a large number of coins is a job so I suggest you new to the hobby types to give a lot of thought to what you will want to live with for the long term unless your real hobby is keyboard entry.

I think what I would really like is a routine that would allow me to print out a print on demand book more of less like we see for a high end sales catalog. I guess it would be like the old fashioned encyclopedias where you could buy a set of books in 1957 and then get a yearly update book every year thereafter until you decided to thrown them all out and buy the 1987 set etc. etc. etc. I might do something like that for my 100 favorite coins but putting the work into all those coins I never should have bought just is not going to happen.

 

Andrew McCabe has his collection in book style, from pics he's shared over the years, it's pretty cool.

 

It would probably be easy to do there are many on-demand printers. Lulu is the first that comes to mind.

 

Sounds like you need someone to write you a script and migrate your data for you Doug. Sometimes app developers (of the labeling system you intend to use) do that for very little fee.