Disorganized or old or both?

There is an article in Coin World this week about John W. Adams and his 1794 large cents. A collector brought Sheldon S-44 in the Garrett auction in 1979 and accidently left it behind in a taxi in NYC.

And the cab driver returned it to him.

 

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Just wait until you're in your eighties, and have inventoried your >6-figure-count collection on Lotus 123 spreadsheets that no-one can print and the technology has morphed to a state where version/firm is a decisive factor in viewing/printing.

I often laugh when I read suggestions from naive collectors as to what software should be used to record their collection.

If only they understood the "life-span" of the average recording/inventory, or any software/digital program. LOL

My early hand-written records are the best for determination of existence/location, as when a computer system is upgraded, often there isn't backwards capability in software/equipment.

Don't plan on a greater than half century collecting, as I.

JMHO

 

I just turned 72 this past week, and find myself doing more spacey things all the time. A month or so ago I bought 3 identical British India 1/4 anna coins in a week's time, all UNC-MS. They were separate buys, and I do keep very detailed spread sheets, so this multi buy could have been avoided had I been more diligent. No doubt there are missing coins and many that I forget about having.

 

I know I am way over 10,000 now, and still growing like crazy. Talking total number of coins in my so called collection. I guess I specialize in any thing that tickles me fancy. Lately it has just been stuff from India, mostly in the last 2000 years.

 

I enjoy finding them while not remembering them. Kind of an Aha moment. As opposed to the nagging lingering of not knowing where they’re at?

 

I've found that the coins that I have in slabs don't seem to be misplaced but the raw ones do. I guess out of sight, out of mind, or lack thereof.

 

For just over 50 years I KNEW I had a large bronze Dubrovnik medal that I acquired in high school. Could never find it, even though we packed and moved 15 times. It showed up last year and John Anthony sold it for me. Still missing (and I'm positive I never got rid of them) two counterfeit lead "coins," a Walker half and a Buffalo nickel.

My most embarrassing "lost and NOT found" was when my first grandson got to the "age of inquisitiveness." I locked my pistol and all my ammunition in a tool bench. I brought my wife to the basement to show her where I was hiding the keys.

Fast forward to deer hunting season. Darn it, couldn't find those keys, no matter how hard I searched. Needing my rifle ammunition I sheepishly went to my wife to ask her help in getting my keys. She looked blankly at me and said she couldn't remember either.

I had to drill out the lock (and replace it). When we sold that house a few years later those keys are still there...somewhere.

Steve

 

A few years ago, I came across a journal I'd used back in the early 1990s. I was speculating about what I'd be doing differently twenty years down the road.

One comment: "imagine keeping things on the computer for permanence" -- at that time, if you wanted to make sure you'd have something later, you printed it out. Today, as I predicted, I have a much better chance of finding things I stored on a computer than things I stored in a filing cabinet. Filing cabinets don't have global search, and you can't back them up overnight.

But you absolutely have to copy things periodically onto newer media, and into newer formats. It's usually possible to skip a couple of generations, but not too many.

The thing is, computer technology has come so far so quickly that we can do some pretty surprising things when it comes to data recovery and transfer. There are lots of things I could imagine doing to fish information out of old formats, but they just took too much time back in the day -- processing one file could take minutes, and processing thousands was hopeless. Today? Ten or a hundred files per second.

As far as Lotus files, I never used the package myself, but I've seen suggestions as simple as "rename your .123 file to .wk4 and open it in Excel, everything will be there". I'm deeply skeptical of that claim, but what have you tried?

 

Have you tried doing a screen shot.

 

Yup... From all the comments above... You're not alone. I found a bunch of Australian Silver just last week that I'd forgotten I had. To make it worse, the set had been missing one coin and I dunno where it it.

Another area I have tripped myself up is in reference books. On more that one occasion I go to add a 'new' reference book just purchased to my library shelf, only to realise I already have it... Thbbbbt

 

I found an entire roll of Unc. 1964 nickels and 4-5 old Walking Liberty Halves in a box on a shelf, next to my work table. No clue that stuff was there.

 

No, that's "b'teebt"!

 

happens to me at times, one time a coin was stuck to an invoice and i thought it was stolen, (but i do have a nephew that i know hits my coin jugs and took a complete collection of ikes to fuel his drug habit) so i do have a reason to suspect..

 

I didn't lose any of my coins, but they were "stolen". In 1995, after 27 years of marriage with 3 grown children, my wife decided that she wanted to marry her high school boyfriend. I moved out 2 days later. When I went back to our house, I found that she had changed the lock. When I finally got up with her, she told me that because I had left them, that I didn't want them. Ouch! Most of the coins were from foreign countries that I had lived in from my youth.
I started working with computers in 1982. My first computer was an Osborne 1. It looked like a sewing machine. The keyboard was on the bottom and it was opened up to use the keyboard. There was a 4-5 inch monochrome screen, and a "real" floppy disk 7-8" drive. I got a user manual and learned alot. I used a spreadsheet program named Supercalc. When IBM finally put out their computer, it didn't have much more in it. I updated it with a 10MB hard drive, and 640KB (I think) memory. I installed all the options. Then I my office gave me a computer loaded with Lotus 1 2 3. I used it for several years, until I changed jobs and they had Microsoft products, i.e., Word, Excel, and others.
I enjoy Excel. I keep up with my coins, our personal finances, inventory of my movies (I have a theater and over 300 movies). I've probably got more invested in my theater than my coins.
Anyway, Excel is so widely used, that it is considered the standard for most businesses.
Best of luck, my friends.

 

I tried all of the experts who advertise in our multi-million occupant state. None could do, by providing me with a internet, snail mail, or screen print copy of a file forwarded. I had tried all of the internet posed solutions. I offered $150 entrusted funds for a printed copy of a forwarded file.

QPRO worked before they were purchased and destroyed, as did some others before they were obsoleted.

The offers are still open!

 

I haven't any results utilizing the computer "print screen" option on my Dell laptop, but use a camera to generate a .jpg.

The problem often seen today is that newer O.S. aren't necessarily compatible with existing printers/other software. I've found multiple equipment may be needed before a WYSIWYG copy can be obtained.

 

No you're not alone at all, I misplace coins and Tokens all the time! What's more frustrating is if I mention it to my wife! She's way more organized than I could ever be and I get to hear all about it!

 

I imagine we all vary in our expertise levels with computers. Personally, I would be completely lost in my coin collection without a computer. I use Apache OpenOffice. It is a free download, works extremely well, and is similar in most respects to MS Office. I have all my coins entered on spreadsheets, which I designed myself. For any coin I have, there is a row in a .ods spreadsheet showing date, mint (or ruler or country), purchase price in various currencies, seller, denomination, condition, comments, location (coming, gone or album #), date purchased, photo?, zeno #, weight in grams, diameter in mm. Of course, all columns can be sorted, cells can be color coded to show various things. There is more that I could do with this system, however it is cumbersome enough as is.

 

After reading all of these posts (the ones about finding the "lost" coins) it really makes me feel like I'm not losing my mind. Just not paying attention when I put something away, not making a note/photo, not having an easily accessible filing system, etc. I really do not trust my memory any longer and write it down.

I realize that if/when I get to the point that I do not remember that I have forgotten, something else is at play.

Steve