Cataloging a collection

[IanB]

I have been thinking that I need to be a bit more methodical in cataloging my coins, currently I scribble some details onto the back of the flips they are stored in and place them in the album. However now that the numbers are growing and I am buying better grade coins I want to start some form of record keeping. 

What do you guys do to keep a track of a growing collection? 

I am also thinking of creating a website like some have on the forum, any tips on this?

[TomGoodheart]

I've thought about the website idea myself Ian, but am both lazy and lacking in confidence to make a start yet!

So currently I keep details on little paper tickets, stored with the coins (traditional!), I retain all the receipts for the coins I currently own and record details on two Excel spread sheets.  Details are the usuals such as cost, where I got the coin and when and any provenance. 

One ("Listing") is arranged to tell me what the total cost of all the coins comes to.  Not a perfect means of valuation, but it's a start, should I ever want such a thing.

The other spread sheet ("Remaining") starts with the lump sum I used to start collecting and ends up with how much I have currently left available to spend.  Both get updated whenever I buy or sell a coin or receive cash at Christmas or my birthday.

Both are, for simplicity, arranged by Spink number and then the specialist Sharp number used for such coins.  All very basic (and clearly a simple matter if you only have a small number of coins as I do).   I used to keep occasional printouts of the spreadsheets, but now tend to rely on copies stored on various memory sticks etc...

Ultimately, I feel I want something that's simple to maintain and tells me (or family) what they might need to know.  A website would look nice, but what I have does the job for now.

 

Edited May 28, 2016 by TomGoodheart

[IanB]

That's great Tom, thank you. I was guessing that an Excel spreadsheet would be a good starting point but giving the columns some form of name was something I was wondering about. Some form of unique ID number is essential for everything else to pin onto but it is the other headings I was doubtful on.

My collection mainly consist of Pennies (what a surprise!) and what I would term as standard examples. As the collection has grown I have in some cases multiples of the same coin, I am in no rush to sell them so I need to add a section to the sheet that identifies the differences between the same date coins.

I like your way of keeping a running total of costs

I have to admit that I have not been keeping up to date records so I will be creating something with a lot of blanks for the moment that will hopefully get filled as I go along.

I was also thinking of somehow linking the records to a website so that a photo of the coin can hyperlink to a record somewhere on the site. I have no clue how to do this but maybe someone here as done something similar?

[Rob]

I keep my collection on an Access database with a record of where it comes within the collection criteria, date of acquisition and prices (cost and current Spink catalogue) for calculating the value for insurance purposes. I have a link to a separate file for each (numbered) coin which notes all relevant details such as cost, provenance, an image of the coin and any accompanying tickets, plus any notes that are pertinent to that coin such as unrecorded features, die links or in the case of rarities, the number I have seen, where and when.

[RLC35]

1 hour ago, IanB said:

That's great Tom, thank you. I was guessing that an Excel spreadsheet would be a good starting point but giving the columns some form of name was something I was wondering about. Some form of unique ID number is essential for everything else to pin onto but it is the other headings I was doubtful on.

My collection mainly consist of Pennies (what a surprise!) and what I would term as standard examples. As the collection has grown I have in some cases multiples of the same coin, I am in no rush to sell them so I need to add a section to the sheet that identifies the differences between the same date coins.

I like your way of keeping a running total of costs

I have to admit that I have not been keeping up to date records so I will be creating something with a lot of blanks for the moment that will hopefully get filled as I go along.

I was also thinking of somehow linking the records to a website so that a photo of the coin can hyperlink to a record somewhere on the site. I have no clue how to do this but maybe someone here as done something similar?

 

Ian,

Here is the coin inventory software, I have used for years. http://www.trovesoftware.com/mainorder.html It is available for just about any operating system, and is very reasonable. For World Coins you would probably want Elite v6.26. There is another version that has all USA coins, and values pre-loaded...v17.53. The v 17.53 can also be used for World Cons.. You can load pictures of each of your coins if you wish. The program is very user friendly.

 

[TomGoodheart]

1 hour ago, IanB said:

I was also thinking of somehow linking the records to a website so that a photo of the coin can hyperlink to a record somewhere on the site. I have no clue how to do this but maybe someone here as done something similar?

Bear in mind for the short term that something like Microsoft's standard Paint package will accept quite long names for images.  I can fit most provenance information in which then provides me with a very useful photographic record of any coins that might interest me.  A trawl of auction archives and similar sites has resulted in a personal reference of almost 1800 images I can refer to within seconds either on my laptop or via the cloud ...

 

 

(I think I forgot to add that I also keep decent quality images of every coin I have for my records too!) 

Edited May 28, 2016 by TomGoodheart

[IanB]

48 minutes ago, Rob said:

I keep my collection on an Access database with a record of where it comes within the collection criteria, date of acquisition and prices (cost and current Spink catalogue) for calculating the value for insurance purposes. I have a link to a separate file for each (numbered) coin which notes all relevant details such as cost, provenance, an image of the coin and any accompanying tickets, plus any notes that are pertinent to that coin such as unrecorded features, die links or in the case of rarities, the number I have seen, where and when.

Thank you Rob, I do not have Access on my computer at the moment but I may be able to get hold of it through work. I will speak with IT on Tuesday. The Microsoft website blurb for it looks good. 

[IanB]

28 minutes ago, RLC35 said:

 

Ian,

Here is the coin inventory software, I have used for years. http://www.trovesoftware.com/mainorder.html It is available for just about any operating system, and is very reasonable. For World Coins you would probably want Elite v6.26. There is another version that has all USA coins, and values pre-loaded...v17.53. The v 17.53 can also be used for World Cons.. You can load pictures of each of your coins if you wish. The program is very user friendly.

 

Hi Bob,

I cannot seem to be able to download it, does it work on Macs?

Ian

[IanB]

13 minutes ago, TomGoodheart said:

Bear in mind for the short term that something like Microsoft's standard Paint package will accept quite long names for images.  I can fit most provenance information in which then provides me with a very useful photographic record of any coins that might interest me.  A trawl of auction archives and similar sites has resulted in a personal reference of almost 1800 images I can refer to within seconds either on my laptop or via the cloud ...

(I think I forgot to add that I also keep decent quality images of every coin I have for my records too!) 

Thats another package I don't seem to have on my computer. Again I may be able to get it through work. I work for a university and we can often get these for free if we ask using an IP address connected to the university.

[Rob]

This has been discussed before if someone can find the thread. I think consensus was that anything you need to search or arrange are ideally in a database, but things like cost or say Peck reference are not usually searched and so can remain attached to that specific file. It keeps the database nice and compact.

 

[Nordle11]

Excel for the details, prices paid, Freeman/Gouby references etc. and a website for the photos.

[IanB]

Just found a thread dated July 2012, started by Mongo, with plenty of information about databases and spreadsheet. I will have a read through of that. However if anyone has anymore advice please let me know. 

I am still interested in creating a website to record my collection and somehow I would like to link it to a database, preferably for free but at the very least low cost.

Thank you all for you advice and guidance as always and so far it has given me plenty to work on.

Ian

[RLC35]

44 minutes ago, IanB said:

Hi Bob,

I cannot seem to be able to download it, does it work on Macs?

Ian

Try this link. http://www.trovesoftware.com/ It should lead you too the site.

[scott]

I should do this.. it seems every few weeks i need to go find a load of all washers to look for rare varieties

[Colin G.]

@IanB if you are using a Mac, Filemaker Pro would also be a good option if you can gain access to that software through work. I did the move to Mac last year and use Filemaker instead of MS Access that I used to use on Windows, and I actually find Filemaker simpler and less cumbersome...although a bit more costly to purchase.

My replacement system following transition is still under construction, but it is getting there. 

[secret santa]

The Wordpress software that I've used to create my websites, including my collection, is straightforward and free. I maintain details of my collection on a Word document which is easy to maintain. See example page

[IanB]

5 hours ago, secret santa said:

The Wordpress software that I've used to create my websites, including my collection, is straightforward and free. I maintain details of my collection on a Word document which is easy to maintain. 

Thanks Santa, I have just created a Wordpress website. I have added a couple of photo but thats all I have at the moment. Guess my summer job is to starting snapping and adding.

I need to spend a bit of time familiarising myself with editing and moving stuff around but so far it looks okay. 

There is quite a bit of choice with the templates, what style did you go for?

Anyone else have a Wordpress site? If you have, what template do you think works the best for coins?

Edited May 29, 2016 by IanB

[IanB]

Any advice on how I link my website to my posts? I have updated my profile but I cannot see the link on my message. 

There is not a lot on there at the moment but it would be nice to be able to link to it from here.

[IanB]

6 hours ago, Colin G. said:

@IanB if you are using a Mac, Filemaker Pro would also be a good option if you can gain access to that software through work. I did the move to Mac last year and use Filemaker instead of MS Access that I used to use on Windows, and I actually find Filemaker simpler and less cumbersome...although a bit more costly to purchase.

My replacement system following transition is still under construction, but it is getting there. 

Thank you Colin, I will have a word at work next week and see what is available.

[secret santa]

My websites all use the Illustrator style - not chosen scientifically from a review of all styles - other styles may well be better but I just happened to choose this one as a total beginner and it was straightforward to use.

You link the website through your "signature".

[Paulus]

Hi Ian

I also use Wordpress for my collection, like Santa I didn't trawl through all the themes, just picked one I liked and that was easy to use.

I use 'Twenty Fourteen', which is a 'responsive' theme, meaning that it will adapt to any viewing environment (PC/laptop/tablet/smart phone)

Edited May 29, 2016 by Paulus

[IanB]

1 hour ago, secret santa said:

My websites all use the Illustrator style - not chosen scientifically from a review of all styles - other styles may well be better but I just happened to choose this one as a total beginner and it was straightforward to use.

You link the website through your "signature".

 

51 minutes ago, Paulus said:

Hi Ian

I also use Wordpress for my collection, like Santa I didn't trawl through all the themes, just picked one I liked and that was easy to use.

I use 'Twenty Fourteen', which is a 'responsive' theme, meaning that it will adapt to any viewing environment (PC/laptop/tablet/smart phone)

I am currently using one called Espied, some of the other templates seem to crop the photos. Its all new to me so I will be playing with the site over the next couple of weeks. Its good to know what others are using so I don't try to reinvent the wheel.

As I add more photos it will be interesting to see how I move things around and start to categorise the coins into monarchs. 

Santa,

When you say link it through your signature. I cannot see that in the edit profile. I have added it to the profile fields. Can you point me to the signature?

Edited May 29, 2016 by IanB

[Paulus]

It's under 'Settings' @IanB

[IanB]

3 minutes ago, Paulus said:

It's under 'Settings' @IanB

Thank you. I think I have added it.

[jaggy]

I'm a Mac user and had been using a product called iCollect which was okay but was lacking some key printing and exporting functionality. Anyway, when I installed the latest MacBook operating system, El Capitan, iCollect no longer worked properly although I could still see the data. So I decided to pull the trigger, get a new database product and re-catalogue.

The new software I bought is called Steward. It is very intuitive and easy to use and I was up and running in minutes. What do I like about Steward?

1. You create, customise and label your own fields. So you can include as little or as much information about your coins as you want.

2. You can attach photos. And not just Obverse/Reverse. You can attach multiple photos (e.g. a ticket that came with the coin or a key detail.

3. Export and backup functionality is very good. I haven't tested restoring a backup but I have done an import/export and it works.

4. It only costs $21

What don't I like.

1. I think the reporting engine is weak. I would like to be able to customise how I display data on the screen or what I print. 

2. I would like to be able to customise the look and feel of the data on the screen. At the moment it looks  bit like a flat file.