How Do You Organize Your Collection? (A Beginning Collector Question)

No shame in that.

I collect both US and foreign coins. My foreign coins are all in an album, there isn't much rhyme or reason other than bigger coins in the front smaller coins in the back. Then the US coins are as follows:
1) I collect by series so I have them in albums. I'm not picky so I have them in Dansco, Littleton or Whitman albums.
2) I also have a few folders for low cost coins, currently only small cents.
3) what doesn't fit in albums goes into 3 Whitman cases. They go by 1) silver coins 2) cents (large, IHC, LWC). I only keep coins in here that have a value more than face. And last one is supposed for clad coins. I have uncirculated moderns and classics.
4) I have a plastic roll holder for MS cents ( LMC and LSC)

Anything that doesn't fit and even stuff that does but doesn't have collectibility to me will get purged, moved to circulation, given away or sold if there is enough value to justify.

I don't keep coins to keep, so I have no issue purging what I have no interest in.

I'm in need of lots of advice, on all the aspects discussed here.
Main problem: I've collected, bought, hoarded, coins and currency my whole life, without much specific rhyme or reason. If it caught my eye, or I thought why not buy 25 thousand wheat back pennies, which I did over time, or kept every star note, or two dollar bill, or silver coins, or funny looking foreign money while traveling, or save all my change because there might be something in there, I think you get the picture.

I always figured I would sort it when retired, now retired, been working on it for months and haven't made much headway, especially since I'm now really into looking for errors.

My plan, put everything in 2X2's and separate, then put in large but all the same 2-3 inch high boxes. All currency are in sleeves and top loaders and fit in those boxes too. Then either create my own Excel spreadsheet or buy a commercial one and enter everything in it.

I've read posts that everything doesn't deserve a 2X2, but how else am I going to organize where everything fits in one medium?

I've read only keep stuff worth more than face value, well don't all pennies before 1982 have a higher value due to metal content, especially the wheats? Can't get rid of those.

All uncirculated have higher than face too.

Now I'm to volume, I have lots and lots of ammo cans full of change.



More ammo cans full of other stuff.






I feel overwhelmed and wonder if I'm doing it all wrong.
Am I planning right, just going to take years to complete?

I took me a year to organize my 150 thousand sports cards.



Like others I'm spending hours everyday on this.
Any advice?

Now those are some awesome coins and containers.
And I bet their worth a ton, none of my coins warrant such beautiful presentation cases.
Love those cases.



I only have 3 ancient coins, I think, I haven't even got to them yet to see what they are. If they are good, I'll look into using a case like you.

My advice and take it for what it is. You have too much. You really do. Its not a collection its more a pile.

Narrow down what you want to collect.
Pick the best of each
Get rid of everything else.

I did the same with Lincoln Wheat Cents, I got a few folders and had more cents than I ever needed. I gave a few away, I sold a few and I put the rest back into circulation.

In my extra's folder I only have 3 small cases and there are less than 100 extra coins that are duplicates. If I upgrade I'll sell the other ones I don't keep.

Sorry, that's my advice. Narrow it down to what you actually want to collect.

Great advice, I do need to downsize, I guess I'll save the 2X2 for uncirculated and rare coins and come up with a hybrid for the others and keep in rolls and ammo cans.
Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Snoopydoo, I agree with others that suggested that you have accumulated too much.

To hopefully put things in more perspective, I saved wheat cents and pre-1950 Jefferson nickels from circulation for about 20 years, and accumulated five rolls of wheat cents and one roll of early Jeffersons.

A few months ago, I decided to sell these rolls. Selling online seemed senseless to me due to prohibitive shipping costs, so I took the rolls to my local coin show. I offered them to several small-time dealers that sold such coins in bargain trays or whatever. The rolls were a tough sell, but I found a buyer who paid 1.5 cents for the wheats, and this was only because I had some earlier dates in the teens and 20s. The only early-date Jeffersons I could sell were the silver War Nickels (I just spent the rest).

I believe every coin collector eventually arrives at a time when they decide to get rid of the least desirable or least valuable coins in their collection (or the ones that take up the most space). If you think hard about how exactly you would do that with your collection when the time comes, you might decide to adjust your acquisition habits soon. Selling the volume that you have might be heartbreaking when you're faced with the reality that I realized, only multiplied by a thousand times.