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 Replies: 16 / Views: 2,562 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2403 Posts |
If you just want simple pics and inexpensive digital camera will do the trick. Get a memory card just for your coins if needed. Shoot the pic. Camera automatically saves to memory card. Keep memory card in safe or other safe place.
I do recommend taking pics of sets and albums. Having close-up pics of all your ungraded coins is also very helpful for insurance purposes and for identification purposes if stolen.
I personally keep pics and have a spreadsheet of all my coins by type and year and list any distinguishable marks. For my graded coins I also keep track of their verifications numbers.
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
I would skip the web hosting and go for a memory card/stick. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
I have kept all the hard drives from my obsolete/dead computers, There are thousands of images saved on these and are easily accessed  |
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Moderator
United States
54284 Posts |
Over time, technology changes, and anything stored on physical media (floppy disks, various types of hard drives, flash drives, tapes, CD, DVD, etc. will become OBSOLETE, and perhaps difficult to recover.
So, whatever media you choose, be sure to transfer it to more modern media BEFORE your old computer dies or you just get a new one that might not be able to read the old media.
I have a bunch of Iomega ZIP disks my father created before he passed, that I can't use now.
Once the computer manufacturers start dropping support for a media type, you had better start thinking about updating your archived items if they are on that type of media. Oh, it may be around for years to come, but that day will surely come when you can no longer access that type of media. So don't wait.
What the "cloud" offers is a way to store things that should always be accessible (as long as the storage company stays in business). Or it could be used to copy things TO from an old media type before a new computer is obtained, then copied back to a new media type with the new computer.
If you have been around as long as I have, you might remember:
8" floppy disks
5 1/4" floppy disks
3 1/2" diskettes DS/DD
3 1/2" diskettes HD
5 1/4" magneto-optical disks
Iomega ZIP disks
and dozens more
Show your financial support of the Coin Community Family (click here)See my topic on Mexican Numismatic Medals (click here) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
Any decent smartphone made in the last few years should be more than capable of taking decent pictures--I have used a Samsung Galaxy S5 for all of the pics I have posted here on the past year, but honestly I think that the iPhone has a better camera. If you are okay with year-old tech, you can get a lightly used or new iPhone 5 or 5s for really cheap; probably cheaper than a comparable camera by the time the iPhone 7 is announced in September.
And I agree with just keeping a memory card or hard drive, if this is just for insurance and the inheritors of your estate. Name your files in a way that is easy to understand (USA_BarberDime_1895P_Obv_AU50.jpg) and keep them well organized in files that are similarly easy to navigate. I would also advise that you build a spreadsheet where you can track inventory, purchase price, and things like melt value.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
If you have been around as long as I have, you might remember:
8" floppy disks
5 1/4" floppy disks
3 1/2" diskettes DS/DD
3 1/2" diskettes HD
5 1/4" magneto-optical disks
Iomega ZIP disks
and dozens more In 1999 as part of their Millennium celebration/exhibit the UK made a big deal over copying the 1066 Domesday book onto modern digital media. A show of the change in technology over the millennium. Today they do not have the ability to read the digital media copy, but the paper book still works just fine. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I don't think that technology will be quite so subject to change. Each great leap forward results in a standards war, for which there are always winners and losers. The longer the Victor stays in his hill, the more entrenched he becomes. I am typing this message on a keyboard that was designed to prevent jams in an 1870s typewriter, after all.
I am sure that all of our technology will be rendered obsolete eventually, but the fact remains that if I am willing to spend $10, I can buy a reader for 3.5" floppies. CDs have been around almost as long as I have been alive, so I suspect that adapters will be cheap and available for a LONG time after they no longer come pre-installed on PCs.
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Moderator
United States
54284 Posts |
Quote:
I am sure that all of our technology will be rendered obsolete eventually, but the fact remains that if I am willing to spend $10, I can buy a reader for 3.5" floppies. CDs have been around almost as long as I have been alive, so I suspect that adapters will be cheap and available for a LONG time after they no longer come pre-installed on PCs. Oh, you can buy the readers, but getting them to work on a current computer operating system might be a challenge. Eventually support for obsolete hardware is dropped permanently. I'm just saying, keep your items archived on current media. Show your financial support of the Coin Community Family (click here)See my topic on Mexican Numismatic Medals (click here) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2403 Posts |
I agree as technology changes, we will ALL need to find other ways to keep records of our collections. But as we have seen in the past. Nothing changes over night. There will be plenty of time to transfer over all files to new formats.
BTW I still have files on 3.5 inch floppies. Have no problem accessing them using my USB floppy drive and Windows 10
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Moderator
United States
190135 Posts |
Quote:
In 1999 as part of their Millennium celebration/exhibit the UK made a big deal over copying the 1066 Domesday book onto modern digital media. A show of the change in technology over the millennium. Today they do not have the ability to read the digital media copy, but the paper book still works just fine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4211 Posts |
Thanks everybody for your input and insights! @ Chute - wasn't going to mail my coins off, just look for a local photographer that I can take two or three albums at a time to so no shipping etc. And yes, I welcome all opinions in this discussion. As far as a CD I can go that route but I would in addition have a web site of sorts with a wed address. I know my (28 year old) son will have some coins in my collection that he will want to keep but I am an album filler and he has said to me before: "Mom, I just don't get it. Why do you want an entire book of the same coin?" So I know there is A LOT of my collection he is going to want to liquidate. So I am thinking if he had a web address he could reference with pictures that would help him. IDK @MontCollector, John and Trout - I bought a Canon Power Shot and tried, but failed miserably at taking my own pictures. @nss - yes I am old enough. We bought our first computer from Radio Shack for over 4 grand around 1993. I understand DOS and Floppy Disk talk  @finn - I have had an IPhone 5 since they were released. Perhaps I will upgrade to a 7 one of these days. But my phone takes pretty nice pictures until I try a coin. @jbuck. Thanks for the link and popping in on my thread. Come back anytime  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1747 Posts |
Debra, there are 3 basic principles to taking good images 1) focus, 2) framing, 3) lighting. with your iphone 5 you should be able to take great photos. make sure you have good lighting on the coin (you might need extra lights). Make sure your coin is in full focus, and as large as possible on your camera screen and voila.
it might take a few tries to get good, but those are the basics, also having editing software on your computer will help as well.
good luck.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Spend a little and get a printer/copy/scanner. Might not be the greatest photos but easy to use and transfer to your computers hard drive. Then you could do as I do and make a copy on a flash drive. Then to add to all this I make hard copies of my inventory and then make a back up of that on another flash drive. So now I have photos and inventory on my computer, two flash drives and a book full of paper.
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Moderator
United States
190135 Posts |
Quote:
@jbuck. Thanks for the link and popping in on my thread. Come back anytime You are welcome and thank you.  By the way (I forgot to add it during my previous post after I got sidetracked reading my own link), I am a fan of using multiple portable USB hard drives for backup of my data. Backups for backups. I do have some cloud accounts that I use, but I like having the local backups as well. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4211 Posts |
@ just carl. Thanks for the suggestion. I guess my epson could be replaced with something nicer. I have never tried scanning my coins before.
@ jbuck. Good idea. Thanks again!
My modest collection in comparison is just a peanut in a barrel compared to Barry's but I do so enjoy clicking on his link and looking at all his marvelous coins on his website. Maybe someday in the distant future but for now I will use some of these suggestions to get started.
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Posted 03/28/2016 04:02 am
