What To Put On A 2x2 Flip?

KM numbers are primarily as an identification reference for world coins; numbers are allocated in chronological order, to every coin type struck since 1601; each country has it's own series of KM numbers.

KM is short for "Krause-Mischler" - KM numbers are recorded in the Krause catalogues of world coins, of which Krause and Mischler were the original editors. The catalogues are phone-book-sized, one volume per century, and probably not worth acquiring if foreign coins aren't really your thing.

You can also find them on the Krause website, http://www.numismaster.com - to look up numbers, you only have to register, but to look up mintages and catalogue values, you have to pay a subscription.

As for what I put on my 2x2s:

Front:
- Country;
- Denomination;
- Date;
- Any special notes on the variety or subtype (eg. Type II, VAM 6b, etc.);
- Price paid (in code - no point in telling thieves which coins are the valuable ones);

Back:
- Catalogue Reference number (eg. KM# for world coins, Sear number for ancient Greek and Roman coins, etc.);
- the Sap Number - my personal database number; each item in the collection gets a unique number;
- Date the coin was acquired;
- Provenance - where/how I acquired it eg. "Billybob's Coin Shop", " ebay seller weluvcoins", "found in circulation". If a coin has older provenancce (eg. ex Eliasberg collection), that should be noted, too;
- the date the coin was put into the 2x2 (if that date was different to the acquisition date). This last one is handy for spotting "bad" 2x2s; if a coin starts to turn green and slimy after only a short time in a 2x2, you've got a bad batch of plastic.

I only collect Monopoly Money - Oops - I mean US coins. I store 90% of my coins in coin boxes for the 2x2 flips. On the top right corner of the 2x2 I write date and mint, on the top left corner I put the grade. Anything special about the coin I try to note that under the date.. ie 2005-P and right under that Oregon.
This way I can see this info easy as I flip thru the coin boxes.

I have a question probably for SAP. When you say price paid for a coin, do you include shipping cost? I do.

Neatly written

On Front

GRADExxxxxxxxxxxxxxxYEAR MINT
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxplus (example) DDO RPM D/D Med Strike Full Steps D/S PROOF

Below on Bottom Front
VARIETY or Special Note (example)Lg Date, Carbon spot at 2 o'clock REV etc.

On Back
at bottom
CODE
date acquired xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwhere bought and how much in my codexxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(example) HCS4/8310.5
This would be Hazleton Coin Shop April 1983 for $10.50

All I write on the 2x2 is the date and mint (top left), what denomination it is (top right), and my serial number for it (bot left).

I then have an Excel spreadsheet, with a differan tab for each denomination. There I put other info that I don't want to write on the 2x2. (Where/when I aquired it, where in my collection it presently is, cost, etc)

Thanks SAP, I do the same, include all expenses to the amount of the coin, including coins I win in live auctions that you have to pay a percentage commision.

Not KM numbers (unless they're tokens that happen to be listed in Krause, like the Australian ones from the mid-1800's) but there will be a catalogue reference of some kind that collectors of those series wil use as the "standard works".

Conder tokens, for example, are normally numbered by the Dalton and Hamer catalogue, which is subdivided by English county. Thus, "D/H Warwickshire 50" is the reference number for a type of Conder token from Birmingham.

Old Chinese cash coins are referenced by Fisher's Ding (FD), Schojth (S) or Jen (J) numbers, depending on which catalogue you've got. I've only got Jen, so J numbers go on my 2x2s and flips that hold my Chinese coins.

Other series of coins, tokens, medals, etc would all have reference numbers derived from their own catalogues.

If you find a series of numismatic objects that aren't well catalogued and learn something about them, you can write a book yourself - and get reference numbers named after you!

For bulk lots, or even for lots of individual raw coins I've fished off a dealer's tray and neither he nor I bothered remembering or recording the individual prices, I normally "cheat" and take an average.

For example: I bought a "bulk lot" of Swiss cantonal coins some years ago at a local real-world coin auction, 24 coins for $110. Add sales commission and tax, total price $115.20 - so each coin is in my database as having cost $4.80.

Now, some of these coins are near-slugs, worth a few cents in a scratchtray. Some are much better, and worth considerably more. Three of them were not even coins, but shooting festival tokens that might be worth more than $4.80, if one could find a buyer that's keen on that series. But they're all in the database as $4.80.