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 Replies: 36 / Views: 3,736 |
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Pillar Of The Community
Turkey
1205 Posts |
After I read a post of Sap, I started thinking; How do people keep records of what they have in their collection?
I simply write down the coins to an Excel sheet. As I have less than 1k, that's almost enough for me.
Any kind of database or other filing programmes you can recommend?
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1091 Posts |
I use Microsoft Works Database, its's good for sorting by country, by coin and by year. "Works" came out years ago before Excel and I've never changed.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
756 Posts |
Piece of printer paper, pen, and lines/columns.
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Moderator
 Australia
16806 Posts |
I used to use an old shareware coin-only database (SmartTracker, I think it was called) which worked fine - until (a) I maxed out the number of possible countries in the picklist, and (b) threw out my ancient Win95 computer and upgraded to this XP-powered beast. Old program didn't work  so I had to find something else. Considered Excel-type spreadsheet, but wanted to check out the coin databases. After much google-searching and trial-and-error, I finally found one that made a fairly good effort at importing the database from my old software (at 6,500 coins, I sure wasn't re-typing anything!). You'll notice I said, "fairly good" - the date-of-purchase didn't transfer over. I've slowly been going through the entries, in alphabetical order, updating the files and adding the new fields my old program didn't have, like "composition". It's been very slow going - I started a year ago at "Aachen". I'm up to "Greece"! [:0] I concur with Toast - changing software is a pain. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar Of The Community
 Turkey
1205 Posts |
I thinks MS Access can do some good but I have to try to learn some more about it.
I'll give the program you suggested a try. Thanks.
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Valued Member
United States
382 Posts |
I use excel with all of the basic column headings: Date, MM, Mintage Numbers, Certified By (if so), Grade, Date Purchased, Amount, and also I include Red Book Values for the year for EF40, MS60, MS63, MS65/PR65 grades just to give me an idea what the coin is going for. Again this is just a guide that I update once per year. Also, I have a link to pictures of the coin. It is somewhat time consuming, but that is part of the hobby I enjoy. Now, I recently have been using "My Heritage" at Heritage Coin Galleries. Why? First of all, I can enter all of the basic information that I listed above but what I really like about it is that they also provide the "current" wholesale prices for my coin and the number of other members that have my coin on their "watch list". This is a pretty good method of determining and seeing market demand for a given coin. Best part...it is FREE and I can easily print up "My Collection" or import it into an excel file. Go here to see how it is done. http://coins.heritagegalleries.com/Edited by zakgold
02/01/2006 10:48 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1327 Posts |
I mainly use excell it is very nice to sort and keep track of all different things, such as amount spent, date,where you got it, ect.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7629 Posts |
Were supposed to be keeping track of what we're collecting? [:0]
Nobody told me!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1247 Posts |
I record everything on Collectors' Assistant 2000 and back it up every now and then to a CD. But I don't trust bytes, electrons, or anything else that I can't see--they might be holding a "secret executive meeting" behind my back.  So I record it all on index cards including notes that I come across from references or the Internet. In that way I can also expand the notes as much as want just by adding new cards to whatever was recorded the first time. It might not be too efficient but efficiently is just the fast lane to entropy anyway. Just ask the Third Reich--"It's all been recorded."[:0] The inefficient seems to last forever. USPS forever postal dudes and dudettes! Are you people done yet reading my Feb 6 issue of CW yet? Be nice if you'd send it on. |
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Pillar Of The Community
3147 Posts |
KEEP TRACK? Oh, my! That would be going that extra mile, wouldn't it? I do know when I have an album full and I have tried to keep an active inventory but things tend to come and go so quickly!!! I do know that every now and then I find coins I had forgotten I even owned!
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Rest in Peace
United States
3730 Posts |
Like Terry, I have coins I wasn't even aware of having. Most recent discovery was a Seated Liberty dollar, 1872, valued at about $200. I had forgotten I owned it. I think I bought it during college days back in the 1960's. I don't have a fabulous collection such as many of our members have. Those few coins I own which have dollars and cents value, or are expecially valuable to me for other reasons, are housed in a safety deposit box at a local bank. I suppose I should get busy with some sort if inventory system, since I really don't have a clue as to what I have. Should I go to that Great Coin Shop In The Sky anytime soon, it would be a real help to my wife and kids to know what my collection consists of. I currently have 37 albums either filled, or partially filled (most partially), roughly 70 proof and speciman sets from the U.S., Canada, and England, probably 700 - 800 loose coins, and some paper money. Looks like my inventory is going to take some work! |
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Valued Member
United States
123 Posts |
I have an internal (not accessible via the internet) web page on my computer. I have put my inventory on web pages, most of which are automatically generated by my own C++ software which accepts a simple text input file. The average circulated coins in my hoard are simply recorded by denomination, date, mint, quantity, etc. To look at an example, I brought up my Liberty Seated dimes page. It lists a total of 55, and, for example, it shows three 1838's. Better grade coins, and foreign and ancient coins, are listed separately on other pages. All of the ancient coins, and some of the others, are accompanied by scans. The ancients are especially well documented; I have recorded diameter and weight in addition to the usual stuff, although I haven't graded my ancients because it is hard to apply grading standards to these coins; the scans take the place of grading. I also list antiquities on pages like this, in a format similar to the ancient coins, and I started creating a system to catalog my records, CDs, books, and other media, but I haven't finished it yet; I need to figure out how I want to do a search function. I haven't used existing software because none of it really does what I want, so I write my own and used my web browser to display the information. It works pretty well for my purposes. Heather |
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Valued Member
United States
458 Posts |
I don't use anything more  I got so much stuff now it would be to much work to doc. I did buy a nice software to do this stuff, & I even started to use it and type in all the info--Then my HD crashed--I said, sheet!!, ain't no way ima gomnna type all that stuff back in--Ever since then, all my goodies are in the safe and I save receipts--That is how I know what I have. I have folders with recipts in my drawer--It would take waaayyy to long, I guess one day when I have nothing else to do(like cut grass, paint, fix fence, fix roof, clean roof etc (home maintenace stuff), when what really needs to be done is done (which seems to never come) I'll enter this data on some type of s/w program, again--  |
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Valued Member
United States
382 Posts |
Best part of Heritage's "My Collection" is that it is online...and FREE.
You don't have to worry about your HD crashing and you can bring up your collection at any connected computer. Again, the current wholesale and retail values are a nice feature to gauge what your coin(s) are worth.
BTW...you access your account with a password and it is all secured and everything. I use it all of the time.
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Pillar Of The Community
Turkey
1205 Posts |
Zakgold, can you backup your data on that site?
Internet is usually good, but there's always a small risk that the server can go down and it's the same as a crushing HD.
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Rest in Peace
United States
2684 Posts |
Appleworks spreadsheet (for Macs). I list the coin with date and mint (and variety if applicable), grade (slabbed with TPG name or estimated), date and cost of purchase, current PCGS, CV, CP, CDN Greysheet, and/or ebay values, with space for comments (e.g., sent to graders; need upgrade; crossover grade, etc.). I have not entered all my coins, but for insurance, theft (police), or other loss purposes, I have the most valuable listed. I also have a hard copy to use as a worksheet. Fred |
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Replies: 36 / Views: 3,736 |
Posted 02/01/2006 08:21 am
