Sorting World Coins In Album

I sort by rough geographic region.

In my mind, it makes sense for Australia to be grouped near New Zealand and Papua New Guinea rather than next to Austria or Argentina.

Then I go roughly chronologically from the olden times to the present.

-wheatiefan

I collect World coins all cultures, from the invention of coinage up to about 1950.

Those coins struck before about 1800 are assembled by date, but after that time, by country, then date. Machine made coins after about 1800 are far more numerous the those before 1800, and so demand a different approach as to how the collection is assembled.

For ancients, the collection is subdivided by culture, then approximate date. That is: Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Chinese, Indian and South East Asian.

I do not subdivide the collection by metal, because that would take them out of context with other coins of the same period. Having said that, a select few of my more valuable coins are stored separately in a safe.


Generally, the published catalogues should give you some direction as to how your own collection is arranged.

That's the beauty of this hobby/obsession. It's entirely up to you.
Take my car collection, Alpha-Romeos, Bugattis, Ferraris etc. [I'm only kidding}.
I go with Sap and others and have them sorted alphabetically and listed on an excel spreadsheet. The listing allows me to easily see exactly what I have (down to mints and years) and a location where I can quickly locate the country and the denomination and have the coin in hand in under a minute.
I mean you could (in a perverted way) have them in size, weight, composition order if YOU want.

alphabetically (first letter only), then by age or series, followed by denomination.

i left lots of room between countries but had to do a major reshuffle when I bought 10 lbs of bulk. just bought another 30 lbs so probably have to add a binder and reshuffle again! hopefully I am getting close to being done with most of the common stuff and the collection will grow a little slower (ya right)

i just bought some BCW pages (box of 100), personally I think they suck. they were the lowest price at the time but I wish now I spent a few dollars more, waited and got my regular brand (ultra-pro) but my regular dealer was out of stock. the BCWs had at least one or more pockets still sealed shut (had to be opened with an exacto knife) and the welds tear very easily. they are also VERY loose around the flip. turning a page without museum type handling procedures will have flips jumping out all over the place. tipping the binder on its side (or god forbid upside down) and you will be one step closer to re-organizing your ENTIRE collection.

BCW = cheapest (i think I paid 25 cents each / 100 box but I would not buy again at any price)
Ultra_Pro = $6 / 10, much better for everyday / average use

also common are several brands with heavy plastic, very strong 3 hole edge (dark blue), around $1 each, absolute bullet proof and nothing ever falls out (these I save for my canadian collection and more expensive world coins).

Well WHEN my 2x2 coins were in the binder they were in alphabetical order. Then the binder broke...

I have binders for Europe (3pcs), Africa and Asia (large one) and one for Americas and Australasia (slim one). Countries like Turkey and Cyprus I have checked from Wikipedia or CIA World Factbook. Both are Asian countries geographically and that's fine for me. Inside binders countries are usually in alphabetical order, but I have saved some space and countries like Ceylon and Sri Lanka or Malaya and Malaysia are in same section. But then Soviet Union and Russia are separated as Italy and Roman Empire too. And finally in country section coins are placed in denomination and chronological order. Different coinages like French franc and French euros are both below "France".