Cataloging The Collection?

The only database that I create is for items that are not placed into a coin album with the exception of my Type set. For some reason I started to keep track of my costs for the coins that I purchased for this album. What I did for this album was simply create a spreadsheet that listed all the type coins for this set. Then I entered just my cost and when I purchased the item. I guess I wanted to figure out the value of the albulm along with an idea of what the various coins were going for at the time of purchase.

My other albums I just don't have an interest in their cost but probably should so I could have a better idea as to just what this hobby is costing me. But honestly most of my albums contain coins that I have found in circulation and so my cost is minimal.

Some of my album contain coins that I have taken from mint sets.

Your question is a good one and perhaps I should keep better records but my hobby is for my enjoyment and I let my kids figure out the value of what I have after I've gone. This way they can try and figure out what I was thinking about a coin and what it is worth. Some of the coins that I have date back to when I was a kid and as such I have no idea other than face value.

I know this isn't the best answer because I really don't have a clue as to what the value is of what I'm holding. However, I really would be interested in seeing what other forum members ideas are to to this topic.

I wouldn't discriminate as not the "best answer" because its still an answer and all I'm after is the conversation. For you, the in depth catalog isn't/wasn't of interest. And maybe that's the broad spectrum answer. I certainly don't make judgements because we're all here with different goals for the same love. At this point in my life (still relatively young) I'd love to build a true collection. High grade series of coins that are more than the sum of its individual parts. Maybe in 30 years my intentions change. I'm a bit concerned that I'll become over obsessed with such a process. (I have tendencies...)

I read a post on here where the author referenced a coin he had bought 50 years ago for $50 and was now worth exponentially more. (I think it was an eagle?) Hell, I cant remember what I paid for the car I'm currently driving. Maybe thats why I'm considering the time to document everything I can think of regarding a piece. Even if there is no purchase price to a coin, there are still a bunch of details that could be preserved. If you're a roll hunter, maybe your details are different since the process is different.

One of the points you bring to the table is remarkably curious to me. Leaving a relatively unmarked collection for your heirs. I've only been around here for a little while, but I've noticed one of the driving forces for entering the community is trying to value a recent inheritance and being completely overwhelmed. While I think its a fantastic way to "force" the research of the next generation, I personally would prefer to not leave a complete mess for them. Maybe its way to hint at the vast wealth that's sitting in front of them and perhaps to rethink the temptation to do a bulk unload liquidation where they potentially get hosed in the deal. "figure out what I was thinking about a coin and what it is worth" I'd love to think I could leave my collection to an heir that would be this insightful!

Including the current value of a coin will hopefully only be relevant to the time of purchase as we would hope that value is higher in the future.

Maybe there are two primary reasons to catalog that should be considered at the onset. Are you a numismatist or are you an investor? (I'm not saying the two are mutually exclusive) Short term information if you're looking at a cost analysis and profit margin/ROI. Perhaps more relevant to those that flip a lot of coins or looking for a return. Long term if your looking to retain documentation for future generations. More from a true collection stand point. Depending on how long term, we would also want to consider the permanence of the documentation format. Can someone still access whats stored on a USB drive in a SQL db 100 years from now? Does the handwritten paper fade or become unreadable? Investing the time in a cataloging process could become part of the coin preservation process itself.

I don't think any of us want to REALLY know what we have wrapped up in this hobby!

I maintain just such a "master catalogue". I use a database program written specially for coins (Primasoft PC Coin Organizer Deluxe), though using Excel would be just as good. The built-in database contains far more entry fields than I can be bothered entering for every coin. Here are the fields I record for every coin:

Country
Denomination
Year
Mintmark
Condition
Composition
Brief description of obverse
Brief description of reverse
Physical features (edge, shape, holes, etc)
Location (which album, box etc it is in)
Topics/Categories the coin can fit into (especially useful for when the coin club has particular themes each month)
Purchase date
Who purchased from
Purchase price (I include everything in what I had to pay to obtain the coin: taxes, shipping, currency conversion fees, etc)
Description (the catalogue number and any physical flaws or defects are noted here)
Quantity (always "1", since I never keep duplicates)
Sap Number (a simple count, more or less in chronological order. Each coin gets a unique Sap Number)

Some fields which are filled in for only a few coins:

Title (for commemorative coins, medals etc)
Mint (the actual name of the mint, not the mintmark; usually useful only on ancient and mediaeval coins)
Variety (if significant)
Weight
Diameter
Provenance (if any provenance is known beyond "who purchased from")
Signatures (for banknotes)
Notes (if there is an interesting story behind the coin, there's room to write up or cut-and-paste a whole page here)
Pictures (room for four)

Some fields included in the database but which I never use, because they do not interest me:

Entry date (the Sap Number basically fulfils this function)
Mintage
Designer
Current market value
Evaluation Date
Sale price
Sale date

An important thing to note with my database is I started early; back when I only had a few hundred coins. So you are correct in saying that "the best time to start a catalog is now", because unless you're at the stage of life where you're selling off and downsizing things, your collection probably isn't getting any smaller, and the smaller the job is right at the start, the better.

Besides the time needed to be spent entering each and every new acquisition, the biggest handicap with maintaining a computer database is the time needed to export and re-enter data as software and hardware formats have changed; the first version of the database was actually written on a Commodore 64 in the mid 1980s and was very minimalist (country, date, denomination, condition and Sap Number). By the time I upgraded to a PC, I had 2500 coins I had to re-enter by hand. Back in 2004, my new Windows XP computer wouldn't run my old database program and I had to find a new program that would import it properly. I had 6630 coins by that stage and it took me five years to finally tidy up all the niggly loose ends from the import. Fortunately, the company that sold that program was still around when I got this Windows 7 thing I'm using now, so I could purchase a Windows-7-compatible upgrade with no import trauma. I might not be so lucky at the next export session in a few years time.

I don't keep a catalog per say of my collection. Instead I use a spreadsheet program to track the amount of CRH I do, and then I make a notation of what coins I find (or what coins I don't).

The overall goal is that at the end of the year I can come up with some final tally of how many coins I've hunted through and what I found.

So in some small way, that list shows what I have because I am listing what I have found.

This is a really good topic, keep the comments coming. Folks in my coin club were asking around about this. I thought i'd do a presentation on what different folks do or what software people use to document their collection. I recognize there is an array and different folks will like different levels of details.

I dont have a catalog per say but most of my coins are in some sort of binder or album so theyre all in the same place. Some others are in the PCGS slab box as I havent gotten the lighthouse albums for them yet. If I just had a bunch of random coins that werent really that were of marginal value above face I probably wouldnt bother to catalog those just like I dont catalog my bullion silver. Like carl said thats a lot of effort that could need a lot of changing but I do keep some sort of album for the rest.

With some of the series like my commem series Ill also use the PCGS set registries as a way to keep track of what I have and still need. Very low effort for slabbed coins and can be checked in just a few seconds.

I feel like its one of those things where if you did it all along youll continue, but to try and go back and do it is just a nightmare

I use MS Access for my database. Here is the structure:

ID (a unique serial number I track them with)
Year
Mint Mark
Location (where I keep it, album, 2x2, etc)
Denomination
Type
Notes
Grade
Qty
Price Paid
Retail Estimate

I find it easy to use Access, as I use it at work. I have many queries and reports that I can print out to bring to coins shows. I enjoy computers, so it is part of the hobby, too.