Daughter Attempting To Help Father Organize His Collection..

And the biggest rule is NEVER CLEAN a coin, the fact that a 150 year old coins shows it's age is a good thing, if it looks new it probably is.

What kind of coins are we talking about, US silver, pocket change from the past few decades, foreign coins?

I get the problem of not being tech savvy but I might suggest they you can computerize it for your self, (my favorite is ANT movie catalog, yes I keep bring that one up) there are other coin specific programs or just a spread sheet if you are comfortable with them, for him a ledger is a good thing but don't forget books, check on Amazon for old ' Red Book' and 'Black book' also the Krause manual is a good item to have if you have foreign coins, what I did in the dark ages before computers was to mark in my book, a line under the data to show that I had that one in the collection. Better to buy an old one cheap and mark it all up than to spend $80+ on the newer versions.

Edit: Remember to always think outside the box... unless it's a proof set, or a litter box

As a start you should figure out if his coins are US or foreign. Simply look through some of them and if all US coins, then the next step would be to sort them out.
Now in doing this remember that the condition of the coins is important. So try not to mark, dent, scratch, etc. any of those coins.
The next thing is to try to find out exactly what he has. A sort of thing to do is look up places that sell coins or a hobby store and see if you can find a book called The Red Book by Whitman Publishing. It does not have to be the latest version, anyone will do for information.
Now try to sort out all his coins by denomination. Stack pennies, Nickels, Dimes, etc. separately. Then once that is done, sort by type. In other words for Dimes make a pile or stack of Roosevelt, separate Mercury or Liberty Heads.
Same with Nickels. Then it gets even more interesting. You should sort them by dates. For example start with Pennies with, if present, 1909, then 1910, etc.
Now once this is all done, you may want to do as some others have mentioned. At a coin store or on line try to purchase what is called Flips. Those are cardboard things with a plstic on the inside the fold. You can put coins in them and fold then staple shut. Another even smarter thing to do is try to find a place like Hobby Lobby, a coin store, hobby store or on line that carries coin Albums.
Once you know what he has and if enough to start an Album, you can buy him some and put the coins in for him.
Now if you know how to use Excel, a microsoft office program, you can make a spread sheet documenting everything he has.
Now don't forget to have him sit down with you for all this. He too could learn from you. Nice of you to help the elderly. Us older people need more like you.

Yeah matthewvincent, most of the explanations would seem like Chinese for her. And we don't know neither if his father just bought coins or he has numismatic knowledge.

$1.99 for a hundred... last time I got 1100 it cost me 3.3 cents per if I remember. That is a darn good price, thanks for sharing lknerr

WHY oh WHY did I not sing up on this site years ago!?!?!?!?



Edit: just noticed 150 posts... Registered: 12/31/2013
I think I'm addicted!!!

I put my coins in 2x2's and then label them as follows: country, date and mint mark, denomination, catalog number.



On the back I record any extra data I might like to have for a certain coin: composition (copper, silver), price paid, date found, grade.

They then get placed in the coin boxes in alphabetical order by country, and in the country they follow denomination and date.

http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/pro...-coin-boxes/

I also put some in folders, but after a while I got tired of moving my coins over just to put a new coin in. So now I just put the ones I want to display in the folders.

I would pay a bit more and get the self adhesive flips.
The staples use valuable space for notes and rip your albums.