Coin Fields For Making My Own Database

Krause basically has these fields:
Country Japan
KM# Y#125
Denomination 5 Yen
Weight 3.75g
Fineness 1.000
Actual 0.121oz
Diameter 22mm
Composition Brass
Description Ruler: Akihito... Obv: Hole in center... Rev: ...
Date Yr.12(2000)
Mintage 8,804,000

You don't really need Fineness and Actual weight unless the coins contain precious metals.


I would just put whatever I felt like as the country.
If a coin has a KM number then there is a certain country name associated with it.


One field for both is probably adequate. If there is a local number system, put the Gregorian date in parentheses.


Just put everything in in the denomination field.
For countries like Zimbabwe you can add a currency code field, but the actual coins don't have a currency code on them.


If necessary, put it in the description. Krause does this for bi-metallic coins.
The description field actually consists of what you could call subfields: Ruler, Obverse, Reverse, Edge (reeded/plain/.), Notes, and so on.


Errors are unique. You could have a field with the type of error, but this is not very useful unless you have many error coins.
You should have one table with a simple catalog of many coins, and another table containing only the coins that you have.
To this other table you add photos, if there is an error a description of the error, grade, and other information that is unique to each coin.


Most coins are round, so instead of adding a shape field you could just write "Shape: square" and so on in the description.
Then when you want to list all the square coins just do a text search for "Shape: square"
Same with demonetized coins, add "Demonetized: Yes" or "Demonetized: In 2000" then you can just search for "Demonetized:"

Text search is easier to use than a bunch of drop-down lists, if there are too many options to select from.

Have you seen the website, http://www.numista.com? It may be helpful.

Hello Babar,

I have made a database for my coins. Like you I collect world coins.

To get right to the point, here are the fields in my main database:

PRIMARY KEY  Automatically generated by database program
        ID1 
        ID2  Country or Coin Issuing Entity
      VALUE  For the numerical part of the denomination
      DENOM  For the name part of the denomination
      YEARS
       CAT1  Usually Krause catalog number
       CAT2  Other secondary catalog number if necessary
COMPOSITION  
   DIAMETER  
     WEIGHT  
        ASW  
        AGW  
       HAVE  
       FLIP  
      NOTES  
       PICT

If you read past discussions you'll see some people stop referring to coins as being from countries and instead from 'Coin Issuing Entities' which is not elegant but accurate.
In my case I use ID2 for the entity.

ID1 is an umbrella that might include lots of ID2s.

Examples:

ID1                    ID2
German States          Bavaria
German States          Wurttemberg
India Princely States  Nawanagar
India Princely States  Jaipur
Notgeld                Aachen
Notgeld                Munchen
Euro                   France
Euro                   Belgium

Otherwise the ID1 is usually left empty.

I have separated the VALUE and DENOM so it looks like:

VALUE    DENOM
    1    Bolivar
   25    Cents
 2000    Dong
  2.5    Escudos

There are some judgement calls. Like is a British Halfpenny 1 HALFPENNY or is it 1/2 PENNY?

Some fields like HAVE or FLIP are checkboxes so the value is either 1 or 0 - yes or no.
In these cases have = checked or yes or 1 means I have it in the collection, unchecked or no or 0 means it's on the wantlist.
FLIP is similar it just means whether I have printed a flip insert or not.

PICT is an example picture I have on the computer.

Not all fields are entered for each coin. Things like composition I only enter if it's interesting, like WWII or bimetallic coins.
Other fields like diameter and weight I rarely enter but sometimes it's necessary to distinguish varieties.

NOTES is a catch all field. Here is where I note things like: Square, Scalloped, 7-Sided, Holed, WWI, WWII, FAO, Commemorative, Leprosy, etc...
I use to have checkboxes for UNUSUAL SHAPES or HOLED but decided the NOTES category was easier.



To answer the rest of your questions:
Tokens might need their own database with different fields. Things like Central African States I use as is in the ID2 field.

For year I put whatever is on the coin. If a Nepali coin says 2025 or an Egyptian coin says 1404, that's what I enter. Japan coins are listed as Showa 33 or Heisei 18, Taiwanese coins are listed as 55, etc.

I enter the number and name parts separately as VALUE and DENOM. If I can't read the denom like on Arabic or Asian coins I trust what Krause or Numista lists it as.

Your metallic composition field can be a free-entry so you can type whatever you want. Then it'll be up to you to be consistent so you know what to search for in the future.

If you're really into errors you might need a separate database. Otherwise I use the NOTES field as a catchall and sometimes enter things like 'Damaged'. Again so long as you enter 'error' every time you will be able to search for 'error' in the future and get all results.

You may need more than one database.
I will probably have separate databases for cast Chinese coins and ancient coins, as the way they are categorized doesn't fall neatly into the existing fields.
You may need to do similar with error coins or tokens.

----
I use MySQL database.
What is really great about it is that I have written a simple webpage with HTML and PHP (and I am not a programmer).
Now I can access the coins straight from my webpage without having to use the database program at all.
I can add new coins or search the fields for matches of existing coins.
This is really neat when linked to the pictures.
I included a description and pictures in an older thread.

Also I can print out pages of flip inserts 48 at a time.
They are properly sized with little dashed lines to show where to cut.
The inserts are autogenerated from whatever fields I want, usually ID2, years, and catalog #.

I don't know if other databases offer that accessibility.
That's why I went with the MySQL / PHP / HTML setup.
Before starting this project I knew beginner HTML and nothing about PHP or SQL.
I have learned a lot in my free time and it is not overwhelming.


You are right that the programs available are inadequate.
I would encourage more people to experiment and post about it.

-wheatiefan

Here is a site I really like, the builder and I have had a few discussions, he is not making this commercially available (yet) though I really like his designs, done online with SQL backdoor database. (I think). Thought you might enjoy seeing this from at least a design point of view.

http://coins.obscurefinds.com/

Make generic "animal shape", "country shape", "Misc geometric" descriptors and then attach a picture?