How Do You Keep Up With Your Collection?

This comes up a lot and usually many just say use Excel.

You need to obey the rules you have set for yourself in the physical location of your coins within your collection, that agrees with your data base.

I have about 3,000 coins all annotated on their 2x2's, and arranged in date order from about 400 BC to modern times. About 300 are more than 1,000 years old but that is a huge date range, covering 1,400 years. These are easy to roughly identify according to their culture and style, the annotation on their 2x2's tells me exactly.

I still manage without a keyboard data base, but it IS getting more and more inconvenient. I will have to bite the bullet soon. I will have to invent a convenient numbering system for same dated coins, that allows for new additions to the collection.

The Dewey library system could provide the inspiration for that numbering system. The system would have to allow for errors, metal, culture, similar date, rulers, album number and where stored, just to name a few.

Some of my albums are in a safe, but most are not.
Slabbing does not work for me, because it would be impossible to annotate those particular coins. The individual value of 95% of the coins in the collection would not justify slabbing anyway, and you can't store slabbed coins alongside 2x2's in the same album.

I would hide the purchase price to keep the wife from finding out how much I paid.

As to the OP's question I've been using Excel but I started with bullion strictly to track price per oz and total ounces. I think I'll be adding a worksheet to it in order to track numismatic purchases.

I have a kindle app called 'coin collection' I believe. Lists date and mm and some types (1917 slq type 1 and 2 for example.) Also lets you put grades and notes for each, along with a counter for multiples. It doesn't go past Classics and its only US but I really like it. Handy for digging through the LCS junk bin for date/mm's I don't have.

I use my website to manage my collection. Complete with photos and have and need lists it's the perfect companion when at shows or my LCS. I can just check the need list to see if I need an item or if I already have it. Also, for insurance reasons, I have pictures of all coins that I can show them.

I use Excel. Additionally, I use Capture My Assets software to tie pics to data. Simple pgm that gens simple reports. Vendor says a major upgrade is coming this year. Hope so. Current pgm limits pic size to 640x480.

I started out with a list on a sheet of notebook paper, then moved to excel so I could track my progress on circulation finds.

Now I rely mostly on my memory and organizational skills; it saves a whole bunch of time, and I can usually tell whether I already have a coin or not.