How Do You Store Your Ancients?

No, zero organization is my method, which is almost literally the same except without the pieces of paper.

Actually, adding the pieces of paper sounds like a nice idea. Might actually try it!

Take a look at the Coin World Premier Coin Holders, it's a slab with insert, you can get them in lots of sizes. The Avery 8195 labels work nicely with these, I get 4 lines of information on mine. Country & Catalog number, denomination and year, ruler and reign, composition, that's my four lines. That's plenty of room for the basic information you cited, and the translations can go on a second label on the back of the slab, or vice versa. The slabs run a dollar apiece, the labels are about 2 cents each, and you'll need a micrometer to measure the coin diameters to size what inserts you need to order, that's about $30 or less.

Paper envelopes with stuff written on them. These are then stored in 2x2 boxes.

I use 2x2-sized two-pocket flips, rather than 2x2s - ancient coins tend to be too thick and oddly-shaped to fit into a 2x2 properly, and they're a pain to disassemble. But if I buy a coin and it comes in a 2x2, I tend to keep it in the 2x2 it came from the dealer in, until and unless I have a reason to take it out.

The coins, either in 2x2s or flips, then go in a 20-pocket photographic slide album page, in an archival storage binder I use for an album. I avoid using the 2x2-sized coin album pages, as they often seem to be prone to solvent transfer that makes the 2x2 go all sticky on the outside. My ancients are currently in two albums: "everything-but-Roman" (which also includes Roman Provincial) and "Roman" (Republic and Empire to AD 500). There's a third "Mediaeval" album, which has everything from AD 500-1450.

Catacombs under the house, just like everybody else.

All coins in mylar - cardboard 2x2's in non PVC album pages.

Full identification price paid and when on the cardboard.
Invoices to significantly high valued pieces kept under separate cover, for provenance purposes.

A small number of the more highly valued coins are stored in a small safe. Most of them form a living, growing working collection.

More than 300 pieces over 1,000 years old, arranged in chronological order, across all ancient cultures.
A statement on the development on all World coinages of all cultures, is thus produced.
Together, they tell an historical story.

The collection has taken me 45 years to form, so far.

I am a generalist, not a specialist, and so I am still on a steep learning curve, and so my collection continues to teach me about ancient history, in all ancient cultures.
("With a Little Help From My Friends") - CCF style!

Back in the late 90s my collection started to grow considerably, so I put together a system for storage (not display) yet keeping track of it all in a way that was consistent with my particular needs for access. Then, as now, I was keeping the coins in 2x2 Mylar-D flips in pages kept in binders: easy access and flexibility for re-arrangement. Binders are dedicated to a ruler or a series of rulers, arranged chronologically within a binder and between them.


However the key to the system is a special insert I designed in Microsoft Word (in pages of 10) for use in a 2x2 flip. Its plan for content is influenced by the registration cards we filled out that the University of Chicago - Oriental Institute for the museum pieces in our records. Here are two examples; one blank and the other filled out.





The center line marks where to fold into a front and back for insertion into the flip. The front is entirely devoted to details of the coin; the reverse to matters of acquisition and provenance, with a bit of room for special notes.

FRONT SIDE: six lines for notes

First line: first box - name of the ruler; next to it, the name/designator of the coin denomination

Second line: locale where the coin was minted/originated; and if a Roman mint the workshop number

Third line: year of issue; next to the RIC reference by volume and number

Fourth line: The size in mm; weight in grams; and the die axis

fifth line: notes on the obverse inscription, image type, and nots on special features.

sixth line: notes for the reverse type, inscription, and disposition of the mint mark and any field marks



BACK SIDE: six lines for notes

First line: The name of the source as individual seller, auction house, online seller.

Second line: date of acquisition, and item number if from an online source or auction. Auction references are noted for sale number (S) and Lot number (L) as eg. S45L344

Third line: Back then I was scanning coins in groups as I acquired them, and I devised a scheme for assigning ID numbers to each coin irrespective of the number of the group it was in. This allows me to correlate material and images without going to the place of storage.

Fourth line: if I need to grade a coin for sale, or acquire it with a registered grade, that is noted here

Fifth line: the left half of the line is for special notes about the coin obverse; the right half contains notes about acquisition price, currency, shipping. I prorate a price/value to each piece in a lot so they are separable. This is a simple note that sets up the cost basis coin by coin and which satisfies the tax man when it comes time to sell.

Sixth line: Special notes and references for features of the coin, especially the reverse for Late Roman Bronze.


I have over 3000 coins in my collection and this system has not failed yet to distinguish one piece from another. However, when coins are added quickly or in large groups, the system can require a slavish dedication to the paperwork. Since I have never found a database that is able to tweak this far I once had hoped to automate it in Microsoft Access. My hopes were/are too grand for my skills.