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 Replies: 41 / Views: 4,489 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1191 Posts |
I am trying to catalog all my world coins. I'm having a hard time coming up with a good way of doing so. I thought about using the "notes" application on my phone but the list seems unorganized. Is there any free program for a phone that can help me achieving my goal? I have a little of every country that I have. Or can you give me some pictures of how you do it on an electrical device?
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12477 Posts |
I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one doing things from my phone. I don't have mobile experience with it, but MS Excel can help organize things (I'm downloading the free app now).
Also, I just created a new "album" for coin pics and I could create albums for individual series, etc. I don't know what phone you're using, but there are definitely options without using the "Cloud".
P.S. this is android speaking.
In Memory of Crazyb0 12-26-1951 to 7-27-2020
In Memory of Tootallious 3-31-1964 to 4-15-2020
In Memory of T-BOP 10-12-1949 to 1-19-2024
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
I gave up trying to keep track of my collections years ago.
The beauty of Not knowing exactly what you have is re discovering them again.
The downside is that I tend to "Double Up" quite often.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2180 Posts |
I just use a spreadsheet (alphabetical then chronological).
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
I worked briefly as a tax preparer--wouldn't call myself an expert by any stretch, but I gained a healthy respect for the IRS's approach to those who don't accurately report their tax info. If you ever need or want to sell coins, you should have some documentation of the original price and sale price for tax purposes. This is probably more of an issue for professional dealers--many if not most hobbyists buy and sell coins without reporting anything on their 1040's, but TECHNICALLY, you should, and if the IRS finds out, you could be in a deep pile of doo doo. There's probably an app that tracks everything far more efficiently, but I set up a spreadsheet, with columns for the coin's date and mint mark, denomination, grade and grader (or a guesstimate), notes (describing toning, etc., so I can pick out the right coin if there's duplication), date acquired, price paid, dealer, and tax and shipping charges. I can add a column for sale price if and when I need to. I'm also hanging onto receipts if I get them, and a friend who deals in real estate tells me it's wise to scan them because originals tend to fade. Fortunately, I'm a very new collector, so I don't have many coins. It'll be easier to keep up than it would be to try to go back and document all this after years of collecting! For my grandpa's coins, I set up a spreadsheet that just has the date and mint mark, denomination, a guesstimate of the grade, and columns for estimated low and high values (the latter info will change, but I wanted to get a general idea for insurance purposes). If my Mom ever has to sell these coins, she would also need the value of the coins at the time she inherited them, to document the capital gains. I have no idea how we would come up with that info, so I hope we don't need to! A brief explanation of what I'm talking about might be helpful. At the time my grandfather died, there was no tax on inherited real or personal property, so Mom owed no taxes for the collection itself--but the laws on estate taxes change occasionally, so that may not be true today. That said, Mom WILL be liable for taxes on any appreciation in value during her term of ownership. LONG STORY SHORT: If a coin was worth $50 when Grandpa died, and she sells it for $95, the added $45 is a capital gain, and is taxable income that she should report, according to the law. Conversely, if she can only sell the coin for $25, she can declare a LOSS of $25 and reduce her taxes accordingly. If you have a huge collection and never documented (most people don't realize the tax implications), the good news is that as far as I know, the IRS doesn't currently have a way to catch these things. But in a world where more and more info is gathered and catalogued, the day may come soon. I don't know exactly how they deal with it if they find out about undocumented sales of collectibles, but my GUESS is that they will come up with their own estimate of capital gains and tax/fine the seller accordingly.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1599 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1601 Posts |
I decided I wanted more of a database that could be updated but I don't have the needed experience for MS Access. Plus it wouldn't have auto updates. So, I looked around and decided to go with Carlisle Software's Collector's Assistant. Not cheap but it has a good database and you pay for quarterly price updates (if you want them). I've only done US coins, but they have a database of World Coins and values as well. There's an app that you can upload your collection to a phone but not the other way around. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
I am proud to be one of the few people on planet earth who never has nor ever will own a cell phone. So I can say nothing for that use. It's pretty easy to set up a word table that can be updated with ease. Even easier than excel which I did try. I have Country, denomination, date, mint, verbal condition, numeric grade, current value, where that value comes from by numeric assignment, and a code such as 121119/459984 which tells me when I paid for it, who I bought it from, and what the landed cost was (landed to include postage, as an example). I can understand the code in one second, although it's virtually impossible for someone else to understand the code. Plus, the date I paid for it will tell me which binder contains the hardcopy invoice and proof of purchase. So I can prove my cost of goods within about 20 seconds for any coin or set in inventory. Finally I can open a merged cell below any line to include types or variety and TPG #'s and any particular notes. When I buy a new coin I put the information into the proper line and copy and paste that coin at the bottom of the last page. Periodically, usually when I hit about 30 new additions, I update my total costs paid, total number of coins, total retail value, number of coins that are raw or TPG, and which TPG. Finally, I calculate dollar value average which is the number that tells me what I should be looking to add to my collection, dollar wise. I keep in mind someone will have to sell the collection at some point so I want my average value to be high. Regardless of who buys the collection keeping that number up will insure a better percentage return. |
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Valued Member
United States
231 Posts |
I think Numista is the way to go for world coins for me anyway. Free when you sign up to the website and it's pretty comprehensive. Numerous ways to search your collection.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
What you have determines how you can reasonably keep track of it.
At one point I had an excel sheet to track my CRH finds, one sheet per denomination. Highlighted various silver years as different colors; NIFC as other colors, and put some logic in to tally up totals, convert to face value, and calculate ASW and melt.
Got into world and ancient coins, and all that went out the window.
I'm young(ish) and have a good memory, so I have maybe 90% of my thousands of coins in some sort of organic brain catalog.
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Moderator
 United States
187940 Posts |
I use spreadsheets and the Google Sheets app lets me view/edit them on my Android phone.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1191 Posts |
I have many countries that I want to keep track of every coins of the country, year and mint mark (if it has one). Very similar to my want list in some way, but with many more countries.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1316 Posts |
Based on my experience, a spreadsheet in Google Sheets is great and I can look things up from just about anywhere.
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1533 Posts |
I use Excel, but I would certainly be willing to trial some of the programs mentioned here.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12816 Posts |
At this point, Excel. Works great for me at this time, especially since I do almost all of my shopping from my desk chair at home. When I retire (many years from now) and have time to go visit shows, I will definitely need to get something more mobile-friendly. Initially I like jbuck's method of sticking the files in the cloud and using mobile apps.
Edited by CelticKnot
12/13/2016 1:47 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
I have blog with a separate post for each coin. It is akin to having a website with a separate page for each coin. My concept is akin to the top 20 approach. If a coin isn't worth the time to picture and document, then it isn't worth owning and goes in the trade/sell bin. I try not to accumulate things I do not want or need.
Understand that this doesn't work for everybody. I just dont have time to own and keep track of hundreds or much less thousands of coins. At some point, collecting crosses the line into hoarding.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
12/13/2016 1:51 pm
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Replies: 41 / Views: 4,489 |
Posted 12/13/2016 03:39 am
