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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,363 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7933 Posts |
So ... Over the years I have been a little inconsistent in labeling the 2 x 2s that hold my world coins, and I am thinking of swapping out some of them, so I am a little curious how everyone else does it (y'know it's such a big investment I want to make sure I get it right  Most of mine look something like this on the obverse: Upper left: Country (or City-State) Upper right: Date, or if undated, Monarch & date range Lower left: Denomination Lower right: Mint Reverse I am really inconsistent, sometimes listing a catalog reference along the lower part somewhere, sometimes the price I paid. Sometimes nothing on the reverse, especially if it's a coin where I have kept the auction tag and have slid it in behind the 2 x 2. Is there some approach that's considered "standard"? Or at least commonsensical? Or just ... how do YOU do it? |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5238 Posts |
For me, usually
Upper left, Cpountry and below that the cat. number
Upper right: denomination and below that the year or date range
Lower left: the grade, if I do it
Lower right, the cat. price, if I do it (not usually)
The back: Miscellaneous information, if any, that I want to add. On ancients, usually the legends.
I am not entirely consistent either, and I don't believe there is a "standard" way.
For a dealer all the essential information needs to be on one side. When the coin is in a box and it is sorted alphabetically, the country name and denomination need to be on the top.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1494 Posts |
There is no standard way that I've seen. I do it like this: Obverse upper left: issuer and Gregorian year with mint (if more than one known mint) lower left: denomination upper right: grade lower right: catalog number (if any) Reverse upper left: material (with fineness if precious metal) lower left: weight It may look busy reading all of that, but it looks clean on the holder. The example below is what it looks like. Actually it looks better since my handwriting is atrocious.   |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7933 Posts |
Thanks for the responses, @oriole and @owatchman.
I am not a dealer, so I never thought of displaying the grade on the front. I have things graded in the US and graded by foreign auction houses, so I might shy away from that for now.
The more I think about it, devoting a month or so to this and staying away from buying anything other than a bunch of 2 x 2s would really help my bank account.
Hope to see a few more responses.
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Moderator
 United States
187702 Posts |
Quote:
Over the years I have been a little inconsistent in labeling the 2 x 2s that hold my world coins, and I am thinking of swapping out some of them Guilty. Mine are allover the place.  Good ideas though.  I really do need to go through and refresh my three "12-pocket" Dansco albums that hold my world coins. The pages of the oldest album need to be replaced (sagging). No one seems to have the replacement pages in stock, so I have been contemplating moving it all to 20-pocket pages in a three-ring binder. |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
If the contents of a 2x2 are self evident, I get lazy and don't bother with any description of the contents at all. That usually applies to lower value coins.
All of my collection is in 2x2's, but some coins have extra protection inside the 2x2, such as enclosed acetate sheets.
At the other extreme, the description written on the 2x2 may be quite comprehensive; it depends on the requirements of the coin. About 20% of my collection have coins that are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. These coins often require varying degrees of completeness in their description, to be written on the 2x2.
I never use slabs - information cannot be written of them.
Some, or all, of the information may include:
When and where bought
Price
Where or who it was bought from
Date, or date range period
Description of type - obverse and reverse
When and what mint it was struck
Mint and privy marks
Metal
Weight
Diameter
Coin catalog reference number(s)
Problems with the coin
Variety noted.
Because of the wide variation in volume of information that may be required it is inconvenient for me to have a data for the collection. Instead, the coins are arranged in date order. As such the collection is a chronological description of the development of World coinage since it's invention 26 centuries ago.
Nevertheless, about 80% of my collection comprises coins that are less then 100 years old.
Instead I use other approaches.
All of my more valuable coins, which is about 5% of the collection are in a small, but very heavy safe. Because of this all of these coins are photographed and a significant part of the rest of the collection is photographed as well.
Three different types of albums are used but they are all of the same storage shelf size
Albums holding 2x2's
Photograph album of coins (obv and rev), with full description of the coin.
An album of invoices and receipts.
All three albums together form a working reference collection, which is supported by a decent coin library.
Descriptions photographs and paper record purchase information provide provenance, if kids choose to dispose of the collection after I kick the bucket.
Edited by sel_69l
09/24/2020 07:16 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5362 Posts |
For me the top of the holder must have the critical info. In a storage box it makes it easier to have the Country, date mint and denomination all at or close to the top. The rest varies over time.
Because I collect mostly CCC types I now reserve top center for a category - CCC or NF or COPY or Altered etc which will place the coin in the correct sorting group. If I ever have time I plan to add color coding.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
for me: top left country top right year bottom left denomination bottom right catalog # sort of on the topic, curious to know people's thoughts on these (same dimensions as most hard slabs)... they were offered to the market 10 years ago (not by me) and never really took off, I've been playing with the notion to resurrect the idea  |
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Moderator
United States
187702 Posts |
Quote:
sort of on the topic, curious to know people's thoughts on these (same dimensions as most hard slabs)... they were offered to the market 10 years ago (not by me) and never really took off, I've been playing with the notion to resurrect the idea I have never seen those, but they look interesting. |
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Moderator
Australia
16808 Posts |
Mine normally go:
On the front:
Country
Denomination - - - Date
mintmark or alternate date (underneath the date)
Variety if present
Purchase price in bottom right corner
On the back:
Catalog number - - - Collection number
Acquisition date and provenance
I follow the same pattern on the insert card when a coin is going into a 2x2-sized flip.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7933 Posts |
Thanks for the additional inputs. Indeed, it looks like everyone has their slight variation. I like the idea of Date + Mint in same place, which I have not been doing. Unlike US coins where one or two letters specifies the mint, I collect enough places that mint names need to be spelled out to make any sense, and there is the additional choice of whether to use the current local spelling, the spelling of the dominant language of the place at the time of coinage, or an English version! (Gdansk/Danzig, Wroclaw, Breslau, and so on). Nobody has mentioned listing the monarch's name. For pre-dated era, I have often put this on the front either with the country or with the date. For example, Upper left: Brabant Upper right: Jean III (1312-1355) Lower Left: Esterlin Lower Right: Louvain |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,363 |
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Posted 09/23/2020 2:08 pm
