Organization Techniques

I use Collector's Assistant software. I have coins to sell coins for my personal collection, rolls both Canada and US as well as bullion. Mint sets, proof set and products from RCM and USMint. I can record pictures and what I paid as well as get an idea of what it is worth. I can print labels for various coins (great for labeling safety flips) and know exactly where things are: Album, binder, roll box, Mint storage box, proof set box, #storage drawer etc. I was able for a small fee to transfer from another software program (CoinManage). He is able to do custom work as well. I can sort by date, item number, condition how the coin is graded ( PCGS, NGC, ect)Whether you need this or not will depend on how many coins you have and what you're budget is and how much sorting you need. The software is made by Carlisle Development.
Spread sheets make me batty! But for some this works fine.
I have EZ Stamp for my stamps and really enjoy this program as well. They have a EZ Coin Program.
Someone in another topic ended up going with numismatic notebook II. It has a free and a paid version and runs on mac and pc.
Let us know how things turn out!

Simplest inventory is an Excel spreadsheet, mine is country name, catalog number, year, mint, denomination, composition, troy ounces if any, quantity, value, and remarks. I don't track cost, anything over a year is long-term gains and heirs, if any, receive a stepped-up basis, the 'angel of death' rule.

I keep one copy of the inventory on a thumb drive that is in the collection boxes, it gets updated whenever I open the safe, the other is on the computer, just update and 'save as'. About twice a year I swap out another thumb drive a friend keeps for me, just in case the house burns down. I keep a drive for him, too.

Building the inventory from scratch isn't too bad, just get started, that's the main thing. You'll find if you start on your backlog, the collection, and endeavor to add anything new as soon as you acquire it, you will work the backlog down to zero in short order. I found taking care of one box of stuff when I added anything to it worked out fine. I got to all of the boxes in less than a year, only devoting an hour or so at a time.

What organization? What techniques?

Every so often (about 3-4 times per year), I go through the nearest available part of my collection and list all the coins. Country, date, denomination, approximate grade. Sometimes also place of purchase and price paid, if I still remember. (For some reason, this latter addition is a lot more common when I'm writing (typing) at the computer, rather than with pen and paper.)

Note where I said "nearest available part". Each of these listings is not comprehensive, nor even intended to be (except for the specific small section it's a listing for).
Only one of them was intended to be anywhere near comprehensive (to an extent) - the listing for May 23, 2013, when I apparently was actually serious about describing every single coin I could find (except, for some reason, those that had no date); I recently found its second sheet of paper, for coins 302-372, in several dirty pieces, and retyped the information on my computer before the pieces could end up being mistaken for trash and thrown away. The first sheet, which would have had coins 1-301 and a date chart, had been missing for over two years.

I do try to save every single receipt. As in, every single receipt period, including those from food shops and the like (even those for a can of Pepsi bought from a street kiosk). This takes up so much space (overfilling one of my jeans' pockets) that every few months I'm forced to put the old bunch of receipts somewhere else, and I have no idea what happens to them later.
And, ironically, at least 90% (probably more) of the LCSs I shop at don't give out any receipts anyway (and much of the rest only give out very generic "X amount of money" receipts, often indistinguishable from those for food except by rounder amounts, and certainly very similar to each other; I certainly cannot recall ever, anywhere, getting a receipt for a purchased coin that actually listed anything about said coin except its price, but at least some especially progressive shops list different coins as separate items).

The fact that much of my supposed collection had been lost in assorted apartment reorganizations (or just because I plain forgot where I put some bag, and it got covered with lot of other stuff put there later) does not help either.
I really should sit down and write a reasonably comprehensive listing - including date of purchase, place bought, price paid, and such, where I still remember - at least for those parts of my collection that I can get a hold of easily. Maybe it should be a project for the third anniversary of the original 2013 listing; but I'd rather prefer to do it in March (or April) and not wait until May.

...And yet, with all of that, I still think that what I have is a collection, not an accumulation. Not really sure why. Sorry.

I'm a long-time collector who has recently put collection inventory software on the web so you can imagine which side of this discussion I'm likely to take.

*** Staff Edit: Link removed. Please let us get to know you before posting personal links ***


Admittedly, it is time-consuming to enter the data - and especially to do the photography (scanning is easier) but if you actually enjoy collecting isn't that time well spent ?
So some tips for reducing the effort:
- If you are using Excel, don't try pasting pictures into the spreadsheets - they make the file too large, slow everything down and don't react well to filtering or resizing cells. Instead just enter the file name (limit one per cell) prefixed with file:// eg file://C:\IMAGES\98900o.jpg. This lets you see the image simply by clicking the cell.
- Assign your coins record numbers with plenty of gaps to allow for future additions and use the same numbers in the file names of any photos you take.
- Use a standard format for dates - these still sort correctly in Excel and can be imported later should you wish to upgrade to a more sophisticated system later.
- When you do upgrade to a database system, choose one that lets you import your data so that you don't have to go through all the effort again (it's only fun once).

I guess my advantage is that my collection is currently still pretty small. Most of the coins that I've acquired recently have their purchases documented, and most everything I get is either slabbed or raw with an intention of being slabbed. My original collection was quite small and specialized, and while I have most of it, the extent of it was low-grade common coins. As of right now, I have not actually figured out what I am going to focus on. Mostly, what I am looking at are higher grade coins in a more moderate price range. To that extent, my collection is housed in a couple of chipboard slab boxes, at the moment. I do plan on building something akin to a library catalog, as I do have some decent woodworking skills. However, that is a project that is going to wait a while as I am recovering from a double surgery and am on strict no-lift restrictions for the next month or so.

On the aspect of cataloging, I am not settled on what I am going to do. I've looked at spreadsheets, and I've looked at the commonly used applications. Nothign has really tripped my fancy yet, though. For that, I blame my profession. I've been in the software industry for about twenty years, and am an engineering lead at the moment - having given up management to go back into the trenches, where I belong. Part of what that means to me is that I always look at what I can write for my hobbies, from a coding perspective. I already have some roughed out database schemas and ideas around features that I would like in an application that I do not find in the ones that I've evaluated. We'll see if it progresses further than an "itch" to write something. Having done this for as long as I have as a profession, I simply do not have the motivation to recreationally code like I used to.

I love this thread, though. It is nice to see what other people do in both physical storage and cataloging. So many knowledgeable people with creative solutions that I would not have otherwise though of.

Some great ideas there; thank you for sharing.
I am interested in labelling my 2x2s. Is there an accepted standard format for labelling them? The coins I am mounting in the 2x2s are mainly Australian circulating decimals. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Nope, put down whatever is important to you, or helps you record what you have (and don't have!). There's always the usual stuff (issuer, denomination, etc), but beyond that, whatever floats your boat. I for one, don't generally record what I paid for a coin, others do. The one thing I'm always looking to do, is recording catalog number(s) (KM, N, Adamo, RIC, whatever), since that number automatically incorporates just about everything else: year, country, material, mintage number, etc.