Best Software to Use For Cataloging U.S. Currency Collection?

BigSxy

My mother recently passed and left me a lot of U.S. coins and currency. I'm not really a collector and would like to sale most of it. I've been reading online and it seems the first step is to catalogue what I have and know it's value. I'm in search of software that can help with this. My first inclination was to download an app for my phone that will scan the coins and automatically deduce what it is. I found some that are pretty good, but they all seem to fall short when trying to catalogue and set of coins -- for instance there are a couple of proof sets from 2009 - one for the Dominican Republic & All U.S. Territories and the other is similar but is labeled "50 United States" or something to that affect, I don't have the coins in front of me at the moment. Also, these all only deal with coins. I was hoping to find something that would let me catalogue the paper currency as well.

So with all that being said, does anybody have any suggestions on the best available software to catalogue U.S. Currency?

TomB

Howdy and welcome. I'm sorry to read of your loss.

As for your question, use Excel. It's free on most computer platforms, easy to use, infinitely customizable and nearly everyone here does or has used it for coin inventory software. Also, should you have issues with it you can always reach out to folks on the boards for help.

BigSxy

@TomB said:
Howdy and welcome. I'm sorry to read of your loss.

As for your question, use Excel. It's free on most computer platforms, easy to use, infinitely customizable and nearly everyone here does or has used it for coin inventory software. Also, should you have issues with it you can always reach out to folks on the boards for help.

Thanks, she was my rock and it's already sucking not having her around

But also thanks for the advice! A couple of follow-up questions then, if you don't mind:
1. Which site would you recommend I use to get value? From what I've seen they are all generally in the same ballpark but I'm guessing some are more reputable than others.
2. Is the value listed on your suggested site what I would expect to get if I was selling it online/directly to an individual? I live in Louisville, KY and after cataloguing them was going to take them to The Louisville Numismatic Exchange, which from what I can tell is the most reputable place in Louisville. So if the site says a certain coin's value is worth $50 and I'm selling it to a shop, should I expect them to offer something like 20% less than the stated value (so $40?)
3. There's a can she left that has hundreds of wheat pennies in it -- how would you suggest I go about cataloguing those and then storing them in a manner that I know which is which? I'm assuming for the most part their values are all going to be roughly the same and I may be overthinking it, but just also trying to think ahead.

As always, thanks for any advice you can share...

TomB

Okay, there is a lot to unpack in your questions, but I'll try to touch them all.

1. Completed sales on ebay makes a great way to find out what common material might sell for at full retail. Don't look at the prices things are offered at, but look at the completed sales feature on ebay as this will tell you what people actually paid for similar material.
2. If you take similar ebay items that have sold and then offer them then, yes, you might expect a similar sales price. It pays to have good images. If you see an ebay sale for an esoteric item at $50 then no way, no how are you going to get $40 from a shop. However, if it is $50 for silver bullion on ebay then you might get $40 at a shop. In general, the more work a shop has to do to move an item, the less you will receive for it. Similarly, the more work you put into understanding what you have and selling it yourself, the more you will realize. The caveat, of course, is that your time has value, too.
3. I would suggest you buy a Red Book. You only need one and it will last for years, but it will tell you at a glance what dates are better or more valuable, will give some history and also pointers on how to grade coins. It might cost $15 ordered online or you can walk into most book sellers or coin stores and pick one up. In general, the Wheat cents are going to be worth about two-cents each unless they are mint state or better dates.

Your best bet is to take one or two quality images of what you have laying around and post them here so that folks can give you a broad overview relatively quickly. Good luck!