Question on World coins

netrubicon

Ive got a lot of world coins and I am trying to put it together somehow. A majority of it is Swiss coinage 1885-present. With this pile of coins,
what is the best way to organize this into any order? Probably around 800-1000 coins. What do I look for? I have world coin publications but this may take forever!!! Any input at this time would be quite helpful. Ive been staring at this pile for 4 months and not touching it. Maybe in 10 years I can start organizing my 7 stamp collections. If I start that now I might finish by the time Im 70 or 80.

lordmarcovan

Fuhgeddabout the stoopid stamps and do the coins.

First, you put them in alphabetical order by country. Then, you put them in order by denomination, smallest to largest. This'll make it easiest to look things up using Krause- you'll have less page-turning to do.

Of course, you may run across a country you don't recognize at first.

I would recommend something like a tackle box or those hardware drawers you put nuts and bolts in. Something with around 30+ cubbies or drawers in it. You can make a drawer for each letter of the alphabet. Add a drawer for Switzerland itself, if you have a lot of those. Have an "unknown" drawer, an "exonumia" drawer, etc.

Once they are in the drawers, then you can work on putting them in flips or 2X2's or whatever you wanna do with them, at your leisure. You should alphabetize the countries the way they are listed in your coin books- for example, a Soviet "CCCP" coin might go in the "R" drawer, since those are cataloged under Russia now. And a coin from Ceylon would go in the "S" drawer (for Sri Lanka), rather than the "C" drawer.

netrubicon

Boy, Lord, you really made that sound easy. Of course, alphabetical order would be the last thing I would think of! Nice and thank you!

gxseries

Geez, I would recommand the same way as lordmarcovan. Or if you like, you can always shove them into pages of 2x2, which I then take a scan of them on a scanner. Not very decent, but you know, you can always keep track of them on your pc. And when you have the time, you can always make a database of them in excel, but meh, I know it can take quite some time.

netrubicon

Is there any country coins I should pay special attention to or look for in General terms? Or what is in demand?

lordmarcovan

I'm fond of Ireland and its predecimal coins (before 1968). Some (though not all) of those have surprisingly low mintages and healthy catalog values, even up into the fairly "modern" years. Of course, I'm biased- I used to collect those. Look for those harps.

There are all sorts of possibilities for hidden treasure. This is what makes Darkside-bulk-lot-cherrypicking the second most enjoyable thing you can do indoors.

gxseries

Russian coins as well, if you happened to have any. Imperial Russian coins have been spiking ridicious prices, and somewhat going at a horrible "inflation". I wouldn't disagree with Irish coins either, they are doing pretty well, and I wouldn't be surpised one day if they start to hike up in prices.

netrubicon

Thanks again, just found a 1928 6 pence in xf. Oh yeahhh.......

SYRACUSIAN

This is what makes Darkside-bulk-lot-cherrypicking the second most enjoyable thing you can do indoors.






Are you going for metal detecting in your bedroom now Rob?

ajaan

<< <i>Are you going for metal detecting in your bedroom now Rob? >>

Man

I also have several thousand coins without a proper home, where can I buy flips or 2x2's in bulk for cheap?
Either in the New York area or online.

lordmarcovan

Brooklyn Gallery

Man

Nice prices are good. Thanks.
But the location, I mean the end of Brooklyn I often forget to mention how truly lazy I am.
I'll check my budget and see what I can order online before classes start.

cladking

I usually start by pulling out whatever there is the most of. As you're doing that you can start
presorting the other coins. This will help when you come back to sort them. The Swiss coins can
then be sorted by denomination and then by era. Again when you sort by denomination you can
start pre-sorting by era or date.

Krause lists a lot of the Swiss coins from WW II to about 1958 too low in unc and some in XF. Some
later dates are also too low in unc.

There's little need really to sort the ones you don't want to collect. Just toss them aside and sell as
a lot. It makes very little difference in what they sell for and saves a lot of work. Be sure to check
for better dates though.

It gets a lot easier with experience. Before long you'll be able to reach into a bucket of coins and
grab the good ones.