How to Organize

NJCollector

Over the past few years, my son has fallen in love with and been acquiring foreign (non-US) coins. He is attracted to the different designs and histories behind the coins. My question is this-What is the best way to organize such a growing and very diverse collection. The coins span a multitude of coutries, dates, sizes and shapes. We appreciate any suggestions? Thanks.

laurentyvan

Organize it along the lines of the Krause catalogs. Country, century, year and denomination. It's all laid out for you- that is if you want to do a type set collection. There are a thousand other ways, which you'll hear about shortly.

Cladiator

How many coins are we talking about here?

NJCollector

So far about 300-400 coins. Very diverse "collection." Also, I wanted to get him a good refernce book. Krause is the name I see most often. Is that a good choice? Thanks.

Cladiator

Yes, Krause is the bible of world coins. You can't go wrong with it. With that many coins I couldn't see displaying them as being safe. I guess I'd opt to organize them into a safe deposit box.

sliderider

Sounds like your son collects in similar manner to myself. I'll go through a period where I acquire large numbers of Mexican coins and then suddenly I'll shift to Canadian, British or Australian. Or one day a coin on ebay will catch my eye while I'm surfing at 2AM and I'll get it and it will set off a new collecting interest. Like, I just recently won an auction for a 1763 12 einen thaler coin from the German states. I don't know why I bid on it, it just felt right. I'll probably be sucked into early German-Prussian-Polish coins now.

Kurt4

Organization can drive you nuts. Especially if you're a little anal retentive like me. I have most of my coins in 2x2's or Safeflips. The normal not too valuable stuff are in the 2x2's in 3 ring binders. I also use a flat clinch stapler for the 2x2's. It's worth the money. My nicer coins are in Safeflips right now and I'm looking for a way to keep them a little better. I'm thinking of Airtites for this, but I'm still looking for options. The important thing for me was to decide on a system. I have a medium size humidor (no h2o in it) right now that I keep my slabbed, capsuled etc. coins in. That works for me now, but I'm always on the lookout for better solutions. Hope that helps. Glad to hear your son enjoys collecting.

spoon

If they're mostly low value (ie, not $30+) I'd recommend keeping them in 2x2s, well labeled, and in 3 ring binders. Any higher value stuff should be in Saflips or Airtites or other archival quality materials. Airtites are my choice for pricier stuff because they are rigid plastic--you can drop them and not damage the coin, plus you can "handle" the coins in airtites; the down side is that you can't easily label airtites, but if you know what you have it shouldn't be a problem.

Always make sure to use non-PVC materials whatever you decide. PVC can seep onto a coin and cause lasting damage. Even 3 ring binder pages with PVC can cause damage to a coin "protected" by 2x2s.

Two of the big guys for coin supplies online are JP's Corner and Brent-Krueger.

Oh yeah... a Krause (Standard Catalog of World Coins) is a must! They're broken down by century, so start with what most directly fits your interests. I'd recommend buying a slightly older edition at a discount. Warning though! having a Krause will only suck you further into coin collecting once you see all the awesome coins out there!

Kurt4

Sounds like you son might be getting a nice little Christmas package. 2x2's,Safeflips,some pages and binders,a Krause. Have fun!!