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New member- intro and creating an inventory

Hi-
I'm a new member to the forum. My father has been a long time collector on and off over the years. Over the past 5 years he has added a number of coins to his collection and we have gone to a few coin shows together. It's been a nice way for us to connect and I've learned a ton from reading this board, other sites and attending the shows. Thank you to everyone for sharing what you know.

My father collects mostly morgans although he has a number other US coins. He is not very well organized and I was finally able to convince him to get all coins out of the house and into a safety deposit box. I was concerned about theft and also that something would get misplaced. I know from reading here that my dad probably made some of the common mistakes (raw coins on ebay/ lower tier 3rd party graders) so I have talked to him a bunch about only buying pcgs/ngc certified coins as well as CAC. He is doing that now, but has coins

My next task is to create a complete inventory of his collection so that we can identify items of value that should be kept at the bank and also identify any missing coins in his morgan set that he might want to add in the future. He doesn't really know what he has and therefore has some holes and also duplicates. I'm not sure if a completed set is his goal or if he just wants to have a nice set of coins to enjoy. At a minimum it will be more organized, safer, and he will know what he needs to complete the set.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by creating the inventory. Any advice on what to do/what is a waste of time would be appreciated. I'm planning on using excel to capture the coin information, price paid (if available), and current pcgs price guide value.

Comments

  • sorry wrong forum

  • marcmoishmarcmoish Posts: 6,209 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 24, 2017 8:02PM

    Wait until the wrath of the darkside hits you where the sun don't shine for this self promoting post :#

  • dizzleccdizzlecc Posts: 1,111 ✭✭✭

    Welcome to the boards. Keeping and updating an inventory is challenging. I have seen three ways, one in a manual journal either an old reference guide or simple notebook, two electronic spreadsheet, or three using the pcgs registry set. It is a large tasks but worth it, simply start small and continue to work at it.

    To keep this world coin related. Don't be afraid to branch out into foreign coins like 8 Reales. Many of us started with Morgans and migrated over. 8 Reales are similar and can be a cost effective alternative.

  • pruebaspruebas Posts: 4,302 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 24, 2017 8:42PM

    Darkside wrath....

    An inventory isn't US or World coin specific, so I'll add a few comments since this is actually an interesting topic.

    In my inventory (which I maintain in Numbers, the Mac version of Excel), I include columns for the following. Not all fields are mandatory.

    Box Name (all my boxes are labeled)
    Slot # (if in a slab box)
    SDB # (yes, I actually have more than one!)
    Country of Issue
    Year
    Mintmark
    Assayer's Initials
    Type (regular issue, proof, pattern, off-metal, medal, etc.)
    Denomination Value
    Denomination Name (Dollar, Centavo, Peso, etc.)
    Description (and any extra text on the slab)
    Grading Service (this includes the type of slab, such as PCGS Secure)
    Slab Serial Number
    Grade
    Date Acquired
    From Whom Acquired (person or auction/lot)
    Price Paid (includes things like pro-rated shipping charges)
    Date Sold
    To Whom Sold
    Selling Price (includes any selling fees)
    Profit / Loss (automatically computed)
    Material (0.900Ag, Cu, Zn, etc.)
    Mass (g)
    Diameter (mm)
    Thickness (mm)
    Axis (degrees)
    Obverse Design
    Reverse Design
    Edge Design
    Comments (for things such as former collection, former appearances, or condition notes)

    I also have 2 boolean fields (checkboxes) for whether I slabbed the coin and whether it went to conservation. You could also have one for CAC or WINGS stickers (I don't because I don't care).

    Did I miss anything important?

    Now I happen to know that @EVillageProwler is more meticulous than I, so I'll bet he has more details in his inventory.... ;)

  • NapNap Posts: 1,702 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Or you could just do like me and have tubes and boxes full of coins and get excited when you discover something in the safe deposit box you were sure you lost or forgot you owned!

  • jgennjgenn Posts: 735 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @pruebas said:
    I also have 2 boolean fields (checkboxes) for whether I slabbed the coin

    I use a numeric field to track how many times I've sent them to a TPG.

  • EVillageProwlerEVillageProwler Posts: 5,859 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 24, 2017 10:03PM

    @pruebas said:

    Now I happen to know that @EVillageProwler is more meticulous than I, so I'll bet he has more details in his inventory.... ;)

    I am not very organized. I have stuff everywhere, at home as well as in the bank. I keep lots of information in a spreadsheet, but I also keep a lot of information on tags that I write for the items of value. These tags are in Pages documents that I can print out on nice stock and cut into 2.75"x2.75" that then get placed with the coin associated with the tag.

    Here are a couple of sample tags:

    How does one get a hater to stop hating?

    I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com

  • TwoKopeikiTwoKopeiki Posts: 9,528 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 25, 2017 5:54AM

    Welcome to the forums! With time you'll realize how much more amazing collecting world coins can be vs us and then you'll already have an intro post on the forums!

    I've done the excel thing, but since have gone with "My Inventory" function of PCGS registry since I can add non-pcgs coins and upload photos. It also allows you to track your sold coins and if you're inclined to have a shareable copy, you can bulk export your entire inventory into excel.

  • dizzleccdizzlecc Posts: 1,111 ✭✭✭

    Hey, this turned out to be an interesting topic. It is nice to see what methods are used by other collectors. I primarily use a spreadsheet that has about 70% of the fields used by Pruebas. Plus, learned something new, that you can add non-pcgs coins to myinventory in the PCGS registry. I like the spreadsheet because I can access it on my phone before purchasing any new coins.

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