altyn Posted February 6, 2010 Report Share Posted February 6, 2010 I wonder if members of this forum have used CoinManage 2009 (for Windows). What I would like to know in particular is how useful this software might be for managing Russian and other world coin. It seems to have been designed with a US coin collector in mind, so it might not be as good for other coin types. For instance, can one input the data in cyrillic? Also, are there good alternatives? I have found "Cabinet" (www.coin-cabinet.tu1.ru/), not sure how good it is, and "The numismatist's safe" (koopee.narod.ru/indexen.html) available for a fee (the demo is free) which seems to be more advanced. Anyone using those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted February 9, 2010 Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 I wonder if members of this forum have used CoinManage 2009 (for Windows). What I would like to know in particular is how useful this software might be for managing Russian and other world coin. It seems to have been designed with a US coin collector in mind, so it might not be as good for other coin types. For instance, can one input the data in cyrillic? Also, are there good alternatives? I have found "Cabinet" (www.coin-cabinet.tu1.ru/), not sure how good it is, and "The numismatist's safe" (koopee.narod.ru/indexen.html) available for a fee (the demo is free) which seems to be more advanced. Anyone using those? I never used any commercial collection management software myself, but I have worked as a professional software developer in databases and application development. So my predilection is that a database is the way to do it. But there is a big problem with client-side databases such as early versions of FileMaker and MS-Access (let's not talk about Excel which isn't actually database software), especially when it gets to the point where you really need Unicode support for doing things like Cyrillic data entry and display (even if it is only for the mintmaster initials on the edges of your coins). Only the newest versions of Windows and the MS-products, for example, provide seamless Unicode integration, and a lot of products out there are written to support pre-Unicode standards such as Windows 95. I'm not a Mac user, so I can't say whether or not FileMaker is even still used on that platform. The Unix/Linux opensource systems have traditionally been the first to provide (1) very usable opensource client-server database software (e.g. MySQL and PostgreSQL -- of course there are others such as Oracle and DB2, but who is going to buy an Oracle license just to install coin collecting software? ), and (2) true cross-platform Unicode support in the form of UTF-8 which has become more or less the standard OS code page. But Linux is used by maybe 1% of all non-professional computer users, and there probably isn't too much opensource collectors' software out there I would be able to recommend to someone who wasn't a regular Unix/Linux user (or programmer). I've actually been working on designing a decent database schema which could be used as a basis for collecting. It is amazingly complex to do it right! One other problem is that in order to provide leverage of different catalog numbering systems, there are licensing issues which prevent the pre-packaging of a complete catalog, so you are forced to sell just the design and the client interface and let the user enter all the data WRT catalog numbers (ugh!). Flexibility comes at a cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altyn Posted February 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 Many thanks Bob. The CoinManage 2009 package is designed for XP and Vista, therefore, it must work with Unicode. It comes with a database of US coins that a user would then expand with new data. Lots of bells and whistles are also included (most of which probably unnecesary, but some being really nice). The price (about $60) is not prohibiting. However a problem was noticed by one customer who left a negative review on the Amazon.com. That person noticed that it was impossible to add new coin categories and rename existing ones, if I understood that correctly. This problem might go unnoticed for a collector of US coins (with all possible categories already included) but it can represent a serious drawback for a collector of Russian coins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STEVE MOULDING Posted February 9, 2010 Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 :The Unix/Linux opensource systems have traditionally been the first to provide (1) very usable opensource client-server database software (e.g. MySQL and PostgreSQL - I've actually been working on designing a decent database schema which could be used as a basis for collecting. It is amazingly complex to do it right! : I've recently started the migration of my auction records / images database to MySQL (500,000+ images/records). Spare time in the past month has been just designing the schema and while it's mostly mapped out, I still don't have all the answers yet. I would agree...it's a lot harder than might first be supposed. Best, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altyn Posted February 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 I've recently started the migration of my auction records / images database to MySQL (500,000+ images/records). Spare time in the past month has been just designing the schema and while it's mostly mapped out, I still don't have all the answers yet. I would agree...it's a lot harder than might first be supposed. Best, Steve When even professionals see this as a challenge, then what hope is there for us, mere mortals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wigelst Posted February 9, 2010 Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 Hi, I haven't used coin manage for the same reason you mentioned, it was just designed for U.S. coins; after a lot of searching I found Collection Studio. It's not just for coins and it can be customized, my wife uses it for her Euro BU sets. The best part is you get lifetime upgrades when you buy it. Hope this helps. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altyn Posted February 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 Thank you very much Tim. So, it must be this one (CS). They provide a free demo, I shall take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wigelst Posted February 10, 2010 Report Share Posted February 10, 2010 Thank you very much Tim. So, it must be this one (CS). They provide a free demo, I shall take a look. That's the one, should have included a link for you; I tried the demo and then I just got hooked on the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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