How do you keep your coin collection in order?

[DreamFLight911]

I have snack to quart sized ziplock bags for the coins.

 

5 note books 1 for each continent

 

most coins are mined from coinstar machines

[neweden]

I think I would cringe if I kept my coins like that, I know I wouldnt be able to sleep at night, But to each his own as they say.

As for myself I keep my inventory in 2x2 squares and pages, all 15 volumes of them..

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________________________

 

 

 

How beautiful it is to do nothing

And then rest afterward

 

 

Spanish Proverb

[ikaros]

Wishful thinking, mostly.

 

Actually, the Jefferson Project is in small flips in a three-ring binder with a protective sheet in between each page, actually. Can't be too careful. I'm still exploring permanent display options for them. I'm going to get a couple sacrificial coins (not too expensive with Jeffs) and see about custom molding clear plastic holders (NOT permanently embedding them in Lucite blocks! That would be a capital offense!)

 

The others are in 2x2s in those little red longboxes. And the proof/mint sets are on a bookshelf.

[DreamFLight911]

2x2's 3 ring binders UGH!!! takes to much space

+ a broken closet shelve(s)

 

Use to have 10-15 of the binders

 

Now their in a plastic bin and their own gallon size bag for each continent plus smaller bags

[Steve D'Ippolito]

If I had a huge variety of foreign countries I'd probably use 2x2s (and/or airtites) and red boxes and sort them mostly in Krause order. My exceptions to Krause order would be historical; I might pull some place I was very interested in out from under whatever country Krause lists it under since they go by the current borders. Of course once that happens, I've become a specialist in that area, and I would probably keep those coins _completely_ separate from the rest. Which is what ultimately happened with my Russian Imperial--I eventually ended up keeping those in a sort of modified "red book order" dividing by reign, then category (regular coinage vs. commemorative or provincial), then by increasing intrinsic metal value (copper before silver, silver before gold), denomination, and finally by year.

 

When I did use an air tite holder, I'd make up a 2x2 card to put behind the airtite with the information about the coin. Air tites do a marvelous job protecting the coin and you can remove the coin for closer examination (or exhibiting). The largest size was 2 inches across, the next one down maybe an inch and a half, and those worked OK in a 2x2 box, so you could keep your airtited coins in sequence with your 2x2s. You could take a tightly-packed box, and stand it on one end (by accident, say, because you weren't thinking when you put the box in your briefcase) and the contents wouldn't move around much. Unfortunately the smaller sizes of air tite didn't work too well in a 2x2 box, if a box with just two or three of these in sequence or close to it got tipped, the 2x2s surrounding them would simply fall out of place. The company that makes airties made cardboard holders for them that would have worked well (the cardboard square had a pre-cut hole in it, you put the cardboard between the two halves of the airtite) but unfortunately those were 2 1/2 x 2 1/2. It apparently never occurred to the company that maybe someone might want to keep their airtites in a 2x2 box and would need some way to manage only the two smaller sizes. Once upon a time the airtites were sold in groups of three, in a cardboard strip with holes cut just the right size and I would exacto out a 2x2 square and solve the problem that way, but Airtite stopped selling them that way, going to the current very bulky blister pack.

[YeOldeCollector]

Coin cabinets and boxed trays. Works fine for me.

[ikaros]

2x2's 3 ring binders UGH!!! takes to much space

+ a broken closet shelve(s)

 

Use to have 10-15 of the binders

 

Now their in a plastic bin and their own gallon size bag for each continent plus smaller bags

Since they're Jeffs, I use the smaller flips, not the full 2x2s, but that's just for that collection. If I needed it to be mobile, I'd probably look toward a different solution, but since they just sit there and get looked at under controlled conditions, it's an excellent solution for me -- for now.

 

The 2x2s (handling the Brits, Poles, Russians, 63s and pretty much everything else) are in those red cardboard boxes. I'd like a more permanent solution (and a more dramatic display) for at least the 63s, something involving a period world map or something.

[geordie582]

Coin cabinets and boxed trays. Works fine for me.

Ditto. It becomes a choice between Coin, book or cabinet when spending money!!

[AUeagle]

To store the coins I use 2x2s in 3-ring binders. I like this method because I don't have to limit my collection to a pre-printed album. Also, I can take the coins out easily, inspect them up close, replace them when upgrading, rearrange them as needed. In one of my books I have inserted pictures of the flags of the countries just before the coins of that country. It makes the binder much more interesting for non-numismatists to look at.

 

For some coins that don't fit in 2x2s, I use baseball card pages, or other variations of plastic page sizes to hold them.

 

To organize, I use a spreadsheet program, with columns for country, year, denomination, mint, condition, value, date purchased/acquired, physical storage location, notes.