Best way to document coin collection for ease of estate

I have been sharing my coin collection with my family. As I am the only collector among them, and we have been dealing with my late brothers estate, the question came about on how can I ensure they know what to do with my collection if I were gone.

I collect mostly non-graded coins. I know which are high quality and worth the money, and which are the ones I still need to upgrade. However, without grading my entire collection through a TPG service, how can I document and ensure the collection would be sold at appropriate value if something were to happen to me and my estate needed/wanted to cash out the collection?

Thoughts and advice here would be appreciated.

 

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I would personally put the coins in coin flips or 2x2's and label everything and include prices on the labels. Then i would make a list of what i have, and maybe number the flips of 2x2's and as your making the list number them accordingly. Dont know whatelse to do....

 

Well I try to keep a list of the grade I believe the coin to be and the amount that I payed for it when I acquired it. There are several software programs that you can try out that allow you to build your own records. The trouble with non-graded coins is that no two people grade the same and the market is always moving. I have shown and given my spouse a list of internet sites and books that give current prices and metal values on the type of coins I collect. I quess the best you can do is leave them as much knowledge as you can and arm them with resources to help them at least know a general understanding of what you have left them and a detailed letter with information on any rare or high value coins in your collection. In the long run tho it will be up to the family as to whether the price is right to sell your collection or keep it.

 

The best advice I have for you is to use a coin collecting software to document every coin or note in your collection and ensure that all the important information is there when it comes time to sell or split up the collection. Basically you (or a family member, if you're gone)will be able to open up a program, scroll through lists of coins with images, all the basic info on each coin, and then it'll also let you put in fields like "Date acquired", "price paid", and "value" or "comments" etc. etc. where basically anyone opening it up will be able to see your assessment of every coin's value and everything they need to know about it without having to go through the learning process that you did to become a collector.

My best experience has been with a program from Compass Collectables, I've been using it for my coin and banknote collection, and I think it's great. These are some shots of what it looks like:





Their website is www.compasscollectables.com , and it's much better than keeping all the records by hand and having to make changes and updates all the time by hand.

 

Rhino89,
Interesting software. The one thing I don't see is a place to keep TPG and Certification Number. I see an open text field for grade comments, but nothing that would let me pull up all certified coins, for example, or all coins graded by PCGS. Does it have this feature and I just don't see it in the fields you provided or on the website. I have been looking for good coin collecting software, and currently use a custom made Excel spreadsheet. I do like the photo linkage in the SW you show. I would think that in the case of an estate of a decent size collection, being able to quickly run a report that shows all coins sorted by certified and uncertified with purchase prices would be helpful. Just curious.

 

Both the coin and note features of the software have that drop-down menu that allows you to add or remove certain columns from your list based on what you want to use (or don't want to use). As far as a place for certification numbers, I don't see one specifically called that, but I'm looking at the list right now and one of them is "Item Set Number" where you ccan type in your certification numbers (and it also lets you put in letters, so you can do NGC ###### or PCGS ######)... If that doesn't work, you can always put that same info in the comment box. Also, see the screen shot where I have a coin really big? For every coin or note you add to your master list (see previous shots with the excel-looking layout) you can actually click on an individual line and then switch over to a "Details" tab, which allows you to put in even more specific and detailed info about your coin. You'll havea box for comments, a box for grade comments, a box for catalog details, set details... there's so many fields you can put in in general. Here's a list:

Country
Currency
Denomination
Weight
Name/Series
Category
Year
Issue Start Date
Issue End Date
Mint Name
Mint Mark
Edge
Designer
Mintage
Composition Inner
Composition Outer
Diameter
Thickness
Die Details
Catalog Value
Set Name
Number of Items in Set
Item Set Number
Catalog Details (box to type)
Set Details (box to type)
Status
Grade
Quantitity
Acquired From
Date Acquired
Price Paid
Price Sold
Date Sold
Comments (box to type)
Grade Comments (box to type)

After all that, there's not much else you need anymore lol... I mean how many softwares go into that kind of detail, you know? Not many that I've seen. And this thing can be used for any country, all the fields are customizable to take whatever you're collecting.

 

So all you have to do is pay them the $20 and than they let you download the software?

 

You can put any grade you want on a flip and it won't make a bit of difference if they take it to a less than reliable dealer to cash them out. I'd make a list of people I'd trust them to, people who have a reputation of being fair, people who know you and your collection, and people who won't take advantage of the situation and the inexperience of those who may be seeking their help. That will be the most important list you will ever make regarding you coin collection, and your estate as a whole.
Guy

 

Basically. If you want to test it out first, go to their site and download the trial version. It lets you play around with all the features (except making a website and you are limited to only having 10 items in your collection for the trial version) and even within the software there'll be an option to activate it. I did the trial version first, then got the full, and the way I activate it was by going to Tools>Reactivate> then typed in my details and serial.

 

Coin flips and lists work too, but I just like the cleanliness and compactness of having my collection in 1 binder (banks and notes) and then the software on my computer. And just in case my computer crashes, I do keep a printed out copy of all the info thats in my Compass program (there's an option in the program that let's you "Export" your lists to text, excel, or HTML). No writing on flips, no crossing stuff out to update prices... just hop on the computer and plug in the latest values. Silver's going up too, I can't be crossing out the values of junk silver every week

 

I am glad this thread came up. Does the software include a means to take pics of your coins? Is it hard to use for someone not real good with new software?

Does the sofeware update values based on a particular data base???? Red bookprices??

With spot prices rising so quickly, it seems that marking folders is not a real good idea.

Thanks for any input.

 

The program does not take photos for you (I don't think any of them do, only special programs that come with cameras and are connected to the computer and upload your images... haven't seen any coin programs that do that) BUT it does let you upload your own photos into the program. Basically when you're adding in a coin to your collection, two empty black boxes will be present at the bottom of the screen, and you'll be able to just right click on each box and choose your image from your computer to put into that box (you can see the photos I put into the smaller boxes, obverse and reverse of the coin.) Then, if you flip over to the "Details" tab it'll switch to a more detailed list of information where you can see your photos in a much larger view (you can see that in my screen shot with the 1913 50 Kopek, a big coin in the middle of the screen).

As far as updating values, it does not do that automatically and is not linked to a Krause catalog or Red Book or anything like that. It does, however, have fields for you to enter manually the "Catalog Value" and catalog info, your grade, the price you paid, the price you think's it's worth, etc.. I think it's better that it's not linked to any catalog, because we all have our own favorite catalog we use, and it's different for all the collectors out there. I, personally, have never needed the Red Book. I think if the program was linked to a certain book and automatically put in values for you, it would lose the versatility that it has in its current form.

As far as learning the software, it's very friendly and doesn't require much expertise in anything... I downloaded the trial version, played around for about 5-10 mins, got the hang of it, loved how fast/clean/clear/detailed it was, and got the full version. There's a tutorial built into the program to show you how to use it, but being a typical guy I just played around with it myself without the instructions Let me know if you guys want to see anything specific, I can always take more screenshots. Also, I'd recommend just downloading the trial version (it's free) and playing around with it, here's the link to download the free trial:

http://compasscollectables.com/download.mhtml

It's free, test it out, no harm. You'll see exactly what it's like to use.

 

I find the best way to keep track of my coins is Excel. I've set mine up with numerous rows and tailored exactly to my needs. I've added tabs for the various denominations in my collection to know what coins I'm missing from that denomitation (e.g. holes in my books). I was also given the software program called "Collector's Assistant" for Christmas a few years ago. It is pretty nice but it takes a lot longer to enter coins into the database. It also provides very high prices for the coins. In my spreadsheet, I get mintage and coinage metal information from the red book or books of world coins. I get current values of the coins off ebay or from the purchase price of the coin.

 

or you can sign up for aNgc or pcgs registry and add your coins in manually as raw coins and manually imput grades and values..

 

i was useing ngc cause there soft ware is free.. in stead of paing 20 d$$$

 

See, but can you download it to your computer physically and have it on your PC? or do you have to depend on going into the NGC or PCGS site to look at your registry?

 

you can save an edit via excel .. i believe.. have never done it.. dont have excel..

 

Hi All,

I see Rhino89 has introduced you to my software, i will try to answer some of the question that have been asked.

I am a collector myself and have based the software off my knowledge of each type of collection. If you feel there is something missing that would be helpful to people let me know and I will generally add the request to the next version of the software.


Numan - if you wish to give m details of the fields you feel need adding i will make sure they are put in the next version, I need to know the field title, Field length and field content eg. 10 letters or 10 numbers only or 250 of any text


sunflower - The software only allows you to load an image it will not make use of your scanner or camera. Use your normal software to get the image on to your computer then load it in to the software.

The coin database is not integrated in to any price databases as yet, i will consider doing something with this later on if i get enough users who feel it is worth while.

Phil Ham - Excell can do a good job for listing your coins but does not let you view and filter your data as well as my program does, if you use the grouping and filtering provided in my software you can change the way your coins (or other items) are shown and it can allow you to see any sub set of coins easily.

 

Thanks for the input.

I agree that pre-graded is not a big deal, if there is a reputable/trustworthy buyer. However, I have a lot of modern coins in my collection where an MS65 versus MS68 or MS69 is a big difference in value...so a solid third party opinion could be worthwhile.

I like the software as my heirs can find things via picture instead of name as they may not even know the difference between a kennedy half dollar and a modern commemorative half. They can however, look at picture and date to find things.

Taking a quick look at the software....how can I limit the number of items in a drop down list? The software is capable of quite a bit more variety in nationality than I collect. So I do not need to see Casada da Moeda and a long list of Mint names.

How can I also turn off fields that I am not concerned with. diameter/thickness would be two examples?

I will keep playing. Anything that increases ease of use would be appreciated.