Accumulation to Collection

I have inherited a ‘shoe box’ of coins some of which were in labelled envelopes. There were many empty envelopes which suggest the higher values were sold at some point- probably in 1980/90s. There were also many loose coins. I am working my way through them all, doing my best to identify and grade. Many are UK - 1600s to 1900s - but there are many other types from around the world and little after 1950. I probably have another 200 to work through. I think my catalogue is open to view if you want to see my progress

My trouble is I can’t throw any away. If I can identify it, it goes in the book.

How did you go from an accumulation of coins to a Collection?

Why should you throw them away?
You should divide them by country and then by type. At this point you can classify them in order to transform the "accumulation of coins" in a collection.
It's an activity I really like

Hi StackOPennies,
I would suggest focusing on one or two topics (for example: geographical region, country/ies, historical time frame, flora, animals, buildings, portraits, ships, crests, language, etc. etc.), and getting rid of the coins which do not fit in that scope through swaping, selling, etc.
After having managed this first choose, you will find enough interesting coins and areas to enlarge tour Collection followong different directions.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Christianvl

good advice, good advice.
find your interests, sort and organize ,cull multiples.
I'll add this,
don't discard anything just yet. there is room in a closet for a shoe box, the stuff you arent interested in right now,
you might develop a new interest in the future, and recall you have something relevant in storage.

Thanks all. I will finish cataloguing the shoe box and then try and be objective !

Quote: "StackOPennies"​How did you go from an accumulation of coins to a Collection?
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From Oct 2016 to around summer 2017 I frequently upgraded my container but stored all my coins assorted. (I only had Hong Kong coins at the time, all Elizabeth II, taken out of circulation)

My container of choice went from a small bag to this:

to this:


For older HK coins like from the 40s - early 70s I put them in a smaller metal box. I think it originally stored a Battlefield 3 collectible.

In 2018 (?) I went out and bought six dedicated drawers and started sorting the coins by denomination, and stacking them for ease of counting. That was probably when my collection really started. Starting in 2019 I started branching out into U.S. as well with the addition of about 21 state quarters I found there. Then I had all my coins from 1860s-early 1970s encased in holders and stuck handwritten labels on those holders.

Now I sort my coins by year in addition to denomination.

For topics I would say that I have British Hong Kong as my primary, and then my secondaries would be "coins that have circulated in Hong Kong" (British Trade Dollar etc.) and "U.S. State Quarters". Probably going to add "Chinese Zodiac" too if I keep getting the 10 yuan coins.