Tips for newbies

Hey guys!

Typical newbie coin collector here just wanting some tips on how to get started. I've managed to acquire about 500 coins from various countries that currently live in two tupperware containers!

I wanted some advice on how to store and organize (do you sort geographically, chronologically, be denomination or by another method I haven't though of) as well as identify mint marks/ proof coins (to be honest I'm not exactly sure what this means). Also, is it worth creating a database of the coins in my collection or will labels be good enough?

Any tips and tricks would be much welcomed!

Thank you,
Gee

EDIT - forgot to ask, are there any basic guidelines when determining the condition of coins?

Welcome to Numista.

I started with a jam jar full of coins, so I bought a coin collecting folder with plastic inserts.
I sorted them by country, denomination then chronologically. Over time I have grown to 4 folders, UK, 2 for Europe and World.

For a database Numista is excellent, but I also have a word document so I can find individual coins in my books. Although in Numista you can add personal comments which could be used in a similar way (something like book, page, location)

For grading try reading this https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/how-to-grade-my-coin-58.html

Quote: "Harris79"​Welcome to Numista.
​
​I started with a jam jar full of coins, so I bought a coin collecting folder with plastic inserts.
​I sorted them by country, denomination then chronologically. Over time I have grown to 4 folders, UK, 2 for Europe and World.
​
​For a database Numista is excellent, but I also have a word document so I can find individual coins in my books. Although in Numista you can add personal comments which could be used in a similar way (something like book, page, location)
​
​For grading try reading this https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/how-to-grade-my-coin-58.html
​
​

​Thank you! That's really helpful. I think I'll do the same with a coin collecting folder and word document as that sounds easy to manage. Thanks for the advice

Welcome to numista.

Can see that you have 500 coins. But in sorting it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Once you know what you are trying to accomplish, get a catalogue. If you are trying to complete all the world coins, I Don think I know of any catalogue. But if you are trying to complete only a certain country, a single catalogue is possible.

Example if you collect only recent coins and not those ancient coins, it is easier to sort them by country. But if you sort by those old and demonitise, it would be difficult.

Afew examples where coins cross paths.
Japanese coins. There is a Spanish 8 reels coin which is forigen and related during the last 200 years. So it can be in a albulm where it is full of Japanese coins. For me I Don money to buy those that are counter stamp. So I just buy a original one to complete it as a example. The counter stamp ones are more expensive.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces27223.html

Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong. There is a British trade dollar. Yes, it maybe minted in bombay or england, but because it is used to trade in these countries you may find them in these countries albulm.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8472.html

But if you sorting by ancient, most of the time it depends on the country again. So you might want to either put them in another albulm which are ancient coins.

For me I have a album on Singapore coins only, Malaysia coins only and Japanese coins only. I have another albulm World wide coins with japan recent circulation coins and other country arrange by Asia followed by Africa, europe and USA.

I suggest you quickly separate out the coins. If not your coins will slowly damage over time.

Suggest to buy 2x2 flips so you can write something on it. I documentation by flips and followed by arranged sleeves in a albulm. Then I also save them in a word documentation. Use the catalogue to jolt down those missing part in your word documentation. Japanese coins I kept them in a quadrum capsule as they are almost 100 or more than 100 years old.

Many of the previous post people ask.

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic81978.html

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic81571.html
​​​​https://en.numista.com/forum/topic81179.html

If you collect banknotes.

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic80644.html

Brands that I used.
https://www.lighthouse.us/

https://www.lindner-original.de/

Hope the rich information helps.

Welcome to Numista!!!

As said before, yours is the decision on what or how to collect and sort.

If you want to collect all coins on the world, I would suggest to slow down, and make a more wise choice, you can see Numista is reaching 150,000 different coins (and still growing), on those coins you also have different years and variants, mintmarks, privy marks.... that would be too much, I guess. At least I started on that way, and soon I narrowed my target to make it more realistic.

A classic start is own country, depending on where you live, you can find many coins in spare change, and then find older ones in coin shops, or via swaps. If you know people who travel, ask them to keep spare change to you, there will be many new coins, and also many doubles to swap.

When you have many coins in your first choice, and is turning harder to find new ones, you can expand your target. Say, you started with your country, then maybe is time to add some neighbor countries.

Or you can choose to collect by themes; here is a thread with loads of interesting themes.

Depending on what you choose to collect, will be the sorting method. The most usual, is by country, then denomination, then year. Myself, I have sorted in different ways, and often have changed the sorting, as I thought other system is better. Anyways, is a good opportunity to check your collection and look again, and enjoy your coins, and of course to fix mistakes.

About determining condition of coins, it takes time to train yourself, but you can start with this thread, in Numisdoc (I also suggest you to click "Numisdoc" tab and have a read of its contents, you can find many interesting articles there.

Hope to hear from you often, Happy collecting!!!

Quote: "Gee"​
​I wanted some advice on how to store and organize (do you sort geographically, chronologically, be denomination or by another method I haven't though of) as well as identify mint marks/ proof coins (to be honest I'm not exactly sure what this means). Also, is it worth creating a database of the coins in my collection or will labels be good enough?
​

​
A very big welcome to the wonderful world of Numista!

To get an idea on how other members store and manage their collections if you click on the Search on the forum link and search for 'store / manage collection' this will return several threads which could occupy you for hours reading on all the different ways and methods that different members employ to store, manage and display their many and varied collections.

That link does not work.
https://en.numista.com/search.php?cat=Forum"rel="nofollow">Search

Quote: "ZacUK"​ That link does not work.
​https://en.numista.com/search.php?cat=Forum"rel="nofollow">Search

​Thanks Zac, I have edited the link and it should now work

If you are trying to get general information on the coins of the world, there is a series of Standard Catalog of World Coins, by Krause Publications. Each catalog covers 100 years, and the first one covers coins beginning in 1600.

The catalogs are not perfect, but it is a far cry from having to assemble a library of separate books on each country of the world!

My suggestion: Contact your local library, to see if they have the catalogs. (If so, they are probably in the Reference section and cannot be checked out.) Go review the catalogs and decided whether you wish to acquire them. They are readily available on Amazon and from hobby retailers.

Regards,
Eugene

Quote: "Gee"​Hey guys!
​
​I wanted some advice on how to store and organize (do you sort geographically, chronologically, be denomination or by another method I haven't though of) as well as identify mint marks/ proof coins (to be honest I'm not exactly sure what this means). Also, is it worth creating a database of the coins in my collection or will labels be good enough?
​
​
​EDIT - forgot to ask, are there any basic guidelines when determining the condition of coins?

​Welcome to Numista!

Like everyone said there's no right or wrong answer when it comes to sorting coins, but I do it by country in alphabetical order: recently I sorted them all out with a friend, and ended up doing this:


Before that though, I had them sorted by rough geographic location; Europe and Rest of the World were stored apart, and British Empire/Commonwealth was by itself as well. That sometimes led to confusion over where a particular coin was for me though, so I think my new arrangement is better.

For grading, that is also fairly subjective but for most coins (excluding things like ancients and cash) you can generally follow these basic guidelines: https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-grading/grading-scale/

But note that some series/coins, eg those with weak or crude strikes, may conform less to that one size fits all grading guide.

Have fun!