Beginer Software

[Asumel 6]

Hey Guys,

As a few of you will already know ( those who have had the saintly patience to answer my questions) I'm starting to expand my current collection.
To keep a track of it I currently use Microsoft Access and find that it is ok, does anyone have any recommendations on beginner software, or is Access good enough?

Thanks

[Rob 3,152]

That's what I use. It doesn't matter as long as it is searchable. There is a limit to the number of things you want to search, so keep some of the info off the sheet in a separate file dedicated to that coin.

[Nick 329]

Hey Guys,

As a few of you will already know ( those who have had the saintly patience to answer my questions) I'm starting to expand my current collection.

To keep a track of it I currently use Microsoft Access and find that it is ok, does anyone have any recommendations on beginner software, or is Access good enough?

Thanks

I use Access too. It does the job nicely, as long as you don't try and store pictures in the database.

[Coinery 1,156]

I do wish I'd done something similar, I never even titled my images in the beginning, which means I sometimes have to manually trawl thousands of images to find what I'm looking for! Not very intelligent at all!

Edit: what's access?

Edited September 15, 2013 by Coinery

[Peckris 579]

Hey Guys,

As a few of you will already know ( those who have had the saintly patience to answer my questions) I'm starting to expand my current collection.

To keep a track of it I currently use Microsoft Access and find that it is ok, does anyone have any recommendations on beginner software, or is Access good enough?

Thanks

I use the Mac equivalent (FileMaker Pro, also available for Windows), and now I wouldn't use anything other than a database manager for my collection. They are infinitely customisable to your own needs. (I'm sure you CAN store pictures in Access though? But the way I do it is have a separate FMP database for my pictures which I relationally link to the collection database). Stick with Access!

I do wish I'd done something similar, I never even titled my images in the beginning, which means I sometimes have to manually trawl thousands of images to find what I'm looking for! Not very intelligent at all!

Edit: what's access?

Access is a database manager - like Excel but much more customisable.

[Colin G. 147]

You can store shortcuts to images in access and use code to get it to display the image

[Cristatus 3]

I have used Exact Change and have just bought CoinManageUK2013. Both have standard images and you can load you own, and both have report tools. I would rate Exact Change 8/10 but have not used CoinManageUK enough yet to reach a conclusion but I bought it as I thought it looked better.

[Coinery 1,156]

I have used Exact Change and have just bought CoinManageUK2013. Both have standard images and you can load you own, and both have report tools. I would rate Exact Change 8/10 but have not used CoinManageUK enough yet to reach a conclusion but I bought it as I thought it looked better.

Thanks for the info cristatus, would in interested to hear your final thoughts, as I've got to be a little more organised now myself! My own simple folders with 1567, 1568, etc just ain't good enough any more!

[Peter 615]

I have used Exact Change and have just bought CoinManageUK2013. Both have standard images and you can load you own, and both have report tools. I would rate Exact Change 8/10 but have not used CoinManageUK enough yet to reach a conclusion but I bought it as I thought it looked better.

Thanks for the info cristatus, would in interested to hear your final thoughts, as I've got to be a little more organised now myself! My own simple folders with 1567, 1568, etc just ain't good enough any more!

I still operate standard excel spreadsheets.

One up from the well thumbed note books which still abound.

In theory I keep spread sheets printed in my file which I amend manually as I buy/sell/improve ETC

It still works for me.(Windows 95 I started?)

If I do up grade I will run both systems.

[Peckris 579]

I have used Exact Change and have just bought CoinManageUK2013. Both have standard images and you can load you own, and both have report tools. I would rate Exact Change 8/10 but have not used CoinManageUK enough yet to reach a conclusion but I bought it as I thought it looked better.

Thanks for the info cristatus, would in interested to hear your final thoughts, as I've got to be a little more organised now myself! My own simple folders with 1567, 1568, etc just ain't good enough any more!

I still operate standard excel spreadsheets.

One up from the well thumbed note books which still abound.

In theory I keep spread sheets printed in my file which I amend manually as I buy/sell/improve ETC

It still works for me.(Windows 95 I started?)

If I do up grade I will run both systems.

I have to say, the only long-term effective software for collecting is a spreadsheet or a database manager. You can buy these "off the peg" software creations, and maybe they will suit you perfectly ... until they don't. Then what do you do? You have to have something that is expandable for YOUR needs, and only spreadsheets or databases offer this amount of flexibility.

[TomGoodheart 403]

Hmmm... databases make my system sound very basic!

I have two Microsoft Works Spreadsheets, one lists coins in reference number order with prices; so effectively the total on that gives me a figure for what I've spent (and rough value of it all).

The other starts with the sum I had to buy the collection and takes off the purchase amounts in the order in which I bought the coins, so gives me a 'remainder' figure, which is my budget for future purchases.

And then I have a folder with photos of each coin.

Any 'details' such as provenance are part of the name of the photo, can be put into the spreadsheet and of course are on the tickets I write for each coin. I also keep a separate folder with scans of purchase invoices, downloaded auction listings, that sort of thing.

Simple. Like me.

[jaggy 528]

I started off life with an Excel spreadsheet which I still use as a quick reference, for my buy list and for my grading tables.

However, I ended up buying iCollect which I saw on here. It was only $25 and it allows me to store a lot of information about each coin as well as a photo of each coin (obverse and reverse).

It has been quite a long process getting all the data in. Fortunately, I am something of a hoarder so I still had my auction receipts from 1984 onwards. It was also a chance to photograph each coin. When I started collecting, it was the pre-digital photography era. So far I have input 273 coins into the system (546 photos). iCollect is far from perfect. In particular it needs a good print engine as well as more ability to customise fields. But for $25, it is very good value for money.

[Garrett 76]

I have just got back into collecting after a 20 year break.

I only have around 130 coins and have started using Excel.

The first tab has a row for each coin (identifier, year, condition, monarch, notes, vendor, purchase price etc) and the second tab has identifier and photo's (only about 20 photo's so far as I don't have a camera, the photo's are from coin vendors).

Works so-far but will probably get cumbersome and the file will probably get very large with more photo's.

Might try Access down the track. Thanks for the discussion, interesting.

cheers

Garrett.

[declanwmagee 122]

Yes, Excel is the best bet for the data handling, but don't try and embed photos in it. Maybe rename your photos along the lines of the identifier you've already used, or just have a field in your XLS for photo number.

You could always hyperlink if you're feeling a bit more adventurous.

You're quite right though, embedding photos in Excel will kill it, eventually!

[Peckris 579]

I have just got back into collecting after a 20 year break.

I only have around 130 coins and have started using Excel.

The first tab has a row for each coin (identifier, year, condition, monarch, notes, vendor, purchase price etc) and the second tab has identifier and photo's (only about 20 photo's so far as I don't have a camera, the photo's are from coin vendors).

Works so-far but will probably get cumbersome and the file will probably get very large with more photo's.

Might try Access down the track. Thanks for the discussion, interesting.

cheers

Garrett.

Yes, Excel is the best bet for the data handling, but don't try and embed photos in it. Maybe rename your photos along the lines of the identifier you've already used, or just have a field in your XLS for photo number.

You could always hyperlink if you're feeling a bit more adventurous.

You're quite right though, embedding photos in Excel will kill it, eventually!

Access will of course allow you to embed pictures, but with a decent size collection the file size will grow to excessive proportions. The way I do it is to have two "tables" (databases), one containing all the coin details, the other just containing the pictures plus a unique identifier that occurs on both databases and links each coin with its picture(s). Then I have picture fields defined on the non-picture database, and by relational magic FileMaker pulls in the pictures from the other database.

That way the main coins database remains a slim & trim size, fast to open and use, but all the pictures are there when I want to see them, without having to open the other file.

[Accumulator 52]

Below is a link to a post I made about 3 years ago explaining how you can quite effectively embed photos into Excel spreadsheets using the 'comment' feature. It works very neatly and pops up the photos as you hover over a cell rather than having to show all the photos all of the time. I use it for a spreadsheet with several hundred coins and experience no problem.

The thread is here

[declanwmagee 122]

I still use that little trick most days, Steve - eternally grateful for that! I use it for variety identification with ones that just won't stick in my head - like the 1887 halfcrowns. The book descriptions are along the lines of "wavy ermine", which means nothing to me, but a quick glance at the popup photo and identification is instant.

So the 1+A, or whatever, goes in the field contents, and a snapshot goes in the comment.