Inventory Your Collection

As I write this, we’re in the midst of a local winter storm, the yard covered with snow and the streets icy. If you live in the northern part of the country

As I write this, we’re in the midst of a local winter storm, the yard covered with snow and the streets icy. If you live in the northern part of the country, you may be thinking that what I’m experiencing is nothing new. But if you live in Mississippi, it is something new.

I found a lengthy thread on CoinTalk (CT) titled “Starting Some Serious Inventory” that addresses what one collector is doing with his winter downtime. He wrote, “I decided to start some inventory today. Too cold to play golf or fix fences.”

In response to the original poster (OP), another collector wrote, “Forget the inventory; I just need to downsize some of my collection.”

OP wrote, “Me too, and this is a start. I am giving my stuff to my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids as birthday and Christmas gifts.”

“Good idea,” wrote another respondent. “Where did you get the checklist form?” At this point, the OP hadn’t mentioned a checklist or checklists, but he had a good answer to the question. “Collector Checklists from Liberty Coin. They have checklists for almost every coin. Free to print.”

I went to Liberty Coin Service online and printed out a couple of the checklists that I would find useful in upgrading a couple of my collections. To give you an example of the checklists, here’s what I found on the list for Standing Liberty Quarters. The collection has three types, which are not always listed in this fashion. Type I is described as Bare Breast, Type II as Chain Mail Added, Raised Date, and Type III as Recessed Date. For each date, you can record the Grade, Purchase Date, and Price of the coins in your collection. These checklists would be very useful for someone inventorying a collection.

Another collector mentioned that he has “. . . a growing collection of unopened shipping packages, full of coins, that still need to be inventoried.”

At this point, my response is, how does he even know what’s in the packages? I can’t imagine not opening packages containing orders placed online. How could you be sure that what’s in the package is what you ordered and that the seller didn’t rip you off?

Another respondent commented to the collector with the unopened boxes, “You also have a massive amount of self-control . . . or else you’re nuts. I’m going with self-control.”

“No doubt,” Unopened Boxes wrote. “I simply throw them in the safe and forget about them. I do admit I am getting more leery of buying anything with a box anymore, since it’s much bulkier to store. I actually turned down an offer of some decent [ancient coins] because they were slabbed and in a display box. Nice set, but far too bulky for me to . . . deal with, but I would feel guilty throwing [the display box] away.”

A new respondent offered some words of wisdom: “I made that decision [to inventory] some time ago. It is painful to get it all done but so rewarding when you do. You will probably change how you do it several times before you finish. Just speaking from experience.”

A new respondent admitted that inventorying his collection was still on his list of things to do. “Today, I started cleaning up my office so I can start inventorying, also. Got quite a bit of junk to get rid of [Who doesn’t?] before I can have enough space to actually work [with my collection].”

Another respondent wrote, “I use software to keep track of everything, but I let myself get several years behind. Big mistake. It took several months for me to catch up. I won’t let that happen again.”

Another collector wrote, “Inventory?? Oh [heck] no. My inventory list consists of my registered/slabbed coins and albums. Coin by coin inventory would take me years to even attempt.” I can identify with this comment, as I have a lot of coins (junk silver, for example) that are not worth inventorying coin by coin.

Next, there was a collector who uses Excel for his inventory. “Took me about six months to log it all. I don’t know yet if I will start adding pictures. . .. I pretty much did this so there will be a time that my son would know what he inherited. Or I can sell it all myself and buy a nice dinner.”

OP wrote, “I will not do an inventory of ALL my coins. I do plan on my sets and commemoratives. The ASE is finished.”

Another respondent keeps up with new coins, but not everything. “I won’t ever inventory all of mine either. Some of the coins I inherited 50+ years ago just aren’t worth the effort. . .. I buy so few new