1. Selecting the My Coin collection program, I have tried a lot of the Coin collecting programs. None of the programs for Coin collecting did what I wanted them to do. So, I decided to make my own Coin collecting program. I started out with just a blank Excel Workbook, listing all the coins I had. I soon found that the listing did not account for the individual Coins, it just listed like an example (4 or 5, 1976 (P), (D) or (S) Quarters) and so on. I wanted to have an entry for each individual Coin within the collection, this way I could have detailed information on each and every Coin within the collection. So enough of why I built this, and onto the Bread and Butter of the program.
Overview of My Excel Coin Collection Program
2. I started out with just two Excel Tabs. 1st Tab (COIN DATA) listed the Coin information that I wanted to have: Unique Coin ID, Coin Number, Coin Abbreviation, Coin Value, Coin Name, Coin Year, Coin Mint Mark, Coins Minted, Coin Details, Coin Identification and Years, Coin Metal Composition, Coin Diameter, Coin Mass Weight, Coin Designer / Engraver, Coin Edge Type. This is the basic information that I wanted for my Coin collecting program. You may want to add or subtract a field, that is up to you, I will show you how to do this. the (COIN DATA) Tab is the master Coin information Database, that Excel will pull the information from, and save it to the (My Coin Collection) Tab, inserting a new record for your newly added Coin.
Overview of Coin Data Tab
3. The (My Coin Collection) Tab is the 2nd Tab. This will list each and every Coin within your collection with a individual Coin number assigned to the coin. This is where the Unique Coin ID, field comes into play. Without having a unique number assigned to each Coin you, well? Just have like the above example (4 or 5, 1976 (P), (D) or (S) Quarters) and so on. So I have built a indexing system for the U.S. based Coins. I took the first letter from each Coin name, along with the Coin Minted year and the Mint location. In order to have a unique Coin ID.
Overview of Coin Collection Tab
3.a The first listing of Unique Coin ID field is: LCHC1793P. The LCHC stands for: Liberty Cap Half Cents. The 1793 stands for Mint Year: 1793. The P stands for Mint Location: P for Philadelphia, PA. Well in 1794 they changed the Coin diameter from: Diameter: 22 mm for 1793 to a Coin diameter of: Diameter: 23.5 mm for 1794. So to account for the Coin changes during a Coin series, I had to add a number 1 to the Unique Coin ID. The second listing is: LCHC11794P. The LCHC stands for: Liberty Cap Half Cents. The 1 stands for: Coin changes. The 1793 stands for Mint Year: 1793. The P stands for Mint Location: P for Philadelphia, PA. So this is the basic information you will need to know about Unique Coin ID.
Overview of Adding a Coin to the Collection
3.b The second problem I encountered with the Unique Coin ID, was the same first letter problem. LOL. For example Mercury Dime and Morgan Dollar. Both would be (MD). So to overcome this I went from smallest to largest Coin value. The Mercury Dime is MD and the Morgan Dollar is MD1. Thank you U.S. Mint for no design changes.
3.c Everything was going great until 1999. When the U.S. Mint minted 5 different State Quarters. LOL That was not the worst case, then they minted (P), (D), (S) PROOF and (S) SILVER PROOF and Reverse PROOFS. WOW, LOL. I decided to combat this problem by adding numbers to the end of the Unique Coin ID. So for the 1999 State Quarters they will look like this: STQ1999P, STQ1999D, STQ1999S, STQ1999S1, STQ1999P1, STQ1999D1, STQ1999S2, STQ1999S3, STQ1999P2, STQ1999D2, STQ1999S4, STQ1999S5, STQ1999P3, STQ1999D3, STQ1999S6, STQ1999S7, STQ1999P4, STQ1999D4, STQ1999S8, STQ1999S9. The Delaware Quarters are as follows: STQ1999P, for (P), STQ1999D, for (D), STQ1999S, for (S) PROOF, STQ1999S1, for (S) SILVER PROOF. Oh yes the STQ stands for (50 States and Territories Quarters) You do not have to worry about this too much. Until you have to add some quarters, but I will help you with this also.
4. The way we load a Coin general information to save into our collection is done by using Visual Basic or VB. I have created a form to load and save the Coin information along with picking Coin pictures and saving them also within the Coin record, and you can add remarks and Coin details to the records also. The VB form I created has a dropdown list box with the caption of Criterion: The VB form I created will allow you to view the Coins by all the Fields listed on the (COIN DATA) Tab. I only use the by (YEAR) selection. I HIGHLEY recommend you do the same. So to save a Coin into the collection you would open the VB form select (YEAR) from the dropdown list. In the Search box just type the Coin YEAR. Example 1970. The first list box with (Coin Information:) will list every Coin from the (COIN DATA) Tab that was minted in 1970. The second list box with (Coins In Collection:) will list every Coin from the (My Coin Collection) Tab that was minted in 1970. Now to list the Coin data, lets say we are adding a 1970 Kennedy Half Dollar say Mint Mark S. Scroll down in the first list box (Coin Information:) until you find the Coin, you want to add. Look to the first column on the Left, it should be KHD11970S for the 1970 Kennedy Half Dollar say Mint Mark S. In the box listed (Unique Coin ID:) enter the KHD11970S and hit enter it will populate the form with the data from the (COIN DATA) Tab. The Coin information is listed. You can add the Coin Details: and Remarks: if needed, like Coin Obverse Worn or Damaged. Under Coin Head Pic, click Load Coin Pic and select the picture for the Coin Face or Heads. Then you can click Load Coin Pic under the Coin Tail Pic, and pick the Reverse or Tails picture. To save this record entry click in the box next to (Save As) button and give your coin a Unique Coin ID. What I do is just add a -1 for the first coin or a -2 for the second and so on. So to save the 1970 Kennedy Half Dollar say Mint Mark S. I would put in the (Save As) Box KHD11970S-1 and click the (Save As) button.
5. Word of advise here, if I may. When dealing with pictures I name the Pictures the same as the Coin name. For example the 1970 Kennedy Half Dollar say Mint Mark S. The picture of the Obverse would be named as KHD11970S-1O and the Reverse would be named KHD11970S-1R. The Capital O not a zero, and the Capital R is at the end of the Unique Coin ID. You do not want just a folder called Images, like I have close to 10,000 Coins in my collection that would be 20 Thousand pictures, inside one folder. Not a good idea. I have a folder named Coins on my C:\ Drive. in this folder I have the MY COIN COLLECTION Excel Workbook. There is also a folder called Images. Inside the Images folder I have a folder for every Coin Type I collect, which is all US Coins. So my image folder has sub folders called 0.Proofset, inside it I have a Clad and a Silver folders, 1.Half Cent, inside it I have Liberty Cap, Draped Bust, Classic Head and Braided Hair folders 2.Large Cent, inside it I have Flowing Hair, Liberty Cap, Draped Bust, Classic Head, Coronet Liberty Head and Braided Hair Liberty folders 3.Cent, inside it I have a Flying Eagle, Indian Head, Lincoln Wheat Ears, Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln Bicentennial and Lincoln Shield folders 4.Two Three Cent, inside it I have Two Cent, Silver Three Cent and Nickel Three Cent folders 5.Nickel, inside it I have Shield, Liberty Head, Indian Head or Buffalo, Jefferson, Westward Journey, Jefferson Modified folders 6.Half Dime, inside it I have Flowing Head, Draped Bust, Capped Bust and Liberty Seated folders 7.Dime, inside it I have Draped Bust, Capped Bust, Liberty Seated, Barber or Liberty Head, Winged Liberty Head, Roosevelt folders 8.Twenty Cent, inside it I have Liberty Seated folder 9.Quarter, inside it I have Draped Bust, Capped Bust, Liberty Seated, Barber or Liberty Head, Standing Liberty, Washington, State Quarters, District of Columbia & U.S. Territories, America the Beautiful, Crossing the Delaware and American Women folders 10.Half Dollar, inside it I have Flowing Hair, Draped Bust, Capped Bust, Liberty Seated, Barber or Liberty Head, Liberty Walking, Franklin and Kennedy folders 11.Dollar inside it I have Flowering Head, Draped Bust, Gobrecht, Liberty Seated, Trade, Morgan, Peace, Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, Presidential, Native American, American Innovation and American Silver Eagle folders. Then each folder has just a folder called NEW. I place all new pictures into the new folder and there I resize and rename them. according to the list I have written down on paper, because I only add like 25 to 100 Coins at one time. Like I said I resize them and rename them with the Capital O for Obverse and R for Reverse. Then I place them into the correct coin folders. I then copy and past the resized and renamed pictures to the proper Coin folders, ensuring to place them in the NEW folder under the Coin Value folder. Makes it easy to locate the right pictures faster than placing them into the folder with all the other Coin pictures. The last thing I do is go into the (MY COIN COLLECTION) Tab and select the Coin Images Columns and click find and replace enter New/ under the find and leave replace with blank, and remove the New/ from the Image path. Then cut past the Images from the New folder to the folder with the rest of the Coin Type image folder.