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Author Topic: Making your own tags and naming your collection  (Read 4142 times)

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Offline Jay GT4

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Making your own tags and naming your collection
« on: February 21, 2019, 05:51:28 pm »
Like @orfew I'm planning on thinning out my collection over the next year or so.  I have many original flips and tags from over the years and have tried to maintain the provenance when available.  I've even tracked some of them down online and in catalogs, updating the info.  Most of them still have the dealer tags but some are just hand written in doctors handwriting, very messy.  While organizing everything I decided to create my own tags.  I'm still keeping the old tags tucked inside the new ones but it cleans everything up and puts my own "stamp" on the coins history

While I'm at it I decided to name my collection.  I always enjoy reading the interesting names that people call their collections.

"From the collection of a distinguished gentleman" or "From a world traveler"... It gives the collection an air of mystery.

I decided to name my collection after the river and valley in Italy where I'm from.  The Savuto river runs between the provinces of Cosenza and Catanzaro.  It empties out into the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia and is near the ancient city of Terina of Bruttium.   At the bottom of the mountain there is one of the oldest freestanding Roman bridges that crosses the river.  It's that image I chose for the back of the tag. 

Anyone else make their own tags or name their collection?  Lets see it!


Offline PMah

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2019, 06:34:54 pm »
Great idea!  Nice looking tags with a meaningful theme.   My own birthplace would require use of evocative images of shopping centers. 
I have explored the task but not taken it on.  I am inconsistent as to what detail I prefer on the tags. You have a nice balance on these images. 
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Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2019, 07:26:38 pm »
Thanks PMah, the bridge is a source of pride for the towns around the river.  I spend hours at the bridge when I'm there, usually all by myself.

It's tough getting all that info on the tags.  I tried different ways, but I think I'm going to settle on legends and descriptions on the front along with date and weight in the bottom corners, references and provenance on the back.  I kept having to change font size to get it all in.

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Offline JBF

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2019, 08:19:37 pm »
Are you leaving out the metal, and the denomination?

I don't know how reference books do it for Roman.

I do know what you mean about having to play around with the font size.  Is there any particular font that you like, how did you figure out what font to use?

I have made up tags for my collection in the past, but have not kept up with it.  If I named my collection, I would probably call it 'the philosopher's collection,' both because I have a background in philosophy, but also because philosophy has informed my collection choices.

What about referring to the Republic, Imperatorial, Imperial or is that too obvious?

Offline Carausius

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2019, 08:34:28 pm »
Nice collection name, Jay.  Terrific that the name has personal meaning. I also like the tag design.  My only criticism is your provenance information.  If you have the dealer tag included in every case, it's probably fine to just say "Ex ANE" or "Ex Forum".  However, after getting push-back from a well known auction house on retail provenances, I now make a point of including the dealer's inventory number and date of purchase for all retail provenances.  When you think about it, this is the retail equivalent of including an auction number and lot number for an auction provenance.  Thus, I would say "Forum Ancient Coins inv. #1234, acq. 25 Dec 2018" or similar.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2019, 08:46:25 pm »
Are you leaving out the metal, and the denomination?

 Is there any particular font that you like, how did you figure out what font to use?

If I named my collection, I would probably call it 'the philosopher's collection,' both because I have a background in philosophy, but also because philosophy has informed my collection choices.

What about referring to the Republic, Imperatorial, Imperial or is that too obvious?

Great choice for a name JBF, you should do it!

I left out metal and denomination because I figured the majority of collectors would know.  Same thing for making reference to Republic or Imperial...Plus it clutters up the tag.

As far as the font goes it was just trial and error.  I went with a simple clean font for clarity.

Quote from: Carausius on February 21, 2019, 08:34:28 pm
Nice collection name, Jay.  Terrific that the name has personal meaning. I also like the tag design.  My only criticism is your provenance information.  If you have the dealer tag included in every case, it's probably fine to just say "Ex ANE" or "Ex Forum".  However, after getting push-back from a well known auction house on retail provenances, I now make a point of including the dealer's inventory number and date of purchase for all retail provenances.  When you think about it, this is the retail equivalent of including an auction number and lot number for an auction provenance.  Thus, I would say "Forum Ancient Coins inv. #1234, acq. 25 Dec 2018" or similar.

Good point Carausius.  I didn't think about that.  For the ones I buy online like Forum, Vcoins or auctions I have all my receipts and most have good tags that I've kept.  The difficulty is coins purchased at shows or on ebay.  For those, sometimes it only comes in a plastic flip or sometimes just an envelope.  I'll have to think about how to record and document that.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I've only done a hand full so now's the time to address these issues.

Offline PMah

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2019, 09:40:14 pm »
I recognize Michael's concern, yet I would keep personalized tags... personal.  More and more auction tags come with bar codes, etc, that will track back to the auction anyway.  (What some of them are doing to earn their commissions is pretty mystifying to me, esp online.  They are supposed to be verying the provenance for the buyer's sake, regardless of the seller's representations.)

So I am more withJay's method of having a tag that's evocative for the collector and tucking all the old tags behind or separately.

One exception is that I simply add my tags to Forum's flips and tags, because Forum packs a lot of info on tags and uses good flips.

 If I get a  modern tag or envelope that won't fit in the coin's flip, I neatly pencil my collection number on the item, and then store the item in numerical order in a separate box.  I note the existence of the material in my database.  If the provenance material is/was so special that a new mark would be a flaw, then I put it in a fresh flip with a matching number.

I wonder what proportion of time we spend dealing with packaging instead of looking at the coins!?!
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Offline Aleph

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2019, 09:40:42 pm »
Nice tags, jay.  I’ve toyed a few styles over the years but am still experimenting.  For old dealer tags, envelopes and the like, where do you keep them when they don’t fit in in flip (at least without lots of folding nd cramming)?  This has tripped me up as I hate to discard anything that came with a coin even if it’s low value like an scrawly collector envelop from an unknown collection.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2019, 10:21:42 pm »
Yes Forum has great tags.  I haven't even bothered making one when I have Forum's.

I keep all my flips and tags in storage boxes in a general order...all Vespasian together, all Titus together, all Antony together.  But I do wish it was in a sequential order. 

I find I spend more time looking at my coins online than i do in hand  :'(

Offline *Alex

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2019, 06:25:04 am »


I find I spend more time looking at my coins online than i do in hand  :'(

Me too.  ;D

Alex.

Offline Kamnaskires

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2019, 09:30:18 am »
I find I spend more time looking at my coins online than i do in hand  :'(

I'm guilty of this too. I am reminded of a funny story told by Kerry Wetterstrom in The Celator (June 2010 edition, Editor's Note). The story he tells is from the pre-Internet days, but it's of the same gist:

http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-24-no-6/


Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #11 on: February 22, 2019, 09:40:51 am »
Cardboard collection :D

Offline cmcdon0923

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #12 on: February 22, 2019, 11:07:43 am »
Man, do I miss that magazine !!!!

Offline PMah

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #13 on: February 22, 2019, 06:11:07 pm »
Quote from: Robert L3 on February 22, 2019, 09:30:18 am
I find I spend more time looking at my coins online than i do in hand  :'(

I'm guilty of this too. I am reminded of a funny story told by Kerry Wetterstrom in The Celator (June 2010 edition, Editor's Note). The story he tells is from the pre-Internet days, but it's of the same gist:

http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-24-no-6/



That's  an uncomfortably weird story in 2019 at a number of levels.
    I know an advanced collector who helpfully brings enlarged photos along with his fantastic (and often quite valuable) coins!  So you get the overall impact of the coin in hand and don't need to squint. 
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Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2019, 09:33:23 pm »
Anyone else make their own tags?

Hi Jay and folks,

As many Forum members know, I've been creating my own home-made (hand-written) tags since day one. I began doing this when I first started collecting ancient coins way back in 1998. I basically did it out of necessity. At that time, I didn't have a computer, a printer, or internet access. Also, many of the dealers that I was doing business with at that time put their coins in paper packets. On the outside of those paper packets, they often scribbled (in a very sloppy hand-written manner) very brief and incomplete information about the coin. One of those "dealers" was Mr. Lindgren. The way I saw it, I really had no choice but to create my own hand-written tags, with more complete information, of course.

By the way, that is the reason why I don't have any tags for my Lindgren collection coins - because there were none to begin with. I threw out all of his paper packets years ago because they were literally falling apart and bursting at the seams from age.

Whenever possible, I kept original dealer tags.

Meepzorp

Offline TIF

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #15 on: February 23, 2019, 03:00:28 pm »
Looks nice, Jay! 

I've been through several labeling and storage iterations in my short time in the hobby. 

Somewhat early on I made a website because I wanted full aesthetic and organizational control over the display (and now I'm two and a half years behind in updating it  :-[).  The website needed a name.  My first coin forum user name was ThisIsFun, because this is fun :).  Soon after, as a matter of convenience people started calling me TIF (no, my name isn't Tiffany).   TIFcollection seemed a natural name for the website.

For efficiency of space I keep my coins in flips which are in coin boxes.  At first I scrawled what I could on handmade plain white inserts.  Not very attractive.  Also, it is very difficult to insert and remove thin or thinnish paper from Saflips.  I've since bought slightly sturdier PVC-free flips but it is still difficult to get those little bits of auction epheral, such as prior inserts and other provenance memorabilia, into and out of the flips.

The paper needed to be stiffer.  I thought business cards might work.  They do-- but of course they have to be trimmed a bit and folded in half.  I wasn't able to find a printer who would cut and score them to size for a reasonable price so I do that part by hand.  As for a collection name and logo, it made sense to just use my website name and graphics.

This has worked out quite well other than the tediousness of cutting and folding the business cards.  I can tuck prior inserts and auction ephemera inside the folded card where it is nicely protected and easier to remove.

At first I hand-wrote the attributions but that is a hassle and my handwriting is poor, plus I can type so much faster.  Eventually I started printing the attributions onto 1.5 x 1.5" Avery labels and those are placed on the back of the folded business card.  Some color coding of the attribution is also helpful-- notable pedigree info is in red, plate coin info in blue, and unlisted ("not in XXX, not in YYY") in green.  Typed labels allows me to cram a ton of info into that small space while still keeping it legible.

I have a considerable number of coins from Roman Egypt and those are very amenable to filing by Emmett number, which I write on a tiny sticker affixed to the top right front of the flip, making the addition of new coins and finding old coins very quick.

The Whitman boxes are fantastic.  They have two permanent dividers inside so you don't have to stuff crumpled up paper behind the last flip if the box isn't full.  Plus, they won't wear out like paper boxes... and i'm in and out of my coin boxes frequently.


Offline cmcdon0923

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #16 on: February 23, 2019, 03:43:04 pm »
Impressive, all around !!!!

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2019, 08:35:53 am »
Meep I always enjoy looking at not only your coins but the tags as well!

TIF I thought that was your name! :)

I think I may have to change my way of storage and go back to keeping them in flips and boxes the way TIF does.   I like being able to find coins quickly and that's not possible in trays separate from the tags.  The dilemma is I like them on trays...

Offline TIF

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #18 on: February 24, 2019, 08:47:10 am »
I have the same dilemma, Jay.  I'd love to keep the coins in trays for the greater ease of viewing but I also want the inserts with the coins... but not underneath them.

I do have an idea for overcoming this obstacle.  One of these days I'll make one... then when it takes off I'll quit my day job and make coin trays and enjoy my fabulous new-found wealth.  Well, one can dream :D.

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #19 on: February 24, 2019, 08:58:28 am »

I write the coordinates of my tray hole to the tag of each coin on any tray.

Pekka K

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #20 on: February 24, 2019, 09:22:55 am »
Yes, Pekka me too,

I used some "BEBA" box maxi with 10 trays (10x10 or 12x12 place)...
https://www.safe-nederland.nl/beba-maxi-box-c-506_4391_539_1048/?zenid=7q80e17sok9b57421nbsf15jb5

and the coordinates:

like 3rd. box(Antoninians) 7th tray (Probus, Lugdunum) d7.(the rows: a,b,c,d.., columns: 1,2,3,4..), d7 means 4th row and the 7th clumn that is the RIC V-II 18, Lugdunum 2nd examles...:) of course it is recorded the Excell table too...

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Offline TIF

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #21 on: February 24, 2019, 09:24:02 am »
Writing coordinates is one solution... but doesn't it make rearranging the coins a pain in the rear?

Offline Stkp

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #22 on: February 24, 2019, 10:08:15 am »
Writing coordinates is one solution... but doesn't it make rearranging the coins a pain in the rear?

I put HOURS into preparing written documents with the coordinates of my medieval Hungarian coins, which are kept in trays. As I added new coins, I had to revise the coordinates. The system proved to be too tedious to maintain. I considered placing a tag under each coin, but given the small size of the compartments in the trays (many are 80 coin compartments per tray) abandoned that idea. Now, I use my personal gallery as an ordering system, and simply locate whatever coin I want to find by reference to the order of the coins, based on their Huszar numbers. I have some other series in trays as well, and also use my personal gallery as the ordering/reference system.

For my coins that are in flips, I am very behind in creating labels, as I have yet to find a good system that permits me to type labels that match the actual size of the card stock.

Stkp

Offline shanxi

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #23 on: February 24, 2019, 10:52:16 am »
I'm a little overorganized. In my collection of about 2500 coins, each coin has a number. For each coin I have a plastic sleeve containing a written document with all the data, invoices, screenshots of auctions etc.. Additionally I have all this in digital form.

I keep my coins in trays with tags below. Big coins in big compartments have tags including all important informations, but small coins in small compartments only tags with basic information, but all tags include the coin number.


This system is a lot of work, and sometimes I curse it, but there is no way back.

Offline TIF

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Re: Making your own tags and naming your collection
« Reply #24 on: February 24, 2019, 11:02:55 am »
For each coin I have a plastic sleeve containing a written document with all the data, invoices, screenshots of auctions etc.. Additionally I have all this in digital form.

I like the idea of one plastic sleeve (full page size for a binder) per coin.  These days, hanging on to invoices and export permits seems important.

 

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