My Desk

[Andrew McCabe]

Here's a photo of my desk whilst provenancing today. A few things to note

- I use a large rectangular magnifier that I place down on the coin - it covers both reverse and obverse and allows me to continue to work whilst keeping hands free. At this distance from the coin it only doubles its area (whereas if I held it in hand I'd get 5x) but that makes a huge difference to visibility. The hands-free aspect allows me to look back and forward between my coin and the book without distraction.

- the book at right is Babelon, that at left is Cohen. If not obvious from the picture, the Babelon pages are cream whereas Cohen is white and with sharper printing.

- the coloured index tabs are for marking a coin in a book or catalogue. Of course I also note them in my excel database, but the tab confirms that it's a coin I've already discovered and noted

- among other paraphernalia you see a digital caliper, in the black cover is a handheld scanner, there's a dymo label printer at left which I've started using to add Spring catalogue numbers to the spines of my auctions; a propelling pencil for writing on the postit tabs, my business (!) card (i.e. hobby card), and the always-needed spectacle/screen cleaning fluid.

- the coin is a very rare semis of Marcus Herennius, Crawford 308/2. Not a match unfortunately!

[Molinari]

Nice set-up.  I like the business/hobby card idea.  I might have to do that.

[David Atherton]

Recently I changed how I store my coins. I formerly used cardboard 2x2s, now I'm storing them in archival paper envelopes. They still go into coin boxes, but many more coins can fit in each box now.

I like the idea of using paper envelopes for several reasons.

1. They are inexpensive.
2. I can handle my coins much more since they are not 'entombed'.
3. Envelopes are a classic and traditional way to store coins. If you travelled back 100 years ago most collectors, if not using trays, were using paper envelopes.
4. Envelopes are more likely to 'travel' with the coins, thus attributions are preserved. A 2x2 can be opened only once.
5. As mentioned above, they are space savers. Many more envelopes can be stored in a coin box than 2x2s.
6. Aesthetically, envelopes are more pleasing. Cardboard 2x2s always struck me as 'chintzy' looking.

[quadrans]

Hi David,

 Partly I agree with you,

The early time some decads ago I  always used this kind of envelop, and nowadays the great part of my coins staying in this envelope, that time we used handwriting, and all the details was possible to put on the envelop.

Nowadays I change my mind, and use the BEBA trays and the digital collection software to put all details into the computer, that way are most easy to find some thing if a want.....This type of the storage the coin are also safe and do not need to many place, because one tray has 12x12 small 22mmx22mm, place (it is very good for denarius) this way 144 piece of denarius has to be stored on one tray...
One BEBA box has 10 place of trays....this way you has 1440 piece of denarius in one BEBA box, the size are approx 32cmx32cmx10cm 10 box are has 14400 place for denarius....

 Regards

  Q.

[cmcdon0923]

David, et al,

I've been using the paper envelopes for 30+ years.  My main area of collecting is early US Colonial and State Coinages.  The traditional method for storing these types of coins is in a small cotton pouch inserted into one of these 2 x 2 paper envelopes.  When I began collecting ancients, I simply continued this method of housing my coins.  The attached picture shows the early style and the more current version.

Unfortunately, the individual who used to make the pouches by hand passed away a few years ago, so many of us who collect these series switched to envelopes with the cotton lining already on the inside surfaces of the envelope.  They were originally created to store precision optics (e.g., lenses, mirrors, etc.) so they are in no way abrasive to the surface of the coin.

[David Atherton]

Hi David,

 Partly I agree with you,

The early time some decads ago I  always used this kind of envelop, and nowadays the great part of my coins staying in this envelope, that time we used handwriting, and all the details was possible to put on the envelop.

Nowadays I change my mind, and use the BEBA trays and the digital collection software to put all details into the computer, that way are most easy to find some thing if a want.....This type of the storage the coin are also safe and do not need to many place, because one tray has 12x12 small 22mmx22mm, place (it is very good for denarius) this way 144 piece of denarius has to be stored on one tray...
One BEBA box has 10 place of trays....this way you has 1440 piece of denarius in one BEBA box, the size are approx 32cmx32cmx10cm 10 box are has 14400 place for denarius....

 Regards

  Q.

I agree, storing coins in trays is one of the best options. However, my coins reside in a safe deposit box where space has to be optimised. Trays would be impractical.

But, to be honest, even if my coins were stored at home I would still go with envelopes and use a tray only when 'showing off' particular coins to guests.

[David Atherton]

David, et al,

I've been using the paper envelopes for 30+ years.  My main area of collecting is early US Colonial and State Coinages.  The traditional method for storing these types of coins is in a small cotton pouch inserted into one of these 2 x 2 paper envelopes.  When I began collecting ancients, I simply continued this method of housing my coins.  The attached picture shows the early style and the more current version.

Unfortunately, the individual who used to make the pouches by hand passed away a few years ago, so many of us who collect these series switched to envelopes with the cotton lining already on the inside surfaces of the envelope.  They were originally created to store precision optics (e.g., lenses, mirrors, etc.) so they are in no way abrasive to the surface of the coin.

I would think the abrasion would be more of a concern when coins are stored in trays and are slid around every time the tray is moved, and even then a minimal concern. Removing a coin from a paper envelope once in a while would have even less of an impact.

That being said, the cotton pouches are kind of neat.

[Mat]

David, et al,

I've been using the paper envelopes for 30+ years.  My main area of collecting is early US Colonial and State Coinages.  The traditional method for storing these types of coins is in a small cotton pouch inserted into one of these 2 x 2 paper envelopes.  When I began collecting ancients, I simply continued this method of housing my coins.  The attached picture shows the early style and the more current version.

Unfortunately, the individual who used to make the pouches by hand passed away a few years ago, so many of us who collect these series switched to envelopes with the cotton lining already on the inside surfaces of the envelope.  They were originally created to store precision optics (e.g., lenses, mirrors, etc.) so they are in no way abrasive to the surface of the coin.

You can find pouches similar over on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=2x2+pouch&order=price_asc&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US

[quadrans]

Hi David,

 Partly I agree with you,

The early time some decads ago I  always used this kind of envelop, and nowadays the great part of my coins staying in this envelope, that time we used handwriting, and all the details was possible to put on the envelop.

Nowadays I change my mind, and use the BEBA trays and the digital collection software to put all details into the computer, that way are most easy to find some thing if a want.....This type of the storage the coin are also safe and do not need to many place, because one tray has 12x12 small 22mmx22mm, place (it is very good for denarius) this way 144 piece of denarius has to be stored on one tray...
One BEBA box has 10 place of trays....this way you has 1440 piece of denarius in one BEBA box, the size are approx 32cmx32cmx10cm 10 box are has 14400 place for denarius....

 Regards

  Q.

I agree, storing coins in trays is one of the best options. However, my coins reside in a safe deposit box where space has to be optimised. Trays would be impractical.

But, to be honest, even if my coins were stored at home I would still go with envelopes and use a tray only when 'showing off' particular coins to guests.

 
 Q.

[Andrew McCabe]

Time for another desk photo. What I'm doing here is organising my flips and tickets into lighthouse plastic 12-slot leaves; I've set it up so that the layout of the folders matches my tray layout (specifically, four 12-slot leaves for each 40 slot coin tray allowing flexibility to add coins and move stuff around. The two boxes, shown on this thread before, are tea boxes and I use them for preliminary sorting and for storing tickets for coins that I once owned, in some cases in preparation for sales currently in progress. I've been doing the tickets by company / seller - first RBW tickets, then NAC, then I'll do CNG etc - and using the task to cross-check provenance information, not surprisingly finding errors to correct as I go along. It's a pretty relaxing task to do whilst watching Rio Olympics on TV.

[Carausius]

Looks like fun! Recently, I came up with a solution for those unwieldy, massive Baldwin's tickets. I scanned them and printed them smaller and on lighter stock. My reprints fit nicely within a 2x2 flip, which is my old-tag storage method.

[SC]

Thanks for the photo Andrew.  Inspiration for another unfinished project.  I attempt to do something similar using my old binders and flip pages (which are 20-slot [4x5] format).  But of course any changes to tray layout forces you to update the binders.  And I am now a couple of years out of date.  Small adjustments are easy, but when you do big things - like moving some stuff to two wooden 20-tray cabinets I got about a year ago - it means major revisions.  I also still like to keep small hand-written tags in my trays and I am still way behind on those.  I used to have almost everything in trays with 2x2 squares but my wooden cabinets have round slots making half my tags obsolete......

Shawn   

[Andrew McCabe]

I'm pretty close to the finish of my ticket and invoice arrangement project, and I'd like to show the result. I've repurposed an old and frankly not great quality wooden coin cabinet with trays that hold PVC leaves each with 12 2x2 slots to hold the tickets, bound with treasury tags. I've had a really poor record on holding onto tickets so at the end of the project I was in the end surprised that I had tickets or invoices for some 70% of my current coins, and of the remainder quite a few are from printed auctions. It seems that at some point, regrettable, an entire bag containing all my CNG tickets was discarded, but that's not much of a problem as I can print the catalogue listings eventually. Those were mostly denarii; my bronzes are better tagged as the great majority came from the Goodman, Russo, RBW or Bombarda collections, mostly with tickets (another tranche from the Gibboni collection is without tickets) and there are far fewer individual retail purchases over the years which is the area I most lack tickets for. But I know where I am, and the next task will be to make my own printed tickets for every coin. Those printed tickets will focus on recording provenances rather than on the coin description as Crawford numbers - occasionally with comments or symbols - will suffice for that.

So, I've caught up. The picture below shows what the repurposed cabinet with the ticket binders look like, each group of 20 binder sheets holding up to 200 tickets slides out on one of the old cabinet drawers and there's space at the bottom for storing tickets yet to be filed. Happy with the result. Just to be clear, despite appearances, there are no coins here, just tickets. Have a look.

[Molinari]

Looks great, Andrew.  All my tickets I throw in the same draw, but I really should start to organize them.

[Arados]

Congratulations Andrew on the near completion of your tag & invoice project, a worth while undertaking although time consuming. I managed to go through all of my invoices and tags in early spring, totalling around 300.

[cmcdon0923]

I actually like the cabinet best, but then again, I am somewhat partial to them.

Do you know who made the cabinet or when?

Do you have all the trays?

[Andrew McCabe]

I actually like the cabinet best, but then again, I am somewhat partial to them.

Do you know who made the cabinet or when?

Do you have all the trays?

The cabinet is not good quality. The trays fit badly, varying between jamming and being barely wide enough to fit the runners. The recesses are not deep enough for ancient thick coins and when I used it I damaged some coins, scratched by the tray above. Despite being mahogany, the wood wasn't well seasoned and the trays tend to warp. This is a cabinet to avoid. Though it's modern -1990s - I'm not going to attempt to recall the makers name. Yes I have all the trays and a few spare, I needed to buy spares due to warped and cracked trays.

Given most people keep their coins in a vault nowadays, there's a surfeit of Victorian era well made wooden cabinets available at auctions or dealer premises, with much thicker trays suited to ancients and sometimes with finger holes below to aid removal of coins, and well fitted and smoothly running. Go for an oldie. Or abafil trays which I use.

[cmcdon0923]

I build coin cabinets, but I too absolutely love the "oldies".  

I maintain a file of downloaded images for examples I see online...running the gamut of cabinets owned by Kings, to those made for collectors of a more humble background.  And yes, the majority of the ones I see for sale on ebay or auction houses are usually in the UK.

Some of them are mainly utilitarian, but on others the workmanship is absolutely superb.

One of the oddest I've ever seen is this one, in the shape of a vase.  I believe it's at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

[Andrew McCabe]

Time for another desk photo, taken just now. This is what it looks like when I'm at work at the books and articles side of my numismatic interests (rather than the coin collecting end). Dangerously piled up books on every side. Pistachio nuts too.

[quadrans]

My desk is busy at work today.....

 Q.

[cmcdon0923]

What size is that monitor ?!?!?!?

[quadrans]

  43" 4K,   

 Q.

[cmcdon0923]

I am so jealous !!!

I just upgraded to a 27" monitor and thought that was great, but I bow to you, sir.

[quadrans]

Thanx 

Very useful...

 Q.

[Molinari]

Wow, really impressive!