Best app for coin collectors

[Marshall T]

I used to have all my coins catalogued using the software 'collectorcollector.com' but it appears to be defunct.  What do you suggest is a really good app for cataloguing an ancient coin collection?

[Andrew McCabe]

I used to have all my coins catalogued using the software 'collectorcollector.com' but it appears to be defunct.  What do you suggest is a really good app for cataloguing an ancient coin collection?

Since I first read about coin collection apps, probably 1996 or so, I've witnessed dozens of potential apps or programmes with enthusiastic users, and a few years later they are always all defunct. So the clear answer from two decades of seeing this question is, no app at all. Instead use

- Excel or a spreadsheet equivalent such as from LibreOffice or OpenOffice
- or Access or database equivalent
- either or both in combination with an seriously long term gallery solution for the coin images, such as Flickr which is the largest such site and has been around longest, that allows you to export images via links or BBCode or download to which ever spreadsheet or database you use.

Important thing is to go with the biggest and longest term options. My first coin spreadsheet was made in Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid 1980s and it's basically the same spreadsheet I use today with a few more bells and whistles in Excel.

Don't go with any app or custom programme.

[Joe Sermarini]

Ideally all our members would catalog their collections in our Members' Gallery. It is a very simple database without any bells and whistles but it does allow others to see your coins and use your write up for research. 

[PMah]

I second both Joe and Andrew.  I am prepping dozens of coins for the Forum gallery.  Slowly.

I'll add a comment that many of the coin apps are really just an interface to a database written in one of the platforms Andrew listed.  So you may be able to find an "export" function in the software that will allow you to save the data in a transferrable format.

  I have an older app, but it allows, and I make, my backups in both xls spreadsheet and filemaker database formats.  That way, I should have a rescue copy for a major platform for the day when the interface fails.  Plus, the spreadsheet version is handy as a checklist in various sorting orders.

  Final  thought:  figure out a good method to name your photo files to conform to your spreadsheet data ID numbers.  The first 200 coins in my collection have highly useless photo file names that are taking me many hours to rationalize. 

[suarez]

Spreadsheets are cumbersome and not designed to manipulate visual data. For the original poster a counter-question would be "what do you want the app to do for you?"

Rasiel