How to organize and store your collection?

Reading time 5 min

Every collector has already asked himself the question of how to arrange his collection. This subject, which is not a real problem when starting a collection, can become a real headache when it grows. 

In this article, we will focus on the management of a collection of coins, medals and tokens. Many of the tips can be applied to other collection themes and could give you ideas for storing your fossils, shells or miniature cars...

Where to start? 

Before thinking about storage, it is necessary to go through the steps of inventory and classification of your collection. It is indeed very frustrating to think of a different and more adapted method of classification once you have just finished to line up 300 coins in trays... 

There is no universal answer to this question, it will depend very much on your collection theme and your affinities. You can decide to arrange your coins by period (king, emperor, year), by modules, by metals, by workshops... Several criteria can help you to make your choice:

• Sorting by module will allow you to easily choose a tray with cells of the appropriate diameter
• Sorting by metal will allow you to choose the color of felt that will best showcase your bronze, silver or gold coins
• Sorting by period is interesting but it is complicated to find trays to store coins of different diameters

Your classification may also depend on the "fate" of your object. Do you want to keep it? Exchange it? Sell it ?

The moment you put away your collection is an important moment in a collector's life. It is often at this time that one makes the choice to refocus on a new period, discovers an original hidden in its trays or that comes across a duplicate. 

Points to consider before making your choice:

• Sorting: possibility to easily insert a new object in a series
• Manipulation: maintain the ability to view an object from all angles
• Expenses: adapt the price of the storage units to your budget
• Transportability: do you often move your collection around? 
• Volumetry: do you eventually target several tens or thousands of objects? 
• Inventory: would you like to be able to easily add a comment on an object?

What type of storage to choose? 

As explained above, in this article I will focus on a subject I know well; currencies.

There are many storage media of which I will try to describe the advantages and disadvantages.

Binders

Benefits:

• Easy to transport
• Inexpensive
• Space-saving

Disadvantages:

• Plastic storage sleeves tend to age poorly and can oxidize coins that have been in them for many years
• The visibility of coins in a plastic sheet is complicated, with many reflections sometimes making it impossible to read a coin
• Difficult to insert a new coin in a series if you have to move several pages of coins from binders one by one
• It is not possible to "touch" the currency
• Nor is it possible to look at the side of a coin

As you can see, I don't carry binders in my heart. And for good reason, nothing is worse during a flea market or a purse than having to try to decipher a currency hidden under 2 layers of plastic... The folders may be suitable for storing banknotes, or even modern currencies such as euros, but they will not be at all suitable for old currencies or large modules for me.

Trays

There are many types of trays, so it is difficult to list the advantages and disadvantages, knowing that it is fairly easy to find the right tray for one's purse and collection. 

To start with, I can tell you about Lindner trays which are among the most well-known. Moderate price, choice of colours and cell sizes, practical storage, these trays have many advantages. You can find them at almost all coin, medal, token or capsule collectors' stores.

Another great classic found in all the pros for reasons of ease of transport and handling, the BEBA plates:

Finally, we can cite the medallions of luxurious and artisanal manufacture, such as the AMG Box that you can find on bnumis.com (Besançon Numismatique). These trays will certainly be a little more expensive, but they will allow you to sublimate your coins in the manner of the greatest European and world museums:

Cases

Cardboard cases can be used to protect your coins before inserting them into a binder or tray. This solution can be adapted for modern coins but I advise against it for old coins.

Benefits:

• Inexpensive
• Annotation possible on the cardboard

Disadvantages:

• Visibility problem due to light reflections on the plastic
• Problem inspecting the side
• Difficulty removing the case from a tray or binder pocket
• Once a case has been glued, it is no longer possible to remove the coin without destroying it.

Storage pockets

Benefits :

• Inexpensive
• Possibility to add a label behind the coin

Disadvantages:

• Necessity to use a binder to store the pockets, or an adapted box (difficulty to find a coin in this case)

Coin capsules

Benefits:

• Possibility to easily remove the coin from its capsule
• Fewer visibility problems as the capsule is perfectly flat
• Easier to handle a capsule within a square tray cell

Disadvantages:

• Beware of thick coins for which you may have difficulty finding the right capsule
• Not very suitable for large diameters (écus, sesterces...)

The interest of digitizing your collection

You think you are done tidying up after you have physically filed your collection? I have the misfortune to tell you that you're only halfway through the job! It is indeed very interesting, even indispensable nowadays, to digitize your collection. This will be the subject of a separate article soon, but I would like to make you aware of the interest of digital filing.

Benefits:

• Beware of thick coins for which you may have difficulty finding the right capsule
• Not very suitable for large diameters (écus, sesterces...)
• Always have your collection at hand when you go to the stock exchange or flea market
• Easily share your collection on a forum, a blog or Facebook
• Keep track in case of trouble (burglary, fire, divorce, ...)
• Easily search for one of its objects thanks to a search engine
• Print Pdf catalogues or make Excel extractions
• To be able to sort your collection in a few clicks without having to turn over your trays
• Manage your purchase information (to whom, when, how much, estimate...)

Disadvantages:

• You can expose yourself online, but nothing prevents you from hiding under a pseudonym
• Time needed to photograph and inventory your collection

There are several solutions to meet all or part of these needs, including the site on which you are reading this article, CollecOnline. We could cite other well-known solutions such as Colnect et Numista.

You might be interested in the following articles:

Write a good description of your object

How to photograph your collection?