I have all the data about coins in Excel in tables and pivot charts with pictures of coins and, as a fan of heraldry, with coats of arms. There are also flags, signatures of rulers and their pictures, logos of places of purchase, etc.
Data from pivot tables is analyzed automatically and displayed on about 50 charts. I only need to enter the data into the main table with icons, the rest takes data from it.
In an additional Excel file I have a database of all rulers, portals and places of purchase, mints, shapes and edges.
I mark on the maps the countries where I bought and from whom the coins (I save all purchases in PDF) and the cities of mints.
Please show how you have your collections organized in Excel.
I am looking for inspiration to improve my own catalog.
It looks quite nice, the map is cool but how is your Excel file running? I can't believe very fluid with this amount of pictures 😅.
Before Numista I curated my own excel file (old thread) but even with just all the text the performance was suboptimal so eventually I stopped keeping it up to date and rely on the Numista database and back-up excel files every now and then.
I would love for Numista to have a coat of arms database section (with pictures and key words etc.). It could help pin pointing some of these pesky little medieval European coins.
It looks quite nice, the map is cool but how is your Excel file running? I can't believe very fluid with this amount of pictures 😅.
Before Numista I curated my own excel file (old thread) but even with just all the text the performance was suboptimal so eventually I stopped keeping it up to date and rely on the Numista database and back-up excel files every now and then.
I would love for Numista to have a coat of arms database section (with pictures and key words etc.). It could help pin pointing some of these pesky little medieval European coins.
I currently have 1214 coins entered, there are about 16,000 images in the Excel file. The Excel file is now 126 MB. I am using Excel 2021. The database opens in about 5 seconds, there is no problem with scrolling, sorting, etc. Updating tables and charts takes about 1 second. Images are loaded into Excel using the Excel Image Assistant add-in.
Map files are saved in the .psxprj format of PhotoScape X. This allows you to freely change the position of the descriptions and markings at any time.
Wow, that is an impressive Excel database. I also enjoy keeping my collections in Excel files, but no where near the level that you have. I avoid photos in order to keep the file size to a minimum. I do add hyperlinks to specific web pages. In terms of your request for “inspirations”, I can share with you some of the extra database columns I use with my files:
- Column Name = “Collection”. Includes categories such as: Original, Spare, Sold, To Receive (in transit) and To Send (in transit). I recently also added Need, adding line items in the database of specific items that I want instead of just those I have. I do make sure they are also marked in Numista as part of my wishlist.
- Column Name = “Sub-Country”. As you know, very often especially with tokens and medals, there are sub-headings, provinces, states, etc. associated with the item. I capture those to help sort the database.
- Column Name = “Location” and “Position”. Where exactly is that coin or banknote located within my collection.
And then as you already explained and showed, the pivot tables do the rest. I have other column names with notes and descriptors, but they are not useful for the pivot tables, but rather just for various sorting that I do when needed.
Wow, that is an impressive Excel database. I also enjoy keeping my collections in Excel files, but no where near the level that you have. I avoid photos in order to keep the file size to a minimum. I do add hyperlinks to specific web pages. In terms of your request for “inspirations”, I can share with you some of the extra database columns I use with my files:
- Column Name = “Collection”. Includes categories such as: Original, Spare, Sold, To Receive (in transit) and To Send (in transit). I recently also added Need, adding line items in the database of specific items that I want instead of just those I have. I do make sure they are also marked in Numista as part of my wishlist.
- Column Name = “Sub-Country”. As you know, very often especially with tokens and medals, there are sub-headings, provinces, states, etc. associated with the item. I capture those to help sort the database.
- Column Name = “Location” and “Position”. Where exactly is that coin or banknote located within my collection.
And then as you already explained and showed, the pivot tables do the rest. I have other column names with notes and descriptors, but they are not useful for the pivot tables, but rather just for various sorting that I do when needed.
Thanks for the tips.
I added hyperlinks to the pictures of the coins and the pdf file from the purchase but I decided that it was a waste of time to do this. I rarely clicked on these hyperlinks. All images used in the database are described and are in separate catalogs. I added the ID number of the coin from the database to the name of the pdf files from the purchase.
- Column Name = “Collection” - this database only contains coins that I currently have. The second database will contain those that I used to have and don't have now.
- Column Name = “Sub-Country” - I added the sub-country designations to the country name, you can see this in the graph fragment.
- Column Name = “Location” and “Position” - the coins are in catalogs divided into continents, then countries, all arranged alphabetically. When I arrange everything finally, I will add the “Location” and “Position” columns to the database
In my Excel file I only have the bare minimum, and it contains 44832 different coins as of now, and it occupies 12.5 Mb. I collect by country, denomination, km#, year, mint and variety.
In my Excel file I only have the bare minimum, and it contains 44832 different coins as of now, and it occupies 12.5 Mb. I collect by country, denomination, km#, year, mint and variety.
That's great. I'm just about to start something similar. I definitely plan to steal some of these ideas.
I inherited my coins loose in a box, with no documentation at all. I don't know much about coin collecting at the turn of the 20th century, but surely they enjoyed cataloging their collections, like we do. So, I've been thinking about which form of digital archive is most likely to be usable 50 years form now. With all due respect to the amazing accomplishment of Numista, so far websites seems to come and go.
I think a spreadsheet format will be more likely readable down the road than anything else I can think of, except maybe PDF. I'll probably do a google sheets, and back it up in with downloads in as many formats as I can. html is an option, and that seems like something you could view on a computer long after I'm gone.
In my Excel file I only have the bare minimum, and it contains 44832 different coins as of now, and it occupies 12.5 Mb. I collect by country, denomination, km#, year, mint and variety.
I have all the data about coins in Excel in tables and pivot charts with pictures of coins and, as a fan of heraldry, with coats of arms. There are also flags, signatures of rulers and their pictures, logos of places of purchase, etc.
Data from pivot tables is analyzed automatically and displayed on about 50 charts. I only need to enter the data into the main table with icons, the rest takes data from it.
In an additional Excel file I have a database of all rulers, portals and places of purchase, mints, shapes and edges.
I mark on the maps the countries where I bought and from whom the coins (I save all purchases in PDF) and the cities of mints.
Please show how you have your collections organized in Excel.
I am looking for inspiration to improve my own catalog.
I have all the data about coins in Excel in tables and pivot charts with pictures of coins and, as a fan of heraldry, with coats of arms. There are also flags, signatures of rulers and their pictures, logos of places of purchase, etc.
Data from pivot tables is analyzed automatically and displayed on about 50 charts. I only need to enter the data into the main table with icons, the rest takes data from it.
In an additional Excel file I have a database of all rulers, portals and places of purchase, mints, shapes and edges.
I mark on the maps the countries where I bought and from whom the coins (I save all purchases in PDF) and the cities of mints.
Please show how you have your collections organized in Excel.
I am looking for inspiration to improve my own catalog.
