Not everyone will have the determined passion or patience to start, much less maintain, a gold coin collection. Among those who do, once they start their collection, they’d have a lifetime journey of gathering, collecting, and amassing gold coins slowly built over the years. At some point, though, they’re going to have so many coins in their physical custody. They’re going to realize one way or the other that they have to organize their gold coin collection and come up with a systematic and organized inventory.
There are different types of gold coins. There’s the American gold eagle, British gold coins, Chinese panda, Australian kangaroo and koala, and others. In the U.S, the gold IRA doesn’t accept krugerrand gold coin value.
If you’re one of those patient individuals who has a gold coin collection or you’re just thinking of starting your own, it’d be useful for you to know more about making an inventory. Here are a few tips on how to create your gold coin inventory:
1. Sort Your Coins By Type
One of the first things you have to do in creating a systematic gold coin inventory is to sort the coins in your collection according to their type. This will make the other tasks easier later on such as making the catalogs for each coin.
You can start, for instance, by sorting the gold coins into one group and then the silver ones in another. You can then group them further into a collection based on their series or based on the year they came out. Other ways of grouping them would be as uncirculated, and another for commemorative, one group for foreign coins, and another for Morgan Dollars, and so on.
2. Know Your Purpose For Having An Inventory
Having a gold coin collection is one of the ways to diversify your portfolio. With a gold coin collection, you can save and invest part of your wealth in something with intrinsic value and which you can have in your custody at the same time.
There are many reasons why you should start an inventory of your gold coin collection. But here are some of the reasons why you should think about doing it early on while you don’t have a lot on your collection yet:
- An inventory will help you know the types of coins you already have
- It’ll help you map out which coins you need to complete your collection
- An inventory helps you assess your collection’s value quickly and easily
- An inventory gives you a glance at what you have in your collection
- To get coin insurance, an inventory is a useful form of documentation
3. Make A Detailed Catalog
After you’ve sorted the coins into groups based on categories you’ve predetermined or selected, you can now write and create catalogs for each coin. You can put as little or as much detail as you want about a coin in its catalog, but try to have about the same depth and detail for all coins. You don’t have to know basic bookkeeping and accounting to do it, but it’d help you in many other ways if you do.
You can write your catalog on paper such as in a notebook or folio. You can also use an electronic spreadsheet application to create a database. Another way of doing it would be to use a specialty software.
Examine and inspect each coin as thoroughly as you can, taking note of all the important information and details. Among the basic information you should note is the coin’s country of origin, the year it came out, and the series it belongs to, if any. You should also write down the denomination, the mint mark, and the quality. Based on the information you’re able to gather, you may then organize the catalogs in such a way that you can quickly and easily find the information that you need.
4. Organize Your Inventory Criteria
You can choose as many criteria as you can think of in organizing your gold coin inventory. You can have only the basic attributes and criteria, or you can have as many details and attributes specified and documented. Coin experts have come up with some of the criteria, which you can use to organize your gold coin collection:
- Country of origin or minting
- The year when the coin was minted and issued
- Mintmark of the gold coin
- Denomination or type of the gold coin
- Series to which the coin belongs
- Variety of which the gold coin is part
- Grade of the gold used for minting
- Quantity of the specific gold coin
- Amount or price for which the gold coin was sold
- Any updates on the value of the gold coin
- Additional notes/comments on the gold coin
- Date when you purchased the gold coins
- Person or company from whom you bought the gold coin
5. Think About Using Protective Cover
Another tip you might want to consider in creating your gold coin inventory is to make sure your coins are covered and protected. There are people who just put all the coins they have into large glass jars. Some just put them into plastic bags or container boxes. This would be a very disorganized way of doing it. Putting them in glass jars won’t give you a systematic way of locating, identifying, and retrieving a specific coin at any given time you’d need it.
When you’ve already sorted the coins and written their catalogs, the next thing you should decide on is how to store them and protect them from possible scratches, damage, and abrasions. These potential damages can diminish or devalue your gold bullion coins.
As much as possible, don’t use PVC or plastic holders. They tend to get damaged over time, and the damaged residue might stick to the coins and be difficult to remove. There are specialty shops that sell suitable containers or holders to properly preserve the coins.
What’s In Store
Whether you’re just starting or you’ve already amassed a fortune’s worth of gold coins in your collection, it’d be a great idea to create your gold coin inventory. Having your systematic and detailed gold coin inventory can help you get a quick glance into how much value your collection has in store. At the same time, it gives you access to specific and detailed information about the gold you have in your hands. This article discussed some tips on how to create your inventory.
