Adding new coins

Not sure this is very useful, we provided a really nice YouTube video tutorial that shows the same steps. No doubt, some folks prefer reading than watching.

The steps I personally use when adding a new coin. This is typical, definitely add steps with more coins than not. Most of my collection (100-150 coins) was entered long ago, to be honest, I added the coins as I built the software over three (3) years ago.

My new coin steps

1. From the Coins view
2. Click + (top of view)
3. Touch ‘Type’, select a type…
4. Touch ‘Issue’, select issue, touch ‘Save’.
5. Touch ‘Grade’, select grade, touch ‘Save’.
6. Touch ‘Acquired’, select grade, touch ‘Save’.
7. Touch ‘Code’, enter it, touch
8. Touch ‘Acquired’, select grade, touch ‘Save’.
9. Touch ‘Photo’
10. Touch ‘New’, snap a photo, touch ‘Use Photo’
11. Scroll so a new empty photo view is shown.
12. Touch ‘Existing’, select a photo
13. Touch ’Save’
14. Coins view is displayed
15. New coin is show at very top


I am always interested to hear what you, my customers would like me investing development.

john kountz
cheif software architect
saintssoft.com

Privacy Policy

SaintsSoft LLC does not store any of your data on our equipment.

We respect your privacy.

If you use the Cloud backup service, you might want to read Dropbox's privacy policy as they host the Cloud storage.

Using Sets to quickly add hundreds of coins

There is a very fast way to enter an entire coin series, it's buried (for now) in Sets.

I've produced a YouTube tutorial showing how to do this (link)

It allows you to create every coin in a series (like Morgans) with a couple of keystrokes. If you don't have all of the coins, you can delete the coins you don't have.

1. Select Set's tab (Bottom, 2nd from left labeled Sets)
2. Select +
3. Select Custom
4. Select +Series
5. Select Dollars, then click YES in dialog asking about adding coins.
6. Select Done
7. Select Coins tab (Bottom, 1st item on left labeled Coins)

Notice that every single Morgan dollar was just added. That's hundreds of coins.

If you don't have every Morgan, find the one's you don't have and remove them. 


Hope this helps, questions always welcome, sometimes I'll actually be able to help :)

john

What's next for US Coin

This year we've shipped a ton of software, including new Windows and OS/X Mac versions.

We'd love to hear from our customers regarding what they are looking for next?

Please leave a comment, or email us to let us know.

Thanks!

John
chief software architect
SaintsSoft LLC

US Coin Collector for Mac

Welcome to US Coin Collector for OS/X.

Thank you for purchasing the software, we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed producing it. If you have any questions, we are happy to assist (email).

We also have Video Tutorials:

• Getting Started
• Advanced Coin Editing
• Search and Sort 
• Restore 
• Backup  

We are always open to feedback & suggestions for future releases. Feel free to leave a comment below, or email us.

SaintsSoft LLC Development Team

Mac Restore Tutorial

This tutorial covers restoring your collection from the Cloud, using US Coin Collector for Mac OS/X.

Mac General Tutorial

Welcome to US Coin Collector for OS/X.

Thank you for purchasing the software, we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed producing it. If you have any questions, we are happy to assist (email).

We also have Video Tutorials:

• Getting Started
• Advanced Coin Editing
• Search and Sort 
• Restore 
• Backup  

We are always open to feedback & suggestions for future releases. Feel free to leave a comment below, or email us.

SaintsSoft LLC Development Team

Mac Edit Tutorial

This tutorial covers editing coins with US Coin Collector for Mac OS/X

Mac Add Tutorial

This tutorial covers adding coins with US Coin Collector for Mac OS/X

Mac Backup Tutorial

This tutorial covers how to perform a backup of your coin collection using US Coin Collector for Mac OS/X

Important App Notices

This post is updated anytime we have important product announcement news.

No news today.

Important Coin Notices

When we hear about important Numismatic informational notices, we will update this blog post.

Adding your first coin to US Coin Collector for Windows

We've prepared a YouTube video tutorial walking you thru getting started adding coins to your coin collection.

Video

Questions always welcome, post-em in the comments below.

-john

Manual Backup

This post walks you thru how to do a manual backup

iTunes Showing Manual Backup

Manual Backup:

1. Connect your device to your Computer running iTunes
2. Open iTunes and select your device in the DEVICES section on the left side.
3. Across the top, select the Apps tab, and scroll down until you see the File Sharing section.
4. Under the File Sharing section, select our App (us coin, gold collector, or cent collector).
5. Notice in the right-hand-side, a list fills with all files the app uses.
6. Select all these files, click "Save to..."
7. Select a folder on your computer and save the files.

Manual Restore:

1. Repeat steps 1-3
2. Under the File Sharing section, select the App you want to restore the collection to.
3. In the right side, click "Add..."
4. Find the folder where you saved files from step #6 above.
5. Respond Yes to prompt to replace existing files.
6. Sync your device.

US Coin Collector v1.3 Released

Filter Collection view by Set

US Coin Collector for Windows (BUY)

We are happy to announce final release of US Coin Collector for Windows, with features matching our suite of iPhone & iPad App's, you can capture and view your collection on-the-go or home at your computer.

Edit Sets

The final feature completed this week included support for Sets.  The Set's view allows you to create an unlimited number of Coin Sets, tracking and building your collection one coin or a whole series at a time.





All reports can be run against any set in your collection, a new feature that goes beyond what our Apple iPhone, iPad App's support.

Adding Coins

Add / Edit Coins

Adding new coins to your collection has never been easier. You can add coins one at a time, or entire Sets including all coins within a Type with about 7 mouse clicks.

Check this post for a review of Adding and Editing coins.






Buy it and support continued updates of your App's for Windows and Apple iPad and iPhone (link).

Coin Types

Export iPhone (iPad) Collection

Export Coins

US Coin Collector for Windows
Exporting iPhone Collection


When you've changed the collection and want to synchronize with your iPad, use this option. To get the collection updated on your iPad, two things are needed:

1. Windows - Export to Dropbox.
2. iPhone - Restore from Dropbox

For this to work correctly, you must have first installed US Coin Collector on  your iPad (iPhone), and done a Backup to Dropbox. This is required, as it creates the directories in Dropbox which store your Coin Collection.

How to install Dropbox on your iPad (link).
Install Dropbox on your Windows Computer (link).

Requirement:

Action Menu

Open US Coin Collector on iPhone (iPad), and from the Coins View, select Action menu, select Backup (a purchased option.). Do a Backup to move initial collection to Dropbox cloud storage & create appropriate folders.

Once Dropbox is setup, and you've done an initial Backup from your iPad (iPhone), and you've changed your collection in US Coin for Windows, select the Export iPhone option and click the "Select Export Folder" button.

The "Browse For Folder" window appears. Open your user folder (Administrator in example), and then open Dropbox ~ Apps ~ US Coin Collector.  Then click OK.

If you don't see Dropbox, and Apps, and US Coin Collector, you have not done a Backup of your collection from your iPad (iPhone) to Dropbox. Resolve that first.

Export Coins Destination

Once the US Coin Collector is selected, click Export in the "Export Coins" view and wait for the Export to complete.

As soon as the Export is complete, Close the window and open your iPad (iPhone), select the Action Menu and Restore option.

This will restore the collection you just backed up to your iPhone (iPad).

That's it, you now have your Collection updated on your iPad (iPhone).

Importing iPhone (iPad) Collection

US Coin Collector for Windows
Importing iPhone Collection

This is the best feature of our Suite of US Coin Collector Applications, the ability to share you collection between all of your computers.

No need to reenter collection, simply import it from the last place you saved it.

This is way cool.

Action Menu

The easiest way to accomplish this using the iPhone version of US Coin Collector (also applies to Cent Collector, and Gold Collector) is to use the built-in Backup feature. From you iPhone or iPad, touch the Action menu (see Action Menu image) and click Backup. The backup uses Dropbox (About Dropbox), a FREE web service that allows you to store up to 2GB of stuff on the Cloud.


Once you have your iPhone (iPad) coin collection backed up to Dropbox, open your copy of US Coin Collector for Windows. You need to install Dropbox on your Windows Computer. When you install Dropbox on your Windows Computer, a Folder will appear in your Computer documents named Dropbox. This folder contains the data you backed up while using the Backup feature on your iPhone (iPad). To locate the backup, open Dropbox ~ Apps ~ US Coin Collector, and look for CoinsV1.xml.

This is easy, just click the "Select file" button, and the Import Collection dialog appears. Click Dropbox on the left, then open Apps and US Coin Collector and you will see the file CoinsV1. Select it and click Open.

You are now ready to do the Import. Click "Copy Photos" to make sure you pickup all of the great coin photos you took on your iPhone (iPad). If you just want to add any new coins, click "New coins are added", otherwise your whole collection will be replaced with whatever you import.

That's it, you've imported your coin collection from your iPhone / iPad. 

Type Selection

US Coin Collector for Windows
Type Selection

This view appears when you need to choose a coin type & issue.

All US Coin types are displayed in a view on the left, search thru the tree of coin types and select the one matching the coin you want to add.

Once you've chosen a type, all issues of that type automatically appear in the list on the right. This allows you to select the issue you are interested in.

Windows version US Coin Collector

We are thinking about producing a Windows version of US Coin Collector.

Application development requires $$$, developers need paid, same as you.

Before we spend $$$$$ developing Windows version of US Coin Collector, ... show me the money.

SO......
Please take the Pole here (right side of this page), AND decide (1) Mac or Windows, (2) Fair price.

We might do both Mac and Windows, you get to decide which gets done first.

It's up to you.

-john

Spot Prices

The Spot Price view is used to configure how Spot Price is calculated. By default, the App automatically resolves current Spot price for Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Spot is used to value common Gold and Silver coins, as described here.

In the rare event that the App is unable to resolve current Spot prices, this view can be used to manually override the automatic spot pricing mechanism. To enable this manual override, turn off the Automatic updates by turning them off in this view.

Coin Actions

Action Menu

The coins view has a menu item commonly known as an Action menu. This menu presents a list of Actions that apply to the current view.

For the Coins view, this includes things like Filtering, Sorting, as well as more general functions including displaying a Buy List, Printing Reports, Managing Spot prices, Backup and Restore of your collection using DropBox, and Importing coins contained in CSV formatted files. 

Filtering

Each coin has a status switch which can be used to indicate whether or not the coin is currently Active, that is, part of your collection, or perhaps has been sold and therefore, become Inactive. The Filtering options control how the App handles coins relative to this Active status property. 

Customers may desire that coins they have Sold remain as part of their collection database, for historical tracking. Rather than requiring them to delete Sold coins, we provide the option of allowing them to change the Coin Active status to be Inactive (Active = Off). To hide Inactive coins, change this Filtering setting to Active, and there-by filtering out any coins which are no longer active. The default setting is All, meaning, display and report on all coins, active or inactive. 

Sorting

Ordering of the coins displayed in the Coins view can be changed using the Sorting option. This is fairly straight forward, simply select the property you want to sort on and the App takes care of the rest. What may be less obvious is how to sort by two properties. To accomplish this, sort first by one property and then by the other. Experiment to get a feel for how this works.

Buy List

This Customer requested report is very useful for when you attend Coin Shows, and you are looking for a specific Coin or Coin(s).  A coin appears in this view when it's in a Set and the coin does not have a Cost entered.

Print Reports

This provides another way to open Reports, does the same thing as touching the Reports tab.

Manage Spot Price

Spot price is used to price common gold and silver, as described in the Value property here. For customers without access to the Internet, we provide the ability to manually enter Spot prices and to enable manual resolution of Spot prices. 

Backup/Restore

The Backup and Restore feature are two sides of the same coin. Use Backup to backup a complete copy of your collection data files, including the Photo's associated with your coins. Restore then grabs the Backup and restores it to either the same device, or a different device. This is a handy option for Customers that like to use the App on multiple different iOS Devices. 

Import Coins

This option allows you to import new coins, or update existing coins. You can manually drag & drop a CSV file in the correct format, to the iTunes App Sharing folder in iTunes. In the Reports View, you can create a CSV file using the Export option. This will email a CSV file, perhaps emailed to yourself. A useful scenario for CSV files is using Export to create a CSV, email it to yourself, then opening it and editing it with Excel. After changing the CSV, save a new CSV and email it to yourself, and open the email on your Device. Open the Email, touch the Attachment and select the App as the program to open and process the CSV file. Sounds complicated & it is. If you have questions, feel free to contact tech support (support@saintssoft.com)

Set Coin

This view allows you to control the properties of an individual set coin.This includes the Type, Issue, and a Budget for the Cost of the coin.

Set Edit View

This view is the focal point where you will manage the details of a set. It is here that you will enter the set name & description, add coins, and associate collection coins with set coins.

At the top right, you will find two important buttons:

+ Coin
+ Series

+Series
Taking the second first, + Series allows you to add an entire series of coins with a few keystrokes. There are over 200 coins in the Kennedy Half coin series. Entering coins one at a time would be a terrible use of time, time better spent looking for new coins or taking a nap.

To create a set from a coin series, click +Series. Search thru the various coin types, and finally, select the type for which all issues will be added to the set.

+Coin
For smaller coin sets, it becomes easier to add one coin at a time. This is where the +Coin button comes in handy.

Options for new set

New sets can be created in one of two ways:

1. Custom
2. Library

Starting with the latter, Library set's are provided by the App. They are provided to give you an idea of what is possible.

Custom sets are created entirely by you, and as the saying goes, are limited only by your imagination.

Coin Edit View

Video Tutorial here.

Important tip -
ALL inputs are optional, you don't have to enter everything on this view. Start by entering the information you have, as you become more confident, perhaps make use of the other bits of information.

Numismatics uses loads of Acronyms, you can find common definitions here (link).

Analysis View

Analysis view is designed to help identify trends, patterns, and possible errors in your collection.

For example, Coins entered without either an initial Cost or Estimated Market Value, could be potential errors. The reports to be truly valuable, require a cost is entered on each Coin. With the Cost, you can track how much you paid and hence, what you expect to be able to sell for - at a minimum. Estimated Market Value, or simply Value, is what you think the coin is currently worth should you sell it. This is equally important, and the basis for determining whether or not you make or lose money when it comes time to sell.

The Investment Summary section contains a high-level overall valuation for your collection. It's accuracy depends entirely on whether you've entered Cost on each Coin, same for Value.

Basic Statistics does simple average, min, max calculation which gives you an overall sense for what you've invested in your coins.

And finally, the Graded Coins section tracks a count of how many coins by coin grading company, you have in the collection.

Suggestions always welcome (link).

-john

More View

The More tab contains a miss-mash of resources we could not fit into the App in any other meaningful place, but which we, the developers of your App, as avid coin, gold, and silver collectors, use on a daily basis.

You will find links to many important resources, links to current metal's pricing, and finally, links to the many valuable advisory resources, not the least of which being King World News Broadcast links.

If you have a link you believe is worthy of being added to our "More" collection, send me an email or leave a comment below.

-John
 

Suggestions

We are always interested in our Customer's suggestions.

Please leave comments here on anything you'd like changed in our App's. To ssist us in our discovery process, please indicate which App you are using. You can find both the App and Version in the More tab, About item.

Thank you,
john

Sets View

Sets view shows all sets you've created for your collection. This includes both custom sets and library sets.  From this view you will create and delete sets.

Clicking the + image opens the Set Choices view, where you begin the process of creating a new set.

Clicking the Edit button allows you delete sets and to change the order sets appear in this list.

Coins View

The Coins view is the center piece for managing your collection. This view shows a list of every coin in your collection. The menu items allow you to add, edit, and manage your collection.

Each row shows a single coin in the collection. The pinch gesture can be used to change the size of the Coin photo's. Squeeze to shrink, expand to enlarge.

When new coins are added, by default, they appear at the top of the list.

Action Menu

You can change the order of coins either by selecting Edit, and then dragging the coin into position, or by selecting the Action Menu and selecting Sort.

Reports View

This view shows both Reports available, and the Settings that control generation.

EMail
The EMail option creates an email with the report composing the body of the Email. Should you need to send someone, even yourself, a copy of a report, this is the option to use.

Print
Print option creates traditional printed reports.

Export
Export option allows you to send a Comma Separated File (CSV) formatted file by email, to yourself for editing. This file can be opened in Excel, for example. 

Steps to Print

1. Choosing "Print".
2. Touch report to print.
3. "Print preview" window opens.
4. Scroll thru, verifying it contains what you are looking for. 
5. Touch the Action menu (top right).
6. Printer options displayed.
7. Select a printer and other settings as appropriate.
8. Touch Print.

Setting up a Wireless printer (Link).
HP Wireless printing (Link).

Release 4.74 Features

Next release of US Coin Collector includes a bucket full of new features.

Coin Sales ~
We've added support for "Sold" Coins. The Coin Edit view adds a coin "Sale" date. Once you've sold a coin, enter the date and presto, the coin is now considered "Sold".  Once the coin is Sold, you can't revoke. (We'll change this to allow you to reactive, for now, be forewarned.)

The Reports view has also been changed. To view reports that include "Sold" coins, select the "Sold coins" switch in the Reports view. This will enable two date calendar controls: From and To. This allows you to enter a Sales period From one date, To another. For example, if you wanted to view all Coin sales for 2012, enter From: January 1, 2012  and To: December 31, 2012.

Then select the P&L report, as this is probably most interesting. The report will sort and group coin sales by Supplier code.  This will show you which suppliers are providing you with coins that are making you money, and which are costing you money. Perhaps a valuable bit of information.

Buy List ~
We added a "Buy List" view, which is designed to be used by Collectors at Coin Shows. This view shows coins in Sets that you are looking for. Once you buy a coin (indicated by entering a Cost), the coin disappears from this view. This view is accessible from the main Coins view, select the Action menu (top right), then the "Buy List". 

Filtering (Active, vs Inactive) ~
We've changed the visual's on how this works. The first implementation was too subtle, not sufficiently obvious. We changed this so that we display a  three option selector, which allows you to apply a global filter to what coins appear in all views. The options are: All coins, only Active coins, only Inactive coins.  We added this in-response to your request to filter out, and hide, coins which have been sold. So if you'd like your Sold coins to disappear, make sure you do two things: (1) Add a Sold date, (2) Change the coin status to Inactive.

The 411 on creating Sets

Sets are an advanced feature of US Coin Collector, understanding how they work may take more effort than simply adding Coins. This post should get you started.

Many collectors enjoy collecting the entire series of their favorite coin. By 'entire series', we mean one coin from every year and mint combination. If a series ran for 10 years, and the coin was minted at two different Mints, Philladelphia and San Francisco, then the series would include 20 coins (10 * 2).

One of our customers favorite series is the Buffalo Nickel. A complete set of the series includes (81) coins. Typing in 81 coins is a frightful proposition.

The App makes this easy, you don't have to manually enter 81 coins.

1. Select the Set's tab.
2. Touch Plus (+)
3. Touch Custom
4. Enter a Name for the Set
5. Touch +Series
6. Touch Nickels
7. Touch Buffalo Nickel
8. Touch YES
9. Press Done

When you are done, the App has created a new Set, created each of the 81 coins that are included in the Buffalo Nickel Series Set, and added each of these coins to the Set.

Pretty darn easy, hope you enjoy this new feature.

Filtering Inactive Coins

I've been sharing email with several customers discussing how the 'Active' ON OFF switch works. The idea behind this Active switch was, you might have coins in your collection that you no longer track, perhaps you sold these coins.

To reduce clutter in your Collection, you can open Coins that you've Sold and change their status to indicate you've sold them.

Filter to show only Active coins:

1. Find coin, maybe use the Search.
2. Touch Coin opens Coin in Edit mode.
3. Touch Active toggle switch, changing ON to OFF. Save. 
4. Notice Inactive shows red lettering.
5. Select the Action menu on the Coins view, top right of screen.
6. Notice first item: "View All Coins". Touching this row will cycle thru all options:

• View All Coins
• View Active Coins
• View Inactive Coins

Have questions?

Leave a comment, let us know if this was helpful.

-John