Understanding Backup, Restore

Occasionally i get an email asking for help when a Customer has "lost my Collection" in Dropbox. Today a customer contacted me with the following message:

Hope you can help, I was trying to add a coin in my collection from my phone by using backup to Dropbox and then I tried putting it on my I pad by restoring think it would pull it in but it just moved that coin to I pad and I lost all my other collections.

A restore operation REPLACES everything you have on your device with whatever was in the Cloud. REPLACE COLLECTION ON DEVICE”.
Notice in bold capital letters on the Restore view it says: “

Backup and Restore work like the movie Higlhlander, there can be only one original copy of a collection. If you want to add a coin to a collection, and then share that change to every device, here’s how you do it:

1) Ensure your device has an up-to-date copy of the collection. 

2) Add the new coin

3) Backup the changes

4) Switch to other device

5) Restore the changes made on device in step #2

Result: Second device now has changes

Now let’s say you want to add a photo to the newly added coin. Here are the steps:

1) Ensure your device has an up-to-date copy of the collection.

2) Select the coin you want to photo

3) Take the photo and add it to the coin

4) Backup changes

5) Switch to other device(s)

6) Restore and notice the new photo

The key to this process is to realize that the Cloud must always be the source of truth. Before you add, change, or delete, you need to ensure your device has an up-to-date copy of the collection. If you are not sure, do a Restore and you will now have whatever the Cloud has. Then make your changes, and finally, Backup to the Cloud so the Cloud now has the original copy of the collection.

The nice part of this, if there is any, is that if you make a mistake on your device, you can always do a Restore and effectively UNDO whatever changes you made.

Tip

If you accidentally replace your collection in Dropbox, Dropbox has an undelete.
You can read about it here.

After you restore the undeleted files in Dropbox, do a RESTORE on your device.

Coin View Folder Icon

What's that new Folder icon on the Coins View - Learn about it

Set Creation

Set Name

This input allows you to enter, change the Name used for the Set.

Automatic Match

During Set creation, the App has capability to search your entire collection for Coin's that should be members of this new Set. This saves you the time of having to individually search thru your Collection and manually designating which Coins should be part of this Set. If you'd like this automatic match-up, enable this option.

Create Coins

This option will instruct the App to automatically create Coins for your Buy list for any Coin in the Set which you do NOT already have. This will save hours of work.  For example, Morgan silver dollars have over 400 distinct coins. If you were to manually add all 400 of these coins, it would likely take 2 days. The App can do that for you in 30 seconds if you enable this option.

If you'd like to create a Set covering every issue in a Type, this option and the Automatic Match option, will save literally days of typing.

Sort

This option is useful when adding / updating a Set. It will cause the App to Sort the Set by natural order (Issue within Type). If you don't enable Sort, new coins will be added to the end of the Set.

Coin Grade View

Video Tutorial - Entering Coin Grade

All inputs in this view are 100% optional, don't know the grade then skip.

Coin Grade allows you to enter whatever grade you choose, whether the coin is graded in a 3rd part plastic slab, or a simple 2x2 card-board holder.

In the Basic section, you have the choice of entering a text description of the grade, and calling it a day. If you prefer a more precise designation, use the Advanced section.

Coin Issue View

This view provides two paths: basic input, advanced.

Basic input allows you to manually enter coin issue information, which typically includes the year and mint mark.

Advanced input allows you to specify more detailed information, all of which is optional. Best way to enter advanced input is to select the issue as listed for this Type in the scroller wheel displayed at the bottom of the view.

In the example screen, the scroller displays: "1907 No Motto MS".

Selecting from this list will automatically populate the REF #, which is the Coin reference number PCGS assigns to all coins. In the example, a 1907 $10 Indian gold eagle has a REF # of 8865

All advanced inputs are optional, however, the REF# is important as it enables integration with PCGS Coin Facts. If the coin has a REF#, the App can open PCGS's CoinFacts web page for that specific coin.

Coin Type View

Basic

This view is perhaps the most important view in the App.  The Lookup option in Advanced allows you to select the coin's Type from the built-in coin dictionary. Selecting the coin from the built-in dictionary will automate some inputs you would otherwise need to enter.

If the coin you want to enter is not contained within the built-in dictionary, you can still add it you just need to enter a couple of more bits of information.

Advanced (Optional)

To complete this section, first select the "Lookup...". This will display a complete list of all US coins ever minted, allow you to choose the exact type you are adding. Furthermore, the Weight and Precious Metal type will be automatically updated based on the Type of coin you just selected from the "Lookup...".

If the Coin is not contained within the built-in dictionary, you can manually set the Precious Metal type and Weight.

Coin Price View

Purchased

This section provides details on the purchase of a coin. A coin is considered on the "Buy" list when no purchase date has been entered. Once a purchase date is entered, the coin is considered owned.

Quantity field allows you to indicate how many of these coins you own. Entering a quantity is a lot easier than entering the same coin multiple times. Personally use the quantity field for common coins, coins which may not have a unique or special numismatic value, for example, pre-1964 silver US coinage.

Market

This section helps establish the Market value of this coin. For most cases, you will enter an Estimated value for the coin. Best source for this kind of information is either an issue of Coin World, eBay or Heritage completed auctions, or for those particularly rate coins PCGS's current coin prices page.

By default, when you open the Estimate view, the App will automatically open a view of current eBay auctions matching that coin.

For coins that are precious metals, the Melt (Gold, Silver) item will show the melt value for the coin. The melt value is calculated as the weight in precious metal for this coin multiplied by the current spot price of the underlying precious metal. The App automatically resolves current spot price real-time, in the background. It then multiplies this by the Weight value entered in the Coin 'Type' view. For coins contained within the built-in dictionary, this happens automatically.

Melt Premium is an optional value you might enter as an alternative to the Estimated value. Common gold coins, like 20th century Saint-Gaudens, typically sell for Spot + $150 in grades up to MS-60. Higher grades have higher melt premiums.

Sold

Once you've sold a coin, use the Sold inputs to enter the sold price and date.