Tech Apps for Coin Collectors

Tips for coin collectors by Justin Fraughton – Provident Metals ……

For new coin collectors or if you’ve been a devotee for years, it’s never too late to up your game with technology. Smartphone apps can make just about every coin collecting task easier, from updating your catalog to checking a coin’s cert verification. Discover the nine apps that all coin collectors must have.

PCGS CoinFacts Coin Collecting

Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) makes a number of coin-related smartphone apps, CoinFacts Coin Collecting being one of them. The app for coin collectors claims to be the world’s largest encyclopedia of U.S. coins and it includes coin values, images, narratives, auction prices realized and more for over 39,000 U.S. coins. The app also provides a barcode scanning functionality so you can look up coins graded by PCGS. As an added bonus, it also incorporates expert narratives on specific coins from leading industry professionals like David Hall, Ron Guth, Q. David Bowers and others. The app is free to download but it does require an active internet connection to use.

PCGS Coin Cert Verification for coin collectors

This app takes the barcode scanning functionality from CoinFacts Coin Collecting and puts it into a standalone app. Instead of typing in the coin’s certification number, simply scan the barcode (obverse) or QR code (reverse) on the coin label with the Coin Cert Verification app. The app will then pull up information related to the coin, such as denomination, date and mintmark, grade, mintage, holder type, PCGS Population and PCGS Price Guide value. Depending on the coin, further information may also be available, such as a high-resolution image of the coin, the coin’s last auction appearance and its current presence in any PCGS Set Registry sets.

PCGS Price Guide – Coin Values

This PCGS app provides current retail values for 15,000 U.S. coins in up to 10 different grades. Coins are organized first by denomination, then by type and finally by date and mintmark. Price Guide – Coin Values covers all regular U.S. issues (both proofs and business strikes) in copper, nickel, silver, and gold, plus commemorative coins, bullion coins, colonials, territorial gold coins and proof, and mint sets. The app also includes a “shop” button that instantly takes you to all offerings on eBay for the coin you are researching.

NGC Cert Verification & Populations

Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) also has an app, which includes NGC Cert verification, access to an augmented NGC Census and all the latest NGC news. App users can scan the barcode found on their NGC-certified coin’s label to verify the holder and see instant population data – not to mention NGC Price Guide values for US coins. Images are also available for almost 15 million certified coins. And since NGC has a strong presence in China, there is language support for both Simplified and Traditional Chinese (support for other languages is in the works).

PCGS Photograde

As its name suggests, the Photograde app lets coin collectors grade 92 popular U.S. regular issue coin series and 43 Colonial coins accurately with 2,768 high-resolution images from the reference sets of the Professional Coin Grading Service. All you have to do is compare your coin with the photographs to determine the grade of your coin. The app features full color, high-resolution photos that are 500×500 pixels to allow for zooming and close inspection. The images are high quality and provide crystal-clear viewing–even at high zoom–thanks to TrueView photography.

Coinflation

Coinflation.com is one of the most visited websites for coins and precious metals, and now you can carry around its database in your pocket. The Coinflation app features the live 24-hour gold and silver price (updated every minute) as well as four calculators for U.S. silver coins, base metal coins, gold scrap and silver scrap. The app’s calculators tell you the melt value of your coins (i.e., how much their gold or silver content would be worth if you melted them down).

Coin Collectors Set Registry

It’s time to upgrade your spreadsheet to an app that was actually designed to be a coin catalog. Set Registry allows you to upload images, search the U.S. coin database to autofill your coin details and add your purchase dates, purchase prices, current coin values, comments, notes and more. The app also offers a “What if?” function that allows you to scan a PCGS-graded coin’s barcode to determine whether or not it will upgrade your set. You can also mark coins as “sold” and add the buyer’s name, sale date and sold price if you decide to swap out some of them.

Coin Book Pro

While this app isn’t free, it’s not expensive (normally $5.99, and it’s on sale for $2.99 right now) and many of its 16,000 users say it’s worth the few bucks. In fact, Coin Book Pro has an average rating of 4.4 stars with more than 1,100 reviews. This catalog of U.S. coins features a database with hi-res obverse and reverse images as well as a guide for grading each coin. In fact, if you can’t identify the grade of the coin on your own, there’s an in-app mail system that allows you to send a picture to the team for appraisal and identification. As an added bonus, the app doesn’t need an internet connection to run, so you can use it on the go.

Euro Coin Collection

If you prefer to collect coins from across the pond, this app can help you keep them in order. As indicated by the name, Euro Coin Collection provides detailed images of all 460 different coin designs and an interactive album that allows you to view all Euro coins at a glance. The app provides year, grade, mint mark and edge type for each coin as well as Own, Swap and Want lists you can easily manage. The app also provides maps and info about all 23 Euro area countries (each of which has its own currency design) and is localized in seven languages: English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish.

US Coin

If you prefer to manage your coin collection on your computer rather than on a smartphone, there are also desktop apps available. One of these is US Coin, which is compatible with Apple Macs and will also sync your collections to iPhones and iPads. The app provides Heritage Auctions archives and eBay auctions for your coin, as well as reports that cover basic inventory, buy lists, detailed financial analysis and more. US Coin also lets you open your collection to view and edit using Microsoft Excel, which makes it easy to copy settings (Location, Variety, Supplier, etc.) to a large number of coins at once.

Try one or more of these coin collector apps to reduce the logistical load of coin collecting. Using these apps will give you more time to do what you really love–tracking down and evaluating rare and precious coins.