Q: Does Coin Catalog Pro have live pricing updates from PCGS, NGC, Numismedia, etc. ?

A: No. While some programs offer automated feeds, there are some complexities with this that are important to understand. For one, different collectors prefer different sources for their pricing data (PCGS, Numismedia, NGC, ANA, ICG). Additionally, in order to look up a particular coin price using one of these sources, you need to know the proprietary "coin number" that the 3rd party uses to identify this particular coin/mintmark/variety/error (and when new coins come out or varities are identified, the numbering scheme changes).  Given multiple 3rd party pricing sources, variable numbering... you can see how this can become very restrictive, complicated and error-prone.  The result can make database maintenance a much more complex activity -- and make software very difficult to use.

While can be some value to automatic price updates, especially for large coin collections, one must keep in mind that investing in coins really is a long term prospect. The day-to-day fluctuations of individual coin prices are really just that. The rare coin market is by definition thinly capitalized, and individual sales do not themselves indicate changes in actual value.

We find that annual or even longer updating of coin price data to be a much more practical (and gratifying) process for evaluating one's coin portfolio.  Think about it this way: your coins are likely to be very old, and should not be changing in value like the weather.

If you have not tried it already, we recommend use of our latest coin pricing evaluation program, CoinRifle® for assessing the value of your rare coins. This new software gives insight into the live numismatic marketplace like never before, and is a great way to estimate value of your collectibles.

Q: Are all coin types pre-loaded into the database?

A: No. When you consider mintmarks, varities, errors, etc, there are literally thousands of coin types. While some users with large collections have some of every type of coin, the typical user has a much more refined collection. In fact, many users specialize in particular coin types -- indian head pennies or flying eagle cents, for example. Because different users have different needs for coin database software, Coin Catalog Pro was designed to be user-configurable and scalable. Have you ever tried to select from a drop-down list of a thousand options in a software program? Doing this repeatedly can become quite a task! With Coin Catalog Pro, you only need to select from the types or categories that apply to you. Not to mention, some people like to call things cents and others like to call them pennies! Coin Catalog Pro let's you organize your collection THE WAY YOU WANT TO. That is the beauty of a robust, customizable database software solution. It custom fits your collection!

Q: How do I remove obsolete data from the database?

A: You can remove any record from the system at any time with the Delete button or by pressing the Del or Delete key on your keyboard.  Note that any image files or documents associated with the coin record will also be deleted.  We recommend outputting your coin data to an Excel file from time to time to take a snapshot of your collection for backup and future analysis.