|
Product name and publisher |
Exact Change
Wild Man Software
|
Coin Collectors assistant Plus
Carlisle
Development
|
Coin Collector Professional
Robert W.
Benjamin
|
Coin Elite
Trove Software
|
CoinManage
Liberty Street
Software
|
Coin Organizer Deluxe
PrimaSoft PC
Software
|
NumisExpert
Resource International Publishing Inc. |
EzCoin
SoftPro 2010
Inc.
|
Coin Collector v3.0
Duck Software
|
Visual PackRat Plus 2.0
Spectrum Software
|
Pro-Coin 2008
MWP Software
|
Coin Tracker
CyberNiche Software
|
Numismatist's Notebook
CyberNiche Software
|
Coin Keeper Deluxe
HobbySoft
|
|
World coin database |
60,000
types from
240 countries included |
5,000
types from 40 countries (Additional $34.95)
Euro coin database is an additional $29.95 |
None |
Canada and Mexico sold separately ($30 each) |
750 types
from 12 countries included |
None |
None |
5325 US types
and 1850 Canadian types sold separately ($44.99 each) |
None |
None |
U.S. and Canada |
None |
None |
Canada and U.S. Commemoratives sold separately ($24.99
each) |
|
Included images |
More than
20,000 images |
U.S.
coinage only |
None |
U.S. coinage only |
459 images |
None |
None |
1330 US images
and 1450 Canadian images (when
both products are purchased) |
None |
None |
U.S. and Canada |
None |
None |
U.S.
coinage (U.S. Commemoratives and Canadian sold separately) |
|
Full screen images |
Yes |
No |
No images
included |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No images
included |
No |
No |
No |
No. (Images are black & white scans from ANA guide) |
|
Includes shapes and dimensions in database |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Includes diameters for U.S. coinage |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Includes precious metal contents |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Diskless searches & queries |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Medium |
DVD |
CD |
Download |
CD |
CD or
download |
CD or
download |
CD or download |
CD or
download |
3.5" Floppy
disk or
download |
CD or
download |
CD or
download |
CD or
download |
Download |
CD |
|
User
definable fields |
Unlimited number of user definable fields. |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No, but some fields can be renamed for use other than the
intended use. |
No |
16 undefined fields for stings, numbers and date/time |
No, but some fields can be renamed for use other than the
intended use. |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Custom report editor |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No, but if you
write HTML code, the reports can be modified. |
No |
No, but you can
define which columns will be included in a printed list |
No, but you can
define which columns will be included in a printed list |
No |
Yes |
No, but you can
define which columns will be included in a printed list |
No |
No |
|
Multilingual |
8
Languages |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Graphs |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
|
Printed Manual |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Included
with CD but not when purchased as a download |
No |
No |
|
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
User-definable
Bullion values calculator |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Bullion
calculator is hard-coded to a predefined list of 209 coin types. |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Foreign date converters |
Hebrew, Roman, Arab, Burmese, Thai, Bengali, Nepalese,
Japanese, Taiwanese |
None |
None |
None |
None |
None |
No |
None |
None |
None |
None |
None |
None |
None |
|
Instant value updates |
Yes |
When grade
is changed |
No |
No |
No |
No |
When a coin's date is changed,
the mint mark, denomination, grade and variety must be re-entered.
When this is done, the value automatically updates. |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Built in mintage database |
Yes
Including 60,000
types from
240 countries |
No |
No |
Yes
U.S. coins only |
Yes
Including 750 types
from 12 countries |
No |
Yes
U.S. coins only |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
Built in scanner support |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
|
|
Minimum OS |
Windows XP |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘98 |
Windows
‘95 |
|
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows '98 |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘95 |
Windows
‘95 |
|
Support |
Free live
support |
Free live
support |
Email
address provided |
Free live
support |
Free live
support |
Free
standard support or $100 per year for priority support |
|
Free live
support |
Online support only |
Online support only |
Online support only |
Free live
support |
Email
address provided |
Free live
support |
|
Program Upgrade cost |
Free live updates |
$49.95 |
No upgrades listed |
$25-$49 depending on current version |
$19.95 electronic delivery or $26.95 for CD |
Product must be repurchased |
|
Free manual updates |
No upgrades listed |
Product must be repurchased |
Free live update |
Product must be repurchased |
Product must be repurchased |
US: $19.95
Canada: $19.95
Commemoratives: $19.95 |
|
Price |
$79 |
$84.95 |
$19.99 |
$59 without values or $79 with values
Canada and Mexico are an additional $30 each |
$49 for
download, $59 for CD |
$75 (Plus
additional $8 for CD) |
|
$44.99
for U.S.
$44.99 for
Canada |
$14.95 (Plus additional $3 for floppy disk) |
$25.95 for
download, $29.95 for CD |
$34.99 - $59.99 |
$25 for
download, $30 for CD |
$4.95 |
$89.95 (U.S Commemoratives and Canada are an additional $24.95 each) |
Full Screen images
Exact Change includes high resolution images that accurately depict each
coin's detail. The advantage is clear when the image is viewed full
screen. For example, the following image is the detail of the eagle's head
from the obverse of the flying eagle cent on the Exact Change DVD...
When the corresponding image from various other coin programs is enlarged to
the same size, the detail is grainy because the image is being stretched larger
than the original image size...
|
|
  |
World coin database
Most programs have some mechanism for adding
coins from other countries by entering the name of the
country, the denomination, and so forth. Some of the
programs above include information about coins from a select
number of countries so that when you enter a coin, you can
select the denomination and type from a list. Only
Exact Change lets you take a coin like the one at left and
enter it without defining a new country or denomination.
Exact Change already knows that this 2 Mark coin from the
German State of Bremen was minted only in 1904 and has a
mintage of 100,000 circulation coins and 200 proofs.
Only Exact Change can provide you with an image of the coin.
|
|
Included images
At this time there are 243 different U.S. coin
types, including commemoratives. Therefore, all U.S.
coin types can be represented with, at most, 486 images.
At most, because some coins like the Barber types share a
common obverse design that differs only in size. The
reasonably viable programs listed above include these 486
images and some include a splattering of other countries.
Only Exact Change has taken on the enormous objective of
imaging coins from around the world. In the course of
six years we've gone through five scanners and we continue
to add images to Exact Change on an on-going basis. |
|
Diskless searches
& queries
Most coin programs utilize some
type of generic database engine such as Borland's BDE or Microsoft's Excel
engine. When the program needs information about a coin or a price list
entry, it must access the database engine which pulls the information from your
hard drive. One problem with this approach is that it can be very slow.
Exact Change works more like a word processor in that all of your information is
loaded into memory at one time and can be easily manipulated. For example,
if you change a value in a price list, Exact Change will instantly revalue all
coins of that type and grade. It will immediately update all aspects of
your collection so that, for example, the average price of all coins in your
collection will reflect that some coins have a new value. A program that
utilizes a generic database engine would have to churn for some time to
calculate the effect of a price list change on the average value of all the coins in
your collection.Another advantage to the diskless
search is that your collection information is stored in a single file which is
created when you save your collection. Therefore, you're not plagued with
database corruption because the save process is not dependant on the integrity
of an existing database file. To back-up your data, you need only select
your backup drive when saving your collection.
|
|
Medium
Exact Change is distributed on a DVD with a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes because
it's such an extensive program and it includes so many high resolution images.
A program that is distributed on a CD can contain no more than 720 megabytes
(.72 Gigabytes) of information. For a program to be downloadable, it must
be much smaller. This translates to reduced image quality. |
|
Instant value
updates
Instant value updates refers to the program's ability to instantly reflect a
change in a coin's value when any information is changed.
For example, if you change a value in a price list, Exact Change will instantly revalue all
coins of that type and grade. It will immediately update all aspects of
your collection so that, for example, the average price of all coins in your
collection will reflect that some coins have a new value. A program that
utilizes a generic database engine would have to churn for some time to
calculate the effect of a price list change on the average value of all the coins in
your collection. |
|
Built in mintage
database
When you add a coin to your collection, Exact Change augments the information
you've added with information included in the program. When you enter a
coin, Exact change determines the mintage for that coin based on the
denomination, year and mint you designate. This is true whether your coin
is a U.S. coin or an obscure foreign coin. This may seem like an obvious
thing, but most of the programs listed above actually require you to enter the
mintage figure every time you add a coin to your collection. |
|
Minimum OS
The minimum Operating System is the oldest version of Microsoft Windows for
which each program is intended. Exact Change utilizes the latest
technology and is intended for Windows XP. It's not an old program that's
been given a series of face-lifts. |
|
Some features that
are not really features
There are a number of "Features" listed on the web sites for other coin
programs that seem so basic that we didn't include them in the list above,
though some programs didn't provide them:
☼ Resizable to full
screen
☼ Print preview
☼ Track any number of collections
☼ Add a coin that's not in the
database
☼ Any complement given more than a
decade ago |
|