Download all four files and save them to the same folder on your computer. Start with the Quick Start Guide — it explains the system. Then read the Resources Guide for Kevin's personal story and curated list of trusted sources, communities and dealers.
⬇ Catalogue (Excel) ⬇ Entry Form ⬇ Quick Start Guide ⬇ Resources Guide
Entry Form → New Entry tab
Fill in what you know — the gold fields are the must-haves. Adding several coins? Click + Add Another Coin for each one. Then click Generate Entry and Copy to Clipboard.
A new chat in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot
Paste what you copied — the full instructions are already included. The AI replies with a grey code box (one block of labelled lines per coin) and a short summary of what it filled in and what it left blank.
Entry Form → Check & Copy tab
Paste the AI's whole reply and click Check. Yellow cells were tidied automatically; red cells need you. Then click Copy rows for Holdings.
CLH_Catalogue.xlsx → Holdings tab
Click column B (Item Type) in the first empty row and paste (Ctrl+V on Windows, Cmd+V on Mac). The grey columns fill themselves.
Your spreadsheet app
Save (Ctrl+S / Cmd+S) and keep a copy somewhere other than this computer.
| If this happens… | Do this |
|---|---|
| I don't know some of the details | Leave them blank. The AI fills only what it's sure of. For research, see the Resources page. |
| The AI's reply has no grey code box, or the checker finds no entries | Ask the AI: “Please resend each entry inside a code block, with every field on its own line as Field name: value.” |
| Check & Copy shows red cells | Fix the value in the box and click Check again — or copy anyway and correct that cell in the spreadsheet. Any field the AI left out is left blank — you'll see a note. |
| Excel says the cell is protected | You clicked a grey column. Click column B of an empty row and paste again. |
| Item ID or another grey column is blank | Item ID needs Country, Year and Title. Currency and Full Denomination need Denomination. The value columns need Acq. Price or Est. Value. |
| I need to change a coin I've already added | Entry Form → Update a Coin tab. Paste in the coin's row from Holdings, change it yourself or with the AI, then paste the updated row back over the same row at column B. |
| Where are my totals? | CLH_Catalogue.xlsx → INDEX tab. |
| What does a term mean? | Entry Form → Glossary & Resources tab, or the Quick Reference in the Quick Start Guide. |
The same steps and this table are in the Entry Form's How to Use tab, the Quick Start Guide, and the catalogue's START HERE tab.
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.6 CURRENT | Oct 2026 |
Update a coin you've already added, with or without AI. The Entry Form's new Update a Coin tab replaces the old Update Existing tab, which only listed the cells to change by hand. Copy the coin's row from Holdings and paste it in: the form loads all its current details. Change any field yourself, or describe the change in plain words and the form writes a prompt for any AI assistant, with the coin's current details included. The form checks the result, shows what changed, and copies an updated row that pastes back over the same row at column B. The AI can't change status, quantity, acquisition details, value, storage, grade or slab details unless you gave it the new value, and can't remove your notes. Graded (slabbed) coins. New Packaging option Graded Slab and three new columns: Grading Service (PCGS, NGC, ICCS or Other), Certified Grade (as printed on the label, e.g. MS66) and Grading Cert No. For a slab, the title's format is the service and grade, e.g. … Coloured Uncirculated PCGS MS66. AI never fills these in: they come from the label. Coins with no value flagged. The INDEX tab highlights the count of owned coins that have no estimated value, and Holdings highlights their Est. Value cells, so your totals can be completed. Ready for Canadian collections. New metals: Nickel, Nickel-plated Steel, Multi-ply Plated Steel, Aureate (bronze-plated nickel), Bi-metallic (other), Silver (.9999) and Gold (.9999). New packaging: Folder / Set Pack. The glossary has a Canadian section (RCM, loonie, toonie, Specimen, Maple Leaf, Charlton) and entries for certified grades, ICCS and cert numbers. New in the Quick Start Guide: three plain-English sections with tables and simple graphics: Know what you're looking at (circulating, uncirculated and proof; reading a mintage figure; coins as gifts), Looking after your coins (what damages coins, handling, choosing a holder, storage, records and insurance), and Inherited a collection? (first steps, and the four "values" you'll hear quoted). Also: dates copied from Excel in any common format (16/10/2026, 16-Oct-26) are read correctly. Sterling & Currency's location (Fremantle) and web address corrected. Upgrading from v1.5? Download the new catalogue and Entry Form together (the v1.6 form needs the v1.6 catalogue). The input columns B–AC haven't moved, so copy your Holdings rows from B to AC and paste them at column B of the new workbook. The new graded-coin columns are AD–AF, and the grey calculated columns are now AG–AJ. |
| 1.5 | Oct 2026 |
Reliable AI-to-spreadsheet paste, end to end. The Entry Form's output now contains the complete AI instructions (no separate prompt to copy) and works with any AI assistant — Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. The AI returns each coin as labelled lines (Country: Australia), so a missed field can't push values into the wrong column. A new Check & Copy tab reads the AI's reply, checks every field against the catalogue's dropdown lists, tidies what it safely can, and copies rows that paste cleanly into Holdings. The AI no longer adds estimated values, and anything it fills from its own knowledge is labelled AI-filled (unverified) in Notes. Title naming rule enforced. The written rule now matches the examples: [Year] [Country] [Denomination] [Subject] — [Mintmark] [Treatment] [Metal] [Finish] [Format]. Check & Copy rebuilds every title to this rule, whichever AI you used. Canadian dollars are written CAD$. One set of instructions. The same five steps and a Stuck? troubleshooting table now appear in the Entry Form, Quick Start Guide, this page and the workbook's START HERE tab. Workbook fixes: input columns now sit together (B–AC) with the grey calculated columns at the far right (AD–AG), so a pasted row no longer hits protected cells. Calculated columns are now filled for all 2,000 rows — previously only the example row calculated, so the INDEX value totals missed new entries. Rows stay an even height when long titles or notes are pasted. Full Denomination now uses pence for UK and Guernsey coins (50p GBP, not 50c). Metal, Packaging (adds Loose/Raw), Country and NIFC? dropdowns fixed; START HERE headings and layout tidied; the hidden deprecated Grade column has been removed. Form fixes: every coin added with + Add Another Coin now has the same hints and title guide as the first; removing a coin mid-batch no longer drops the coins after it; and the Update Existing tab's Generate Update button now works and tells you exactly which column to change. Resources page rebuilt: eight sections became five, in the order you'll need them (Just Getting Started, Find Your People, Research & Value, Buying Coins, Go Deeper). There's now a short intro with the full story one tap away, three quick picks for anyone short on time, jump buttons to each section, and compact entries tagged Kev's pick, Free or Brisbane. New: Protecting Your Collection, Voices Worth Following, and a few trusted dealers and suppliers. iPad and preview fix: the Resources sections and the Entry Form's How to Use steps now open without JavaScript, so they work in Files, Mail, Drive and Teams previews. Printing the Resources page prints every section. In a preview that switches off scripts, the Entry Form now says so and explains how to open it in Safari or Chrome, instead of showing a welcome box that couldn't be closed. Upgrading from v1.4? Column positions have changed, so copy your data across in blocks — see the instructions in the new workbook's START HERE tab (section ⑦). |
| 1.4 | Sep 2026 |
Preferred currency field added to START HERE. Choose your reporting currency (AUD, GBP, CAD, NZD, USD, EUR, SBD) — Holdings and the INDEX summary report convert and relabel automatically. Defaults to AUD; nothing changes if you leave it as-is. Bug fix: the Acq. Cost (AUD) column was incorrectly calculating from Est. Value instead of Acq. Price, so both columns showed the same figure. This is now corrected. Upgrading from v1.3 or earlier? No data migration required for the form, guide or resources files. For the workbook: if you already have coins entered, the Acq. Cost fix and the new currency field both need to be added to your existing file by hand — copy row 9 and the Lists!O:Q columns from the new workbook into yours, and re-copy the corrected Acq. Cost formula (Holdings column AE) down your existing rows. If you're not fussed about either change, your current workbook keeps working exactly as it does now. |
| 1.3 | Sep 2026 |
PNC Issue No. field added to Holdings tab (col S — between CoA Number and Mintmark Ref). Captures the sequential RAM issue number unique to each PNC release, cross-referenceable against the McDonald guide. Upgrading from v1.2 or earlier? No data migration required — download the new workbook and copy your Holdings rows across. The new PNC Issue No. column is optional and blank by default. |
| 1.2 | Sep 2026 |
Collection Summary Report added to INDEX tab. Five auto-updating sections: Collection Overview (status counts, est. value, acq. cost, gain/loss), Value Analysis (valued vs unvalued items), Owned by Country, Owned by Item Type, Owned by Grade. Upgrading from v1.1 or earlier? No data migration required — download the new workbook, copy your Holdings rows across and paste them in. The report populates automatically. Alternatively, copy just the INDEX tab from the new workbook into your existing one. |
| 1.1 | Sep 2026 |
Field alignment with SKC App schema. Grade field (was "Finish") expanded to full 18-value trade grading ladder. Metal, Treatment, and Packaging dropdowns rebuilt to match app exactly. Treatment is now multi-select. Grade/Condition separate field removed (merged into Grade). ⚠ Upgrading from v1.0? Three quick find-and-replace fixes in your Holdings tab:
⚠ Also: enable sorting and filtering in your existing workbook v1.0 users won't have sort/filter enabled on the Holdings tab. Fix it in your existing workbook — no data migration needed:
Using Google Sheets? No action needed — Google Sheets ignores Excel's sheet protection, so sorting and filtering work immediately. Open the file, click the Holdings tab, and use Data → Create a filter if the filter arrows aren't showing. |
| 1.0 | Sep 2026 | Initial release. Three-file starter kit: protected Excel catalogue, AI-assisted entry form with accordion How to Use, comprehensive glossary including storage/grading terms and all common Australian mintmarks, 10 ranked research sources. |
Download links above always point to the current version. Check back here for updates.
Collector's Little Helper™ grew out of a personal project to build a comprehensive digital catalogue of an inherited Australian coin collection — covering everything from pre-decimal pennies to modern RAM commemoratives and C-mintmark releases.
The system is designed with older and less technically confident collectors in mind. No macros, no special software, no subscriptions. Just a spreadsheet, a browser, and an AI assistant.
Questions, feedback, or suggestions — get in touch.
Kevin Burdette — Sparker Kev's Coins, Brisbane Australia
sparkerkevscoins@gmail.com
· +61 (0)438 820 469
☕ Support the kit on Ko-fi If this has been useful, a small tip is genuinely appreciated.