The FoxLair
Tex-Mex Historical & Numismatic Events Time Line©
An Introduction to Another New Product Developed Because Of Collector Requests
During the last 25 years I have accumulated a small warehouse of material about Mexico and Texas. Included are hundreds of books, some dating back to the 1840s, over two thousand weekly and monthly periodicals and over three thousand coin auction catalogs and fixed price lists. Most of the books have been read from cover to cover, sometimes more than once; every catalog and periodical has been scanned at least once from cover to cover for information about Mexican coins.
My wife claims I have spent more time with my reference library than I have with her since 1986. The terrible thing is, she may be correct. During the course of reading all of this stuff I created several different types of “notes” to later be used in my research.
At first, in BPC, (before personal computers), I used legal sized yellow tablets; I still have several hundred stored in my rent-a-warehouse. Later, after I purchased my first PC from Texas Instruments in 1986, I attempted to setup a computer file to keep my notes. Because of the limited storage capabilities of these first PCs, I had to keep my file notes on 5.5” floppy disks. The years since have seen my notes on files in PeachCalc®, Peach Tree®, Lotus 123®, Word® and finally in Excel®, these programs were written for my applications only and sometimes maintained for years.
Recently, because of a computer “meltdown”, I lost most of these old files; luckily some were still available because I kept old printed copies just in case this happened. So I have spent several months transferring old data to new files, and I’m still not finished as I write this.
Even before the Mexican Coin Magic© Website project started I had trouble keeping track of all of the important information found. Once we began the website project I knew we were going to going to have to find better way to organize and retrieve the data, because I wanted to be able to verify and sight where information came from. This led to creating several new files of notes, and most are still “projects in process”.
The first item needed was a good directory of all of the auction catalogs and fixed price lists. After several trials and false starts I finally accomplished this with the help of my old trusty 8th Edition of American Numismatic Auctions© by Martin Gengerke and several other bibliography reference books. This thing (The FoxLair Mexican Republic Gold Sales Master List: 125+ Years of Auction Catalogs & Fixed Price Lists©) has taken a life of its own because it is now over 125 pages long.
Next I tackled the books in my library and finally earlier this year I nailed down a system that works for me. This is my FoxLair Reference Library Master List©. By being careful I have been able to keep this report to less than ten pages while still listing the important books, catalogs, and periodicals. Unlike anything else I have ever seen, it uses an unusual sorting routine by grouping together different areas of subject matter by author. It also tells me if I own one or more copies, thus I’m able to find copies of reference books I need for my library.
The third new item, the FoxLair Tex-Mex Historical & Numismatic Events Time Line©, may be the coolest thing I’ve done so far! It begins in 1472 when Isabella became queen and continues through to the end of the Mexican Republic Period in 1905. Each type of event is color-coded. Thus I’m able to quickly scan the 25+ pages of important events to find what information I need:
At the end of the FoxLair Tex-Mex Historical & Numismatic Events Time Line©, you will find a Key to all the reference sources by number, author, publication name, and date published.
Take a few minutes to look at the samples of each new product and if you want copies of any, checkout the prices and fill-out the order forms for each. Because the FoxLair Reference Library Master List and the FoxLair Tex-Mex Historical & Numismatic Events Time Line are still “works in process”, you may order two updates by email for free during 2006, after your initial order of a floppy disk or CD in the Excel® format.
[12b] Go to Sample FoxLair Tex-Mex Historical & Numismatic Events Time Line
[12c] Go to Order Form for FoxLair Tex-Mex Historical & Numismatic Events Time Line
[Table of Contents] Return to Mexican FoxLair Table of Contents
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