Numbering schemes: locality-based accession numbers

The only hard rules for an accession number are that every specimen gets one, no number is ever re-used, and the number is written on the specimen and on every label and photograph. Everything else is convention. Museums use a prefix for the institution (USNM, NHMUK, AMNH) and a running number; private collections are freer and can encode information.

The locality-based scheme many collectors converge on is PREFIX-LOCALITY-SEQUENCE: for example JD-GRF-0417 for the 417th piece from the Green River Formation in J. Doe's collection, or JD-2026-031 for the 31st piece accessioned in 2026. A locality or year code means a drawer can be sorted without a database and a stray label still says where the piece came from. Keep codes short, letters unambiguous (avoid O/0, I/1) and the sequence zero-padded so labels sort.

Do not encode value, price or buyer information in the number, and do not encode the identification: identifications change, numbers must not. Store the identification in the record.

When you buy a collection, keep the previous owner's numbers as “prior number” fields and keep their labels; assign your own number as well. When you sell, the buyer will do the same. A piece with a chain of numbers and labels is one with provenance.

Stratum's accession scheme settings generate the next number from a prefix, an optional locality code and a padded sequence, print it on the micro label, and refuse to issue a duplicate. Write the scheme down in the collection notes — the “Rosetta stone” — so an executor or a museum can decode it.

Sources

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Numbering schemes: locality-based accession numbers" (Technique). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-16. https://stratum.black/study/techniques/numbering-schemes. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-numbering-schemes,
  title        = {Numbering schemes: locality-based accession numbers},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/techniques/numbering-schemes}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Technique article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-16; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

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