A date annotation is the third of the three label fields you can attach to an inventory item. It's a free-text date that lives with the piece — most often a mint year, sometimes an event date or a historical anniversary.
It exists because the purchase date already records when you got the coin, but coins have their own dates that matter independently.
This article covers how to set one, where it surfaces, and the one thing it does differently from the other two label fields.
For the broader picture of the three label fields, see How holdings work in Gold Silver Ledger.
The label-modal mechanics overlap with Adding a nickname to a specific item and Adding a user reference (serial number, storage location).
If you've read either of those, the modal flow here will look familiar.
What a date annotation is, and what it isn't
A date annotation is free-text. The hint under the field reads "Some context, mint year, location, or other date" — that's the use-case framing, not a constraint. Anything you type is accepted, with or without a numeric date format.
The reason this field exists separately from the purchase date is that a coin or bar has its own date life independent of when you acquired it.
A 1924 Peace Dollar minted a century ago and bought last week has two dates worth recording — the purchase date goes on the transaction; the mint year goes on the item itself, where the annotation field is the right home.
What a date annotation does:
It records a piece-specific date. Mint year is the canonical example. Anniversary dates and historical context dates work too.
It surfaces visibly. The annotation shows as a small chip under the item number in the drill-down views, alongside the reference chip.
It exports. Date annotations travel along with the rest of the per-item data in CSV exports of your holdings.
What a date annotation doesn't do:
It's not indexed by Holdings search. Unlike nicknames and references, the search bar does not match against date annotations. A search for 2008 finds products with "2008" in the name, and items with 2008 in a nickname or reference, but not items where 2008 is in the date annotation field. If you want a year to be searchable, put it in the reference field instead (or in addition).
It's not the purchase date. The purchase date lives on the transaction and drives cost basis, the short-term vs. long-term holding window if you sell, and the Days Held counter. The annotation is purely a label on the item.
It's not validated as a real date. You can type 1924, Q4 2018, summer of 2010, mint state 1995, or anything else. The field doesn't check the format.
Opening the Edit Labels modal
The Date field is the bottom field in the same Edit Labels modal that holds Nickname and Reference. Three paths in, depending on which view you're using:
Group view: Drill down through metal → product → item, then click Edit Labels at the right edge of the expanded item's detail strip.
Item view: Expand the product row to reveal individual items; click Edit Labels at the right of any item row.
Card view: Click the pencil icon at the top-right of the card.
All three paths open the same modal with the same three fields.
Setting a date annotation
Click into the Date field at the bottom of the modal. Type whatever value fits. Click Save to commit.
The chip in the drill-down rows displays the value verbatim, so a short string reads better than a long one. 1924 is great. Minted in Philadelphia in the spring of 1924, transferred from the original owner in 1965 is technically allowed, but it's going to look strange on a small chip.
Most users settle on a tight convention. Common ones:
A four-digit year: 2008, 1924, 1986.
A month-year combination: Jul 2010, Mar 1995.
A coin-specific date format: Some collectors prefer MCMXIV for a 1914 piece, mirroring Roman numerals stamped on the coin itself. The field accepts it.
Where the date annotation shows up
A date annotation surfaces in two places in the app:
As a chip under the item number in group view. The deepest level of the drill-down shows the item number (#1, #2, #3…) with a small chip for the date annotation, alongside the reference chip if you've set one.
As a chip under the item number in item view. Expanding a product row exposes its individual items with the same numbered-row layout, so the chip surfaces here too.
As a chip next to the metal and form pills in card view. The card face surfaces the annotation alongside the reference chip
Worth re-stating, since it's the one thing that distinguishes this field from the other two: the Holdings search bar does not currently match against date annotations.
If you put 1924 in this field, a search for 1924 will not surface that item unless the year also appears in the product name, the nickname, or the reference.
The most common use: mint year on numismatic pieces
For most users, this field's job is mint year. Bullion bars are generic — a 10 oz Engelhard from 1980 melts down to the same number of ounces as one from 2010 — but numismatic and semi-numismatic coins have year-stamped identities.
A 1924 Peace Dollar, a 2008 American Buffalo, a 1986 first-year-of-issue Silver Eagle: the year is part of what the piece is.
When you record the buy transaction, the purchase date captures when you got it. The Date annotation captures when the coin was minted. The two are independent and the app keeps them that way.
Other patterns
A few less common but legitimate uses, in case mint year doesn't apply:
Acquisition date that's not the purchase date: A coin gifted to you in 1995 but recorded into your ledger today. Put 1995 in the annotation; put today's date as the purchase date.
Anniversary or event date: Wedding 2018, College graduation 2002. Less about the coin's history, more about your own. Some users prefer the nickname field for this kind of label, since it's more visible — but the annotation works too.
Historical context for a piece: Pre-1965, Reign of George V, Bicentennial 1976. Useful for collectible coins where the era matters more than the exact year.
Combining with nicknames and references
The three label fields are siblings. A single item can carry all three:
Nickname: Grandma's coin
Reference: SDB-3
Date: 2008
Each goes in its own field in the same modal, and all three render under the item number in the drill-down. The nickname is the human-readable name, the reference is the storage code, the annotation is the date that matters about the piece.
It's normal to set only some of them. Most stackers end up with references on nearly everything (for storage tracking), nicknames on a handful of sentimental pieces, and date annotations only on coins where mint year is meaningful.
Changing or clearing a date annotation
Same modal, same field. Reopen Edit Labels, type the new value over the old one or delete the existing text, and Save. An empty field saved over a populated one removes the annotation from the item.
There's no separate "remove" button. The blank-and-save pattern is how you clear any of the three label fields.
Where to go next
How holdings work in Gold Silver Ledger: The foundation article — item-level inventory, per-item fields, and the three labels.
Adding a nickname to a specific item: The first label field, with patterns for human-readable names.
Adding a user reference (serial number, storage location): The second label field, with patterns for using consistent codes as a free-text index.
Filtering and sorting your holdings: How search interacts with the label fields, and which one to use if you want a value to be searchable.
Editing a transaction after the fact: Where to change the purchase date if the date annotation isn't actually what needs updating.