Abstract: A security system for quantitatively verifying a condition of items in a special collections inventory includes a scale in connection with an index of special collection items. Every item in the index has a unique weight within a collection. The scale takes a current weight measurement of a special collections item and automatically reports the current weight measurement to the computing device hosting the index. Using the current weight measurement, the index is searched for a given item by comparing the current weight measurement with a set of indexed reference weights. In response to a match being detected between the current weight measurement and a reference weight among the set of indexed reference weights, a physical condition of the given item—corresponding with the reference weight—is verified as being intact.