So, I'm in the process of organizing part of my foreign coin collection...specifically my German coins. I'm trying to put together a collection of circulation coins from a certain era and I haven't found a commercially made organization system...so I thought I would make one myself. My initial thought was Intercept Shield 2x2s in pages, but they don't make them for the right sizes. My next thought was to put the coins in AirTites. The coins range from 17mm-29mm in diameter. That would mean I would need to use Model A Airtites (Outside Diameter: 30.93mm, Depth: 1.57mm), Model T (Outside Diameter: 36.49mm, Depth: 2.03mm) and Model H (Outside Diameter: 44.45mm, Depth: 3.17mm). Now, ideally...I would find some kind of unlabeled album (like a Dansco or something comparable) that could fit the airtites. I would then label each shot and insert the coin. I have no idea if such a thing exists. Does anyone know of an album designed to hold airtites. One other problem I have is the size of the coins. One type of coin in the series is 17.5mm in diameter. I have no idea if the foam inside a 17mm airtites would flex enough to accomidate such a coin. Also, this set once completed will be fairly large. So, however I organize the coins it has to be able to handle that. I am willing to use several books if needed. What I want to avoid is putting all the coins in 2x2 flips. I don't think they protect the coins and I think it looks bad. I want to be able to label each coin with date, MM, and mintage. Any suggestions or ideas?
When ever you have a half size, step down on the ring size not up in mm. You will be able to flex the foam material enough, where it will still look good even though it's snug. Going up in size could cause the coin to become dislodged when re-opening the air-tite. Then it could fall or be damaged in another way. The air-tites could be kept in a clear plastic and pocketed insert. I believe they make them with various sized pockets in a loose-leaf style page. You can add and subtract pages as necessary. Get yourself a small label maker and print out the appropriate in formation. I use the Brothers "P-Touch" with 6mm (1/4") clear laminated tape. It does a great job and any Office Max or Office Depot carries them. I think it was in the $40-$50 range. I would google it first to make sure. I hope this helps.
What do these pages look like? I don't want to put a round airtite in a square page pocket and have it rolling around inside and I want a place to label it. It's really important to me that it looks nice. I'm the only person who is going to see it, but presentation is still important to me.
Does anyone else have any other ideas about how to organize airtites in a binder of some kind? Thanks!
There are albums for airtites which can accomodate the various (A, I, T...) size airtites. The album pictured is a larger, higher quality version of what's advertised today (but there probably are some empty ones floating around given the amount of slabbing that's gone on).
The kind currently for sale at Brent Kruger and other outfits that sell airtites can accomodate 54 A size and 48 T size airtites in six "pages". The album pictured is an older, larger model that can accomodate about a third more airtites but would likely have to be obtained from another collector or a dealer's discontinued inventory.
OK, can the pages be change or organized in anyway? I want to organize the coins by denominations and 54 isn't enough in most cases. How modifiable are these folders? Also, do the airtities fit snugly or will then spin (I can see some of your coins are rotated).
No, the aitites do not rotate (I stuck some in randomly). I suggest you log on to any of the airtite sales sites and look at the options under albums.
http://www.coinsupplystore.com/site/1648271/page/785940#Albums Hope this helps, I have never used these but did a search to help you out
So, I spoke with someone on another board who used these airtite cards in the vinyl sleeves as has been suggested. He said his experience was the cards didn't hold the airtites well and thy ended up being collected at the bottom of the sleeves. I don't want the airtities to be constantly falling out. Does anyone have another suggestion...even a different method of storage. All I want is to have them in an album and be protected.
Use kointains and buy the blank Dansco albums. Get the blank pages that are one size higher then the coin diameter.
The problem that I have found is kointains and Dansco albums are sized for US coins...and these German coins don't match that size. Here are the sizes of the coins: 17mm 17.5mm 18mm 20mm 21mm 23mm 25mm 29mm
Those square airtights at the Lighthouse website look like they would accommodated the various sizes you need. It also appears the the album pages allow for a different number of coins per page. Check it out at http://www.lighthouse.us/epages/lig...Path=/Shops/leuchtturm_us/Products/ENCAPQ3SET and http://www.lighthouse.us/epages/lig...s/CLGR3RNGQASETBL/SubProducts/CLGR3RNGQASETBL
No personal experience with those specific products. From reading on these CT forums , Lighthouse seems to be well respected. It sounded like you were challenged by the variety of sizes of your coins and that you wanted them better protected than the standard 2x2. It also sounded as if you wanted them to be appealing in their presentation. I think many folks appreciate the convenience of being able to view the OBV & REV of their protected coins without having to remove them from the album. All of those factors combined is what prompted me to post those 2 web links for your consideration. In researching those storage/presentation options , I may have found some viable solutions for myself. The large sized of the storage sheets and albums seem like a real plus. Good Luck !
