Hey All, I just figured I would ask this before I proceed to buy more coin folders this Saturday. I already purchased a set of Whitman Coin Folders for the 1965-1998 quarters and 1959-1998 pennies. I also purchased Lincoln Cent folders for 1909-1958, Jefferson Nickel folders from 1938-1996, and Roosevelt Dimes from 1965-2003 from Littleton Coin Company. My question before I buy any more folders is if you guys have an opinion on which company is better than the other for holding, ease of use, etc for coins. I may be over thinking this, but I'm just checking Thanks in advance.
i like the whitman classic albums. i dont really like folders, i worry about environmental damage and having the coin rub on the folder. danscos are nice but slightly more expensive than the whitman classics. cody
I see more people buying, and using, the Danscos than the Whitman or Littleton. However, Whitman and Littleton are good albums.
You can do a search for previous threads describing "Whitman" and "Littleton" and "Dansco" and "Intercept Shield". You will find many opinions on these folders and albums. You will find discussions on how they might tone coins over time and you will find some discussions of how sliding windows can scratch coins. IMO these four companies make fine products. Just recognize that folders & albums can tone & scratch your coins. The Whitman tri-fold folders and Dansco albums (with sliding windows) are used to hold a bunch of my personal coins. I've purchased some Whitman folders with coins that were stored where the temperature changed daily & the coins got toned horribly. If the storage environment is kept constant, then the Whitman folders work fine (like in my collection). For inert archival coin storage, I use mostly 2x2 holders or 2x2 flips stored in archival 3-ring 2x2 binder pages or in Dansco 2x2 pages. Some folks here go a step further & use air-tite holders or intercept-shield technology. Everyone at CT seems to find their own balance between coin holder performance, price, and personal taste.
I started out with the Whitman folders and still have several of them, including ones that I purchased used and were made in the late 50's or early 60's. The older folders will cause coins to tone. My mercury and roosevelt dimes in those old folders all have toning now that they did not have 15 years ago. The newer whitman folders are fine other than the fact that one side is completely hidden and the other is vunerable and exposed. I moved up to Whitman Classic Albums for my Lincoln cents, but my 1943 Steel cents corroded on their edges in the album. The BU red coins have all turned into a dark orange color. I am considering an Interceptor album, but they are pricey. If I continue to upgrade my cents to BU examples, I will definately move up to the Interceptor as I don't like re-buying coins :|.
If you decide to use the folded type of albums, you can protect the copper coins by taking modern cents ( copper plated zinc ones) and scrubbing the surfaces with a brillo or copper brush, and using them to fill the blank holes you don't have coins for. The 100% copper layer on a modern copper cent is more reactive than the pre-1982 cents, and when you brighten them up , more reactive than the collectible 1982 to current zincolns. When they start to turn RB, they are doing their job well and need to be rescrubbed. Much cheaper than Intercept and basically the same process, except you can replace the active entity when it gets used, and not the intercept product. Jim
I don't care for the Intercept Shield albums. They make a big deal about their protection, but I'm not convinced that they are all that. But my biggest problem with them is that the hole cuts don't always fit well, especially in the type set. The "proof set boxes" are not the right dimensions either. Made in China. You can usually count on corners being cut in China's production. I'd be surprised if they didn't scrimp on the chemical that is supposed to protect the coins. Also wouldn't be surprised if the cut cost and the paper used to make the albums has acid in them. Consider all the lead that is in kids toys. Just to may things I don't like, where the quality is not right, and to many ways I don't trust China production. Dansco - Made in USA, well made very happy with everything I have from them. Have not tried other brands. I do like flips and 2x2's in notebook format too. Did my own thing with Ike's and Sac. dollars for instance. I like that you can do your own thing with them. You don't have to go with a predetermined set.
Thanks for the advice all. I think I'll stick with the Littleton ones as long as they work for the sets I'm accumulating. As of yet, I'm not too worried about scratching and toning since I'm not looking at profitable coins quite yet. When I start actually seeking out grades, I'll look at more environmentally-secure methods of coin storage.
