Storage question

Storing Airtites in pages in an album seems like it would take up an awful lot of space. No a problem for people who don't have too many but seems like one for people who has lots but not room for a large safe.

 

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@Hiddendragon, here are the pics I promised.

These coins of varying diameter are all in "H" size Air-Tites placed within the Lighthouse coin capsule page that's designed to hold "H" Air-Tites. With the exception noted below, all of my raw coins are stored in these pages.



I also have three pages of crowns (and other coins 33mm and up) in "I" size Air-Tites. As you can see, this Lighthouse page has space for 15 Air-Tites, versus 20 in the "H" pages.

 

There's some truth to this, to the extent that they take up more space than some other storage options. But I keep my collection relatively small — currently less than 250 coins, not counting certifieds — so it's not an issue for me.

Words of wisdom. That's one of the reasons I keep my collection small-ish, because it allows me a bit more latitude in how I choose to store them.

For raw coins, I'm pretty happy with combination of convenience and protection afforted by the Lighthouse Air-Tite pages I posted above. I used to store them in binders, but now I lay them flat in archival boxes and toss in a desiccant pack.

 

i used to accuse my sister of doing the same thing with her kids - "everything i do is for my children's benefit" - yeah, right! - everything you do, is for YOUR benefit, cause you don't want to make the really HARD choices and inconvenience yourself - if the children benefit at all - it's merely "icing on the cake"...same with coins - we tend to make most choices on considerations OTHER that what's REALLY in the COIN's best interest...just saying.....thanks!

 

Another album option are CAPs albums. For world coin collectors, and others who want to make customized albums, CAPs is about the only way to do it.

They look like the Lighthouse pages shown above, but have customizable printed inserts that you can have typed up for the particular coins that you have in the set....
http://www.capsalbums.com

 

I bought a few pages and I like them, except it seems that I didn't quite buy the right size because they're all a little loose. I wish they weren't so expensive.

 

The only way you'll get a precise fit is to remove your coins from the direct-fit capsules they're in now and put them all in "H" size Air-Tites with the foam spacer rings. And, of course, that's yet another expense.

I did that with all of my raw coins over a period of several months. Fortunately, with a small collection, it didn't break the bank, but it may not be a practical option for someone who needs to store many hundreds or possibly even thousands of coins.

 

wow! how many different species do you have and do they all get along? do you keep the big predators away from the smaller "prey? (smile)

 

I buy every bear and turtle coin that I can find and reasonably afford, plus any other animals that catch my fancy. You do have to keep the wolves and lions away from the herd animals though.

 

I know we're getting way off topic here, but you sound like the right person to bounce this off of.

I assume that horses, lions and eagles are the animals most often depicted on circulation coinage worldwide, probably in that order and by a wide margin.

Am I right? And if I am, what do you think are the next in the ranking of most-used animals? Fish? Bears? Birds (other than eagles)? Or something obvious that I'm overlooking?

 

I agree with the ones you listed. Eagles might even rank first because several European countries had them on every coin they issued for centuries. Lions are also on the official crests of several nations, some not even in Africa, like Belgium and Great Britain. I'd also say that fish and birds are both good ones to come next. Of course if you wanted to be technical you could break them up into type of bird or fish, and that would be hard. But after those I'd say it drops off dramatically. I don't really know what would come next. I have 80-some bear coins in my collection. It's hard to say where that would rank. A lot of them are from Canada.

 

Well, that was the "Or something obvious that I'm overlooking?"

 

For those who want another solution to their problem may I suggest that you put the coins in airtites; the airtites in 3x3 flips and the resulting holders stored in 3x3 pages so that they don't fall out all the time. I don't buy any mint state coins so I have no problems storing my coins in albums and folders and my extras in paper 2x2 holders. I buy used plastic flips by the thousands and use one pocket for attributions for my maverick tokens. That works well for me. For my duplicates
I use manila envelopes and 2x2 corners cut from inbound mail. Every person that buys or trades from me removes the tokens from the holders and puts it in one of their own. I rarely get duplicates of provenanced tokens. When I do it is kept in the original holder for the end user to decide.

 

Elephants are another popular animal for coins, though they are mostly limited to African and certain Asian countries. Which brings me to the point of why birds are so common - every country has birds. There aren't a lot of animals you can say the same about. At least as far as animals people actually want to celebrate goes.

 

Hey, I can't read all these messages, apologies I'm pitiful. I was just wanting to discuss these cheap 2x2 Mylar flips....you are saying they are not safe ? Will they scratch? I was planning on using them temporarily, I've ordered all the Morgan silver dollar airtites, they aren't here yet, but I've just put most of my others in flips....I'm now worried they'll be scratched, scuffed, and have spots?! Is that what is going to more than likely happen? Thanks for your time.

 

I've got a new question please? Has anyone sent coins in for conservation or grading? Is it a good idea? Are the fees not worth it?

 

MANY people here have sent coins in for grading and in some cases conservation. It isn't a cheap practice, I think the consensus was in another thread that coins worth less than $200 or so were not worth sending off. As to the 2x2 flips, of course you could cause damage to a proof or high quality gem uncirculated coin while placing it into a mylar flip. On the other hand, having it in a flip is preferable to having it sit out on your window sill. Welcome to CoinTalk, what do you collect?