Got tired of album holes, due to some in slabs, so I did this...

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Hey, why not? Another idea would be to fill such holes with properly sized photos of actual coins.

 

Maybe a picture of the coin in the slab would work even better.

 

I like the OP's idea better. A photo of the slab would be too small to show details and/or read, and a photo of the coin wouldn't let anyone know that the (graded) coin is in a slab.

Chris

 

You can always make a digital coin album - solves a lot of drama as I understand you do not want to crack slabs just to fill the holes.

 

That would still drive me crazy. I would say crack them out and put them in the holes, but at those grades you're talking serious money (do you actually own those coins in those grades? I'd love to see the 09S VDB!). The other problem is they would look seriously out of place. Why did you buy such high grade keys when the rest of your set is mid-grade circulated? Why not build a well matched set?

All that being said, I think pictures of the coins would be better than numbers. Crop a life-size pic and cut it out, put that in the hole instead.

 

Cool. Do what you want. They're your holes after all. Fill 'em anyway you want lol

 

Like using a picture of a piece cheese in a mouse trap to catch a picture of a mouse!

 

This gives me some great ideas for my BitCoin album.

 

Just curious if you have the slab number on the reverse and if it is upside down?

 

Dude...I've asked several coin supply manufacturers to make these as plastic or cardboard plugs. How did you make them and cut them perfectly round, etc?

 

I use tokens from mint sets to plug holes in my dansco cent albums. The metal tokens should not react with other coins.

 

I also prefer the visual of coins in the album, as opposed to having some in slabs, but as you mention, there are practical reasons to keep the slabbed coins intact, and I just couldn't bring myself to cracking them out. I do own the slabbed coins as marked, and I'd post a photo of the 09-S VDB, but I can't get to my bank just now. Perhaps I will photograph it next time I'm there, and post it as requested.

As to the rest of my set being "mid-grade circulated", this is not the case, since most of the complete set through 2009 Memorial ARE uncirculated (all UNCs are not red, especially older ones), and I'm upgrading the others as I can afford to do so. All of the circulated coins are on the pictured page, except for the 22 Plain. The 14-D is no small change (nor is the 22 Plain), and frankly, it's pretty attractive as is.

One more point on the grade/condition of the coins. This was my father's collection, and all of his coins in this set are uncirculated, including the ones I chose to have graded/slabbed. The circulated coins are ones I added, since it was all I could comfortably afford. He gave the collection to me just before he passed in 1987, expressing regrets for not having completed it, and I promised him I would do so, although perhaps not with all coins being uncirculated. I did the the best I could, prioritizing keeping my promise to complete the set over adding only uncirculated coins. Had I decided to add only uncirculated coins to the ~10 vacant holes, I would not have completed the album yet, and I'm in my 70's. I think he is pleased that I kept my promise, as am I.

 

No, didn't go to that trouble, nor do the reverse pages provide any date/mm indication for any of the coins.

 

I spent hours searching for pre-made inserts for the holes, and to my surprise, couldn't find any. While a small niche, this seems to be a market opportunity for someone. I thought of contacting Dansco to see if I could obtain the plugs they punched out, but decided to just make my own. They and other album makers could probably just package and sell the "holes" they punched out, in all denominations.

As to how I made them, I first found the color and material I desired in OfficeMax/Office Depot, as a 1/4" thick foam board about 20" x 30". The other side was yellow. I cut 1" squares and pressed a spendable penny into the foam to mark the size needed. I then set the square on edge and using a razor knife cut it in half, reducing the thickness to ~ 1/8", then scraping the back to even it. I then repeated this to make the reverse insert.

For completing the obverse, I used a Brother labeler and clear 18mm tape to print the slabbed coin info, then I carefully cut the round plug with small sharp scissors, following along the rim impression in the foam made by the coin I pressed into it. I'm trusting that neither the adhesive from the label, nor the foam, will adversely affect the nearby coins, but I'm not certain of this result, and I'll be watching for problems.

 

Sounds reasonable, although one may need a lot of mint sets to acquire the tokens needed to fill the holes. They also likely won't match the album page color or contain information identifying the grading of the coins they represent. Whatever works for you.

 

Good suggestion, and I may do that as well, but I still like seeing the real coins up close and personal.

 

Thought of doing that but decided on this. Thanks for your suggestion.

 

I would do the reverse and have pages that hold slabs. Then put the unslabbed coins in the do-it-yourself slabs and put them in the album. Then you have all of the coins together.

 

I'm doing just that with my type set, with far fewer coins. The pages that hold slabs are for 9 slabs. The thickest slab albums I've seen hold 4 pages. There are 300 coins in this Lincoln collection, meaning it would require 34 slab pages and 9 albums to hold the collection. I hardly think this would be a better or easier way to house, store, or view the collection, but I thank you for your suggestion.