What, in your opinion, is the best coin album? I am aware of Whitman, Lighthouse, and Dansco albums. A retail seller of Dansco albums states that your coins will not discolor. Has anyone had a Dansco album for 30 or so years to verify this?
I collect Whitman folders because they are cheap and it's sorta cool to collect the folders for old coins. I am unhappy with the dollar folders, so just bought some Whitman albums. I know with Dansco albums they can wear poorly by the way they are designed.
I like Dansco albums. They have provided me with a good balance between technology, performance, & price. I am not familiar with the poor wear characteristics mentioned by gubni. That said, I keep the majority of my collection in individual coin holders. Some of those individual holders are in Dansco albums with 12 pocket pages. Dansco albums (with the standard holes & sliding windows) will cause toning over time. See the Jefferson Nickel photo here. If you search for threads with the words "coin album" in the title, you will find 46 threads at CT where folks give their opinions on different coin albums. There are pros & cons to all of them.
I'm a DANSCO man. I like the way they present obverse, the reverse, and a hole for each date/mm. I've got several Whitman folders too. Some of the old ones have some real nostalgic value. Got a Buffalo Nickel Whitman folder that dates from the 1940s, it's old and beat up, but so were most of the nickels that came with it :smile.
I prefer Dansco, but also like older albums the above mentioned Library of Coins albums. I have had coins in all manner of albums, the ones mentioned, and even still have a lot of the old Whitman blue folders, and have never had toning. Some have been in blue folders for 40 or more years without toning. It's not usually the album (unless it's a sulphur infused product, and there are a few) that causes toning, but the environment the album is stored in. Where I live it's dry (less than 5% relative humidity) most of the year, so that helps.
