Project Complete! Coin Cabinet!

@The Meat man, that is a stunning piece of craftsmanship. One you can be proud of, for sure. To enjoy your collection, you merely pull out a drawer (don't drool on them).

Not to be a killjoy, but did you do research on the walnut and felt? I know walnut is an oily wood, and black walnut will turn metal black. Not sure how you would check the felt, but I know there have been discussions here on CT, by some of our more knowledgable members in chemistry.

 

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Thanks!

I did try to see what woods might be best/safer for coins but there wasn't a whole lot of information out there. Mahogany is always given as the best option, and oak as maybe the worst. Walnut seemed to be about as good as any. I guess we will see!

As for felt, again I couldn't find much, but it seemed to me that it was a pretty common option so I thought it would probably be alright. First choice was velvet but the thought of hand-cutting 500 circles was not appealing.

I'm not too concerned about it. I have a feeling that I will be opening, looking at, and handling the coins enough that any possible wood problem will not be an issue.

 

@The Meat man congrats on completing what I'd describe as a future family heirloom. I can't imagine anyone not being proud to receive that piece of craftsmanship. Or worse, family members fighting over who should receive it.... hopefully many many decades in the future.

I'm also amazed at the 20-25 hours invested in the construction. If I had the talent, I'd guess I'd be all in at 20-25 hours for EACH drawer! And double that for the cabinet.

Again, absolutely beautiful!

 

You could go into business making cabinets like that. There are probably many collectors that would pay top dollar for such a cabinet, including myself. What's on the market, currently, is a lot of smaller cabinets of lesser quality.

 

Couldn't a possible wood/felt problem be solved by encapsulating each coin in a round plastic snap-together?
J.T.

 

All I can say is—wow!

 

I do actually have a couple coins encapsulated, but only ones I'm quarantining for possible bronze disease.

Most of the holes are too small though to hold a capsule.

 

I am about 10 hrs into a cabinet myself, and haven't figured out the tray displays yet. The holes are a lot of work and tedious. They sure look awesome though.

 

Yeah I had to pause a time or two because the drill press was getting too hot.

I thought about doing different sized holes in each tray, but decided to just find a size that would fit my biggest sestertius and go with that across the board. I'm glad I did, because it gives me more freedom to move and arrange the coins however I want.
And of course I did do a couple trays with a larger hole size for my medallic coins (and maybe a Ptolemaic hockey puck if I ever get one!)

 

You did an incredible job! Very jealous - a coin cabinet is on my woodworking project list as well, but my toolbox and skills are still a bit lacking.

 

Amazing job!
I created small labels for the trays and use the binder method to cross reference...

So this is Tray #8.. with each space identified

 

Update! I received a replacement set of felt circles, this time much more the color I had originally wanted. The more vibrant red is perfect IMO, nicely contrasting with the dark wood and highlighting the coins! Much better than the dull brownish maroon felt I had first received.

I've also made some progress with labeling each coin, using archival paper and pen. The information I'm able to include is scant but (as I said in the OP) I'm planning to add a personal collection catalog number on the back of each paper so that you can look up each coin in a binder and get the full information. That project will take some time.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the new and much-improved look!

This is my "Greek" tray:



And my small Chinese collection:



Here is the basic format I'm using for the labels:







I have yet to label my World coin collection.



And to finish things off, here is a tray of Roman coins!



So much nicer! I am very pleased with the new color.