So, I am finally ordering the cardboard coin flips for a very badly organized random collection of world coins (think junk coins that were never really searched through and have been sitting in boxes or random bags in surprise places around the house). I plan on putting all the coins into the cardboard flips as I will be sharing with my daughter to start her collection. I have all sizes in my cart at about 300 pieces each, but was wondering if there are certain sizes you go through faster when dealing with mostly 20th c. European, African, and Asian coins. I don't want to pull out the coins until they can be processed as my daughter will find ways to make art out of them. Or crunch them together . Thanks in advance!
I like to go with 38/40mm (crown size) or US half dollar size 30.6mm. That will cover most of the range of coin diameter.
I use more nickel and half dollar than anything else. Quarter would be next. The large dollar I use least. I don't buy penny size because it's too close to nickel. I guess it depends how precise you want to be.
I would think, not a user of them myself, nickel and half dollar would cover most issues. So what its a quarter size in a half holder, close enough. A tiny coin in a half dollar holder, though, would risk piercing the plastic. It would be fine in a nickel holder though. Depends on what you are collecting, but should cover most issues unless you are a heavy crown collector.
If you like the coin to fit as close as possible, most could be done with nickel, quarter and half dollar flips. I had a nice array of silver minor coins and for those most fit in dime/nickel holders. If I was you, I'd order less of the silver dollar and dime sized and increase the number of the others.
This probably won't help. I like them to fit closely so I end up using all of the sizes pretty equally.
I had 1000's and 1000's of foreign coinage, about 75% Canadian, and1825-1925, but some 18th century, but nothing later than 1950. I had, at one time over 1000 1859 large cents for variety collecting. But I used almost exclusively 1 1/2 x 1 1/2's, NOT 2 X 2's. You get 30 to a page, rather than 20 and there is more than enough room on the cardboard to put a few things on the holder, top, bottom and sides, even with 50 cent sizes. Go with quarter and 50 cent sizes for 80% of what you have and 10% each for the very small or dollar/8 real coinage.
I generally long term hold collect only 21mm and larger coins...with the vast majority in the 30mm+ sizes. I prefer 2x2 saflips over cardboard as I can get almost the entire range of coin sizes in them (up to 38mm) and they're safer for coin storage than any cardboard I've encountered.
How bad is the cardboard for the coins? Most of my collection is "junk" coins from the big box at the coin shop or by the pound from ebay, so not sure if they would be worse off in cardboard or does it only matter for more rare or valuable coins? The cost difference looks to be about 17 cents per coin. Also, do the coins fall out of those flips or move around in them? Thanks for your reply!
It's really about your storage regime. Keep the coins cool-ish, dry and low-ish humidity and you should be fine. Plus, if the coins are generally as you describe, no need to worry at all. Be cost efficient so you can spend on more coins. And have fun.
Long term paper will tend to tone coins, all things being equal. I use flips, but use paper inserts for identical ion. Follow @Mr. Flute excellent advice above, and you will have no issues.
Wow, I did not know this. So, when you say paper inserts for identical coin, what does that mean exactly? Thanks for your response!
Oops...makes more sense. Those are very detailed IDs. Is there any concern about paper in the opposite pocket damaging a coin? I'm definitely leaning towards the saflips for coins that are more valuable.
I put my entire collection of well over 10,000 coins in cardboard 2x2s and I'm going on about 15 years with no noticeable problems. In my opinion some people take this too seriously. Some will wear gloves, blow off each case with a can of air, carefully bend each staple, etc. I don't want to do that and I'm happy with my system. The only thing I will say is if you have proof coins you have to watch out for loose bits of cardboard because those will leave black toning on them if they're touching.