Ancient Coin Collection Storage

I was blown away by the positive feedback and inspiring comments after posting my “Whole Collection” poster. I'm afraid my storage method is considerably less impressive. I keep my collection in an inexpensive artist’s storage box in little to no order whatsoever. I dream of the day that I will sit down—label and store all of my coins neatly in white paper envelopes and line them up in order in a nice coin filing box. I’ll try to make that happen in 2019 until then—thanks for the inspiration!

 

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I have to organize my coins too... at least yours all in the same place. You can find a few old coins in every room of my house that I unintentionally left there, and I'm the only collector in my family.

 

That would drive me nuts. I have to have some order in my collections.

 

I did this a few years ago for several reasons: it's traditional, safe, economical, space saving, and the coins are easily accessible. Those rigid saflips are a pain when trying to remove a coin!

 

They also crack and break after only a few openings/closings and sometimes the bulk and weight of a coin alone (without repeated opening and closing) will fracture the Saflip!

Last year I switched to a somewhat thicker version of PVC-free flips and made a concerted effort to organize my collection. The thicker flips still break but it takes more openings/closings. Paper envelopes are wonderful and have the added bonus of not requiring an insert since you can write on the envelope, but I like being able to see the coin and having a handy pocket for any old pedigree ephemera. I'd love to have a tray system like a museum but would need to have a very secure and natural disaster-proof home!

Some of that ephemera can be delicate and hard to force into a stiff flip, so I make folded inserts out of custom printed business cards. They have to be folded and trimmed but the weight of the card stock safely contains the auction ephemera (old flip inserts, clippings etc) and allows easy insertion into the flip pocket.




I love these plastic boxes. There are small grooves inside which help keep the flip in place, plus there are two dividers which help keep the flips from sliding into disarray if the box is less than full.

 

That is an awesome storage system, @TIF ! I could really have fun and get into designing those labels. I count about 30 flips in your storage box. My coins don’t have that much provenance related paper accompanying them because most of them are not particularly high end specimens—except to me . I may be able to fit 50 flips in the type of storage box in your photo.

 

Yes, @Mat it IS driving me nuts and I want to do something about it now. It was okay when I only had 20 or so coins but I have over 300 now (counting the bulk lots of Widow’s Mites)

 

The white, acid free, paper flips are easy to handle and have plenty of space for recording information but the heavy duty archival flips are great for viewing and storing accompanying provenance related notes etc. Thanks for the advice, folks! I'll photo document whatever I decide to do. — @David Atherton , @TIF , @Mat , @CoinBlazer

 

I have a few boxes like TIF shows that are nearing 50 years old and still functional but my cheapskate nature caused me to switch to red paper boxes. I loved those dividers so my paper boxes have two cardboard dividers tacked in place with hot melt glue. You can leave one side free for expansion but glue the bottom and one side. Gluing all three sides requires extreme care in sizing so envelopes and the lids will fit. I use paper envelopes and don't mind having to remove coins for viewing since I don't like looking at coins through plastic flips anyway. Having a complete set of photos means I don't look at coins as often. I keep recent purchases in open trays while I am cataloging and studying them but within a year they go back into the boxes which store in safe deposit boxes easily.

 

that's a very neat way D Ray, compared to my "out of kaos comes order" or "the table of coins n stuff"method,not including those in my safe...of course some consider it a work of art ^^

 

Record keeping (including photos) via my self-designed database, is equally as important to me as my storage method. When the coins are tucked-away at the bank, which is most of the time, it's my only access to the collection.

 

I have a lot of cataloging to do and I am also working on long term storage solutions. I have been thinking about this for a long time... looked at what others are doing, etc. and decided to go this way .. will see if it is workable or not I guess:

-I purchased a nice large binder on the weekend.. each clear sheet in the binder holds two 4"x6" photos.. the top photo slot will hold a merged photo showing the Obv and Rev of a coin.. the bottom photo slot will be card stock with the attribution, history of the coin, etc. So no coins in the binder - just the photos and associated information. Include a numbering system, etc.
-For coins I do not handle too often I will use the boxes similar to TIFs .. the flips numbered to refer back to the binder.

-I like to re-purpose things.. so for coins that I handle often I have been working on some trays .. here is prototype #1.. spray painted and some red felt added:




I have also picked up a couple of these jewelry boxes that were under $5 (I think $3?) at the Goodwill.
I have cleaned them, sanded them and with just a bit of spray paint they came out OK. This one is not organized yet... may also add some dividers in each drawer..


-Lastly all of the photos and attributions will be added to Google Keep (as was suggested to me here).. great way to keep digital copies and I can access from my phone, etc.

Anyway.. as I am sure for all this is a daunting project. But it's enjoyable and I will slowly get where I want to be.

 

For my Chinese coins that fit in 2x2 envelopes, they go into a repurposed slide projector box. (Yes, actual slides!!!)



I have hundreds of Chinese coins, and my box can only take so many, so the excess get put into 2x2 boxes. Those are not pictured here. On the left is my “coinage from each city I visited collection” (expect a thread on that soon ), and on the right is my general ancient/medieval/cool modern collection.



Chinese coins which do not fit in either of the above methods are stored in purpose-made plastic containers and stored in a repurposed mahogany silverware box I got at Goodwill.



And lastly, Chinese coins that do not fit any of the above methods or modern coins that are entombed in slabs are stored in a PCGS box

 

I've got a zippered 3-ring binder and have the twenty 2x2 plastic holder 3-ring pages inside holding all my coins.

I've got 12 pages on there right now mostly full (90%)... It gets heavy carrying it.

 

I have my raw graded coins in either 2X2/ 2 1/2x 2 1/2 Saflips (600+)
Rest are housed in ANACS/ PGGS/ NGC/ CCCS slabs around 270+ coins
I am making proper detailed data labels for my non slabbed coins. I also keep all previous auction data tags, for provenance.
John

 

I use two cigar boxes to hold all my coins. I no longer store them in PVC flips because of the the same problem @TIF has encountered, they crack and break very quickly. Hence the use of manila envelopes and white envelopes for each coin. I sort them based on date, so on the left hand side of box 1 starts with Augustus, left hand side of box 2 starts with Septimius Severus and goes on up to the Byzantine trachys (The empire never fell!)

At some point in 2019 I will break in box 3. (Don't worry, they were all fine cohibas)! In some cases enjoyed with a fine port.

The untouchable coins (my late roman hoard buys) are stored in mayonnaise jars if they are not easily attributable. So, on long winter evenings I sometimes pour these out and do some more attributions, ignoring the slugs, which I have yet to throw away.

 

I've used many approaches for storage over the years but now most of my collection is housed in various sized Abafil coin cases. These are marketed by Ed Waddell. I have four different sizes, the largest of which is the mini-diplomat with five trays and they all fit in a medium sized safe deposit box.

In addition, I have a few coins of very high quality that have considerable luster, For extra protection I use E&T Kointainer capsules. These lightweight capsules protect the coins from environmental exposure, all surfaces are visible, and it's quick and easy to remove the Kointainer for photographing or just being "intimate" with the coins (I don't like slabs...at all). Five coins in this image are in Kointains.

I fully agree. I have used various approaches to cataloging my collection. Years ago, i used 3x5 cards with photos glued to the card and all of the pertinent info inked in, I later moved to Excel then to an MS Access database with custom reports, but I have recently become a Mac user so I'm using MS Excel exclusively with embedded images. I wrote an excel VBA macro to create a one-page per row report that I keep in a three ring notebook.

 

Sorry to tell you that, but there is a better and safer way to store your coins . It is not very known in America, but in Asia people used it for centuries...
http://www.tellerreport.com/news/--japanese-swallows-8-kg-of-coins-.B1u0llTtQ.html

 

LOL

 

Somewhat disturbing but Interesting Reminds me of Michel Lotito https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Lotito