I'm looking for several air tights for some world stuff that is stacking up on me. I notice most is not standard diameter...so like 29.6 mm. What are you guys buying? 27mm? It don't rattle? Or are you just going with a gasket holder for flexibility?
I've been using Air-Tires for years. For a world coin collector, the version with the ring inserts is by far the more practical option.
I bought some with ring inserts. I went with the closet bigger I could find....brought them home and did 1 but it rattles just a teeny bit of course. I tried with another coin a couple weeks ago I went as close as I could but smaller...the ring bonded up and looked crooked in the capsule. I know there is a solution just gotta figure it out.
I have also used Air-Tites for years. The "inbetweener" sizes (i.e, anything with a ".5" or some other decimal unit after it) always came with a degree of unpredictability and the version with the slightly flexible inner ring usually worked best - it sometimes seemed that one 23.5 mm would rattle in a 24 mm holder, but a different 23.5 mm coin would not. Likewise, some 23.5 mm coins fit nicely into 23 mm holders, but others would go in only with considerable force and leave the coin looking swallowed and overwhelmed by the inner ring. A select and frustrating few fit nicely into neither and some rattling remained the only option. One technique that often worked for me for those tighter fits was to take the inner ring out of the holder, wrap it around the coin first, and then fit the coin with the ring around it into the holder all at once - sometimes I had to use a small toothpick to push the outer edges of the ring into the holder and this often kept the ring from obscuring portions of the coin while still allowing a decent fit. It worked enough times for me to continue trying this technique. More than once I ordered both larger and smaller sized holders for a "tweener" coin (e.g., for a 23.5 mm coin I would order both a 23 mm and a 24 mm holder and just see which one worked better, which, given the holders' lower prices, saved another potential order and additional shipping costs). I never did establish a pattern, so I inevitably kept some element of trial and error in the process of choosing the right sized holder.
As the old saying goes - what ya see is what ya get. Put another way, what you did is as good as it's gonna get. Ya gotta realize that when it comes to coin diameter things are not as precise we think they might be. That's why when you try to put coins in albums sometimes they just won't go down in the hole and other times they keep falling out of the hole. It's because the diameter of any group of coins, all the same coin, differs ever so slightly. And even a fraction of a millimeter does make a difference. Bottom line, use the ring type of Air-Tite. They will keep the coins from rattling around and producing wear, or more wear as the case may be, on the coin. So that occsasional little wrinkle in the foam ring is a small price to pay
The foam inserts are far superior to direct fit. Every single time I have used direct fit capsules they shrink into the coin and I've had to smash them out. As for the sizes, I collect Nazi era type coins and none of them fit in airtites. The airtites available are either far too big or small to hold them. I usually just buy the smaller inserts and cut at it a little with a knife (which is time consuming) If the foam airtite is the right size it should NOT rattle.
My same exact experience with Airtites, fit-wise. It seems some of those "foam rings" (at least the black ones I buy) have better elasticity than others, which are firmer. The smaller size rings for the "A" size capsules seem softer.
They DO make "non-standard size" rings, you know. I buy mine at my LCS (Valley Coin) in non-standard sizes for 500-Won South Korean coins (26.5mm diameter) and use the non-standard 26mm black rings (very THIN) to place them into T-size airtites.
Sorry, I should have noted to err on the small side. The rings have a little stretch in them and will accommodate a coin that's a wee bit larger. Have not experienced the second thing you mentioned.
