Hi! I'm having a headache trying to decide whether I'll keep my coins in nice little albums (one made for 1 cents, with dates written beside, one for 5 cents, etc) or if I'm going to put them all in u-do-it's (2x2's) in a big binder... That would cost less, but be less aesthetic a bit... maybe better for future trading and sorting... What do you think about that??? Thanks a lot Max
I prefer 2x2's simply because I am not looking to show off my collection to everyone, so it is much easier to store a box full of 2x2's than it is to store albums for me. Plus if you want to go sell your coins they are ready to go, there is no prep work. But in all honesty it depends on what your uses are, if you are showing off your collection then albums may be better, and if you just want to store your collection then use 2x2's.
I chose the both option because 2x2s and albums both have their uses. 2x2s are by far, the most flexible. They can be stored in a box or in a ring binder with pocket pages. Also if you plan on selling or trading coins in 2x2s, you don't have to do anymore prep work on them. Albums are great because it keeps coins organized better than 2x2s do. They are more convienient than pocket pages because more coins can fit on a page. If you are putting together a type set, albums are the best way to go. Albums also make it easier to but a type set together since the ports are labeled, which makes it much easier to see which ones are missing from your collection. I use 2x2s for misc coins which do not fit in my albums. When I have enough of a set in 2x2s, I will consider upgrading them to an album. The downside of albums are that they aren't very flexible storage wise. They can also end up being quite expensive. There are some coins which I don't keep in albums or 2x2s just because there are too many of them. I have the majority of my wheat cents in paper rolls and I am keeping the better grade ones in plastic tubes. I have plastic sandwich baggies full of coins which are unsorted or really not worth my time doing anything else with.
Dansco albums for the Sac dollars and the Lincoln Wheat Cents. Binder with pages of 2x2s (and one page of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2s) for the 20th Century Type Set. Whitman folders for other things including some of Thalia Elizabeth's coin collection. Thalia's world coins (mostly Queen Elizabeth, as you probably know) are in a binder with plastic pages with 2x2s (and one page of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2s).
Dansco albums so that I can stare for endless hours looking at the entire set front and back. Also, I enjoy showing my coins off to others so that it may spark more interest. I just cant see collecting coins and not having them to show off. For now I just have mint sets, proof sets and silver proofs in my Dansco's. Whitman folders for all circulated coins. 2 x 2's for coins that I dont have many of.
If I was to say anything here it would be a repeat of PyrotekNX with only one exception. No coins in paper rolls. I've noticed a great trend at coins shows to use the 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 instead of the 2x2's. Trying to sell an album of coins is like selling a complete car. You can sell all the parts for hundreds times more than the whole.
I would be inclined to keep the coins in the 2X2s until you have a complete or nearly complete set of whatever you are collecting. When you get to the point where the set is about finished, you can transfer the coins into an album for display and permanent storage. Most of my unslabbed coins are in 2X2s and it is an extremely easy, flexible, and inexpensive storage method that doesn't look bad either.
I can't find anyone but overpriced eBay that sells currency albums. I lean more toward paper currency than coins.
What kind of albums exactly are you using ? When you say the coins go green, that's kind of scary. It may be PVC damage and that could ruin the coins.
I would like to use albums for everything, but there are several drawbacks to that for me. First, related groupings of tokens often vary tremendously in size, and grouping by size would not be at all convenient. For the thousands of tokens I am after, I would also have literally thousands of $$$ in albums to store them all. I collect most types of tokens, so I am interested in essentially hundreds of thousands of tokens. There are well over 12,000 cwts, Rulau's catalogue has 1200 pages of pre1900 U.S. token listings (only about 120 on cwts), quantities of state merchant tokens will vary of course, but numbers in the 10,000 to 40,000 varieties per state is my guess for a typical range, transits and military are pretty large groups My cwts and a very few other types are somewhat consistent in diameter, so I keep those in albums. While Whitman used to make cwt albums, they are a little hard to find, especially in nice shape. I buy them when I can if the price is reasonable. I also use Danso generic albums and pages. Most albums for cwts are filled with cent pages and usually a nickel or quarter page at the back for the few larger sized ones. Typically I still have to do a little "custom fitting" with my dremel drum sander to enlarge the holes so the tokens will go in. Most other tokens go into 2 x 2's just so they may be grouped together as needed. Some of the smaller or more valuable sub-collections will go into pages in a binder, such as for the counters, exploders, Bryan money, batteries and Hard Times tokens.
Thanks for the comments!!! I'm thinking about it considering all of them... It's also a fact that albums usually need less storage room than binders of 2x2's... In the other hand... Once you put a coin in a 2x2, it will probably never be touched again, what is certainly a good point about protecting it. Also, you can't write much in albums... like grades... Hard to answer that question... Don't stop writing about it if you got something more to say! Thanks to all Max
I use nothing but Whitman Classic Albums to store my sets, like the Dansco Albums, you can see both sides of the coins and silver coins look beautiful in the blue pages of the Whitman Classic. All other coins that I have that I dont have albums for go into a 2 by 2 and go into a binder until I get enough that justifies buying the album.
