Ancients: Organization and attribution at work

Mines pretty much like that.

 

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@stevex6, I would change your installation of that safe man. Safes are only as good as their installation. You need to preferably have that both bolted into the concrete, as well as construct walls around it. Any safe like that, if they can tip it over, can be busted into literally in less than a minute. Slightly longer if they cannot tip it but still have access to the front with crowbars. Best installation will be walls around it so you can open but a long pry bar cannot get leverage on the door. Regarding SDB's, I agree usually a waiting list for larger ones. I have a 10x10, the largest my bank has. I have room for one or two red boxes left, so I am on the waiting list for when another becomes available. I like to put any good ancients and pm in there. I will be buying a safe for my guns, (have two small boys), but when I do will install it like i described. I did a lot of research on safes a while ago, and what I described is pretty much what all of the experts suggest. That is why I am suggesting to you sir, not to be a know it all but to try to keep your pretties safe.

 

Thanks man => yes, since that photo was taken, that baby has been Hilti-drilled and cemented into the concrete floor (I will think about building walls around it)

... oh, but thanks again for the heads-up, med-man (yah, it's a pretty cruel world, where a 500 pound gun-safe, cemented into the basement floor isn't a good enough hiding-spot for my cool coins, eh?)

Cheers

 

Great advice

 

It's my opinion that Abafil cases are completely safe. I've got some coins that have been in them for 10 years and all are just fine. Some have toned somewhat, which is completely natural and a very good thing IMO. Some haven't budged an inch off of bright white (which sucks!). "Cabinet toning" is often used as a positive descriptor in silver coins but I'm personally not convinced how much most cabinets have to do with it. I think it has more to do with the quality of the surfaces of the coin than the typical storage methods.

Here is how a museum stores coins; metal trays with the coins in cardboard boxes on top of various types of paper tags. This is at the American Numismatic Society. There are several very rare Imperatorials in this tray and this is probably a couple million dollars worth of coins in this tray alone. Check out the toning on some of these coins - they're black! Some of the brighter ones have been in this collection for many decades and are harshly cleaned so they will probably never tone beyond their current state. Believe it or not, many belonged to the famous collector Edward T. Newell and the curator at the ANS told me that "he was a cleaner" while shaking his head.

So, does this look like any way to pamper a multi million dollar collection of ancient coins?

Remember that your coins have been stored in the elements for 2000 years. Unless you're completely reckless, your preferred storage method for the next few decades is probably completely fine.

 

Indeed.

And as for the collection in the photo........good God, tremendous.

btw fingerprints can be stolen from photos.

 

Swell. Edited.

 

No Problem. Wasn't sure if you knew.

 

I had no idea and though you were pulling my leg until I looked it up. I must be getting old...

Thanks!

 

No Problem. I work in the tech field. Scare you silly if you knew the ways you can get taken.

 

That's one amazing collection tray, drool drool. How did you get to look at 'em?

 

Good question! Just make an appointment.

The ANS in New York is open to the public but you simply have to coordinate your visit with them. You will be with a staff member in the coin viewing area. It's free to Society members, $50 day for non members (might as well join for the cost). There is quite a bit of security, obviously, and some requirements for non members in order to see items from the collection.

http://numismatics.org/About/Visiting

 

I'm debating whether I should commit blasphemy and change my coins from plastic flips to lighthouse cardboard mylar flips. I find from more than a decade of experience that cardboard flips are easier to remove from the album if you want to share/see coin. The one downside is you have to remove staples if you actually want to hold them, but it's not like I constantly have the need to hold a raw coin in hand. But on the upside, a properly fitted cardboard flip will hold coins more securely in place and make them less prone to rubbing (ie. wear). I can still have a label with info for the coin on the space next to the one occupied by the coin, so I can still have a label with info which can be transfered to a plastic flip if I ever sell or gift a coin.

That and I still have several hundreds of the blasted things sitting in boxes in a drawer from my pre-slab days.

Decisions, decisions....

 

I don't like staples near coins. You won't either if you don't remove them properly and get a scratch.

 

I just got some Lighthouse cardboard 2x2s and put my coins in them. Honestly, they are so much better than other ones I've used in the past. The mylar is soft so that it wraps beautifuly around the irregularities of ancient coins and creates a glove like fit, so the coins won't be sliding and picking up scratches in the album. It is thin enough that the coins look clear through the windows of the holder and you can easily feel every detail of the coin through the mylar. It is also sturdy enough that coins can be removed from the album pages without the mylar tearing, but soft enough that with your fingers you can easily remove the coin from the cardboard holder without having to have the hastle of removing the staples to get the coins out. Basically, it is the best of all worlds. All my Ancients are going there from now on.

 

Here's a storage question - I use the lighthouse MB boxes to hold my Ancient & Medieval coins. I like to keep them in 2x2 saflips with a printed tag. However, the Saflips are just a little too big to fit properly in the MB box. Does anyone know of a pvc free flip that is just a bit smaller than the saflips? I'm trying to avoid getting 1.5x1.5s...

You can kinda see how the flips don't lie flat here...

 

I like this setup, being able to view the reverse of the coin is so much easier than having to take the coin out of the album page to see the reverse.