Is there another company that makes "Dansco-like" world coin albums? This is something I've seen ONCE before from another, rare, Korean coin collector (I mean the collector was rare, in that he collected Korean coins!). I think it had a different cover, though. Looks like the latest coin is the South Korea 50 Won coin, and the front cover shows the final date as "1974"... Who else besides Dansco does these? This doesn't look totally "Dansco" to me.
No idea. That's definitely not an actual Dansco album. Pretty much everything except the pages is wrong for it to be an official Dansco product. And, I don't think Dansco makes custom pages (though they do sell blank binders). I would not be surprised if it's a product of a small Korean or Chinese company.
Looks like the style of dansco but definitely not one of their products. I've been trying to get my brother interested in creating world coin type albums, since he has some capital and interest in business. I showed him a Mexico type album dansco on ebay selling for 140 on ebay, without coins. I wouldn't know where to start though, other than using a Krause book. In any case, he could care less about coins and said they wouldn't make money. One day I hope somebody gets some quality world albums out
To be honest - WOW!!! Some of the coins in the album are just not obtainable unless you decide to sell your house. For instance, the 1888 1 warn, 1893 1 whan, the Russo-Korean coinage all are at least four - five figure coins!!! What's puzzling is that the 1909 5 chon is not in the album. Perhaps back then other coins were more common. I would like to have seen what 5 fun coins are in the albums. Would be interesting to see if they have included all varieties. It's actually possible to do a digital coin album like the Korean Empire coinage I have designed a while back: https://issuu.com/gxseries/docs/korea_year_type_album I am in the middle of overhauling the designing process to make it more similar to a Dansco type like this one shown: https://issuu.com/gxseries/docs/japan_type_set_1870_current From my observation, most of the world coin albums as shown were produced until 1970s and for some reason stopped right there. Perhaps the market slowed down drastically and it was no longer profitable to make such albums. Ultimately anything can be done but I just reckon the market isn't big enough. Agreed, while some albums are sold at some crazy figures - the question is, what are the average Joe willing to pay for such albums? I am certain most are not willing to pay more than 50+ USD unless it's a hard to come by album where I suspect 100 - 200 USD will be the tops. From a business point of view, unless you have a large market to supply, this can be very, very challenging. Otherwise this can be a kickstarter project - I can do the design. Just do not know any manufacture that can do this as a cost effective manner.
I see what you're saying. But I think a demand isn't there because there aren't any convenient ways like albums to collect world coins. Perhaps it won't pick up like early coin boards did in the US, but with the right exposure who knows. If you look on ebay, there is a company (perhaps outside the US), that has type albums for countries in the Middle East like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. They are 50 dollars or best offer. So that's an example it can be done, and is currently. And they have sold, since it says 6 or 7 sold next to the price. These albums seem small, like covering a few decades, so there's a few for some countries. But I've also seen one that covers roughly 1900 to 1990, which is more appealing to me. The 40-50 they'd cost is steep for me, too steep, but not if it was a country I have more interest in like Scandinavian ones, Mexico, Great Britain, France, etc.
Joe, I do hear you. I have seen examples of such albums and do wonder about who manufactures such albums. There are some concerns that I have which I do not know the answers for them - 1) Since these are manufactured overseas, suppose if there is some kind of quality defects, would it not be the buyers that suffer? Quality of workmanship? How would return policy work? 2) Shipping logistics - another huge cost 3) Copyright issues. I'm not sold on the idea of spending a huge time researching, designing and hand over the final product, only to get a pittance for it. Imagine if you have it produced in China - sure you get cheap products. Wait a few months down the road and you get pirated goods that spring up quickly, only to bite into profit. Just to put into context, while there is a base template for the Japan album since Dansco produced one more than 50 years ago, it took me a good week to research and another week to produce the design. Main reason being is that I disagreed with the overall presentation which it did take a huge amount of time and effort to go against everything that I knew. 4) Suppose all of the above issue is addressed. The startup cost of manufacturing such album is a huge question. What kind of capital is required, where would it be manufactured, quality of material that is going to be used, material cost, potential profit, marketing, final product cost, etc. I guess it helps if one knows the field. Last time I tried to design a US type set, it took me at least two weeks to research and another week to come up with a rough design. Would have taken another week for a full prototype design. Reason why it took that long is that it's not my forte. Threw it on the side since there doesn't seem to be much interest in it. I guess I can apply doing it to any numismatic field and have it a prototype design ready in one month depending on the complexity. If it's a small type set which spans for 50 years, I'm certain I can have it done in a week. I'm just not prepared to throw that much time for the sake of charity.
I agree. It would be too much work and time for one or a few people. And there's too many areas to address like you raised in number 4. It's too bad dansco doesn't start up their Continental Line again, because that would speed up things quite a bit, as opposed to doing this from scratch
Joe - I think I found those Arab coin albums that you are talking about. http://www.arabiancoins.com/albums.html They do have a store on ebay and this is their official site. Still have no idea who the manufacturer is. On the other hand... I'm redesigning a Korean Empire type set album as we speak...
Thanks so much for the link. Since I've been collecting world coins for years, I finally have enough for some type sets. I went on this site I found by googling coin type sets and printed their lists for Sweden and Mexico. The lists had a few errors so I used Krause also. I then just printed my own spread sheets that are blank and made basic type sets for Denmark and Norway, again relying on Krause and omitting a few minor type/varieties. I'm using regular binders and 2x2 holder pages, which is all we have. I also had a nicer book that I used for Sweden. All my type sets are for the 1900s, which is most cases is easy to do. What time span is your korean set? Most of the coins I have and will acquire for the sets are 1-20 each. I think I've run across a few that are 30-40 in F or better, but I'll probably get a problem coin that has some eye appeal. I'm just using my coins for now and will upgrade over the years by reviewing my lists where I input the year and grade of a coin if it's in the set. Some go for high grade type sets (probably US collectors more so), but I actually prefer nice circulated coins that look like they had some genuine use but weren't damaged. What about the condition/grade of coins you will get?
Joe, I think the beauty (and challenge) of collecting coins is that you can define what you would like to collect. If someone just wants to collect just a specific denomination, that's fine. I believe there is a collector that collects ONLY dimes around the world and has an interesting type set. If someone wants to collect based on a certain theme, that's also another type set. If someone wants to collect P01 coins, that's also another type set. It reminds me of an oxymoron maths problem - would you consider a set of a set, a set? (the answer is no). Maths nerds will get what I mean. From a design perspective, the most challenging aspect is to present it in an aesthetics manner. Equally challenging is to understand coins that were struck and had went through several design changes due to various situations. US coins struck around 1850s is a prime example. Also another good example is Mexican coinage around 1980s - 1990s when there was rapid inflation. To present it by era, theme, denomination is the goal but sometimes that's just too difficult. I will be brave enough to disagree with Dansco's layout format but I'll leave it for another day. Also from a designing point of view, I personally prefer it to be machine struck. Crude struck coinage is an headache to design for typeset as each coin has to be individually measured and custom 'cut'. However it can be done and the outcome can look quite impressive. Take for instance this Russian type set that I have done for Paul I (1797 - 1801): http://gxseries.com/numis/digital_album/paul_i_page1_small.jpg http://gxseries.com/numis/digital_album/paul_i_page2_small.jpg This can be tricky to apply for other collector's coins since these coins were not struck with collar and hence some coins can vary by a few millimeters, making this type set design a one off. Ultimately, I believe custom albums is the ultimate collector's goal. Let's put the technical challenge and business aspect aside for now. How good would it be to say that if a custom design digital prototype album could be made within a week and if there was confirmed order of at least 100+ (enough for business to make a profit) - is this not a winning solution? Now back to the Korean type set... this will be from 1888 to 1910. I could easily include South Korea but I refuse to include North Korea. (I'm sure the "Great" leader is furious and want to start throwing tantrums and other random 'projectiles'...)
Wow. Very impressive digital album. I have no idea how you did that, took such good pics, and laid it all out like that. If I had to be critical, I'd maybe add mintages (if there were any). If you do all the work, have it digital like that, and could provide the specs (ie diameter of holes), I don't see why a company like Arabian coins or dansco wouldnt develop the actual albums. Like you said, it would definitely be a winning solution provided there was some demand. But the demand might take time to come forth, after it's available like the Arabian coins products. A company might have to take a gamble, but with quality work like yours it seems like a small gamble
Joe, thank you for your kind words. I think it's something that any keen person with burning passion can do. But again, it has taken me a long way to get to here. As for a tip of how to create such albums... I guess the best advice is to imagine it's something that you really, really want from inside out. It's like when you purchase your first car, you open the bonnet and try to understand everything inside even though you don't. I've thought about mintage figures but figured that with type sets, it doesn't quite make sense to put such figures. Do I put a total number of mintage of the years the coins that have been struck? With yearly mintage however it does make sense like these ones I made for the Australian 5 cents I made a long time ago http://gxseries.com/numis/austype/album/aus_5c_pg1_small.jpg http://gxseries.com/numis/austype/album/aus_5c_pg2_small.jpg Mind you, that was designed back in 2008 so my photography and photoshop skills were mediocre. The background is good except I failed to take account of the size - it's A4 which is too bulky to handle if that ever become a reality. I sure have come a long way... Current design is the exact same specification of the Dansco album - if I make a print out, I can just put a page side by side with the original and it would look very identical. I think I have done that once before for the digital Japan coin album and was blown when I did a comparison. As I'm only doing this when I have some free time, it's taking a lot slower than I'd like it to be. I am hoping to finish the Imperial Korean coin album within the next 24 hours...
I'm so sorry about the mintage figure thing. You're totally right, it slipped my mind somehow that it would be unnecessary if not unfeasible to have these figures in a type set. I really like your links of the 5 cents. Beautiful lay out. It's almost like I have the board in front of me. This is the closest thing to having a tangible album like that. I assume these coins in your links are your own, which is a fantastic way to cover your progress and share with others. Please post the Korean set you'll have done soon. Do you have the coins in your digital sets organized in binders the same way? Also, have you contacted Dansco, Littleton, or anyone else and shared your digital albums? I hope these companies start making type albums and even series ones for lots of different countries. Sorry for all the questions, I just think your work is very interesting
Joe, I own all of the coins in the links shown. Unfortunately the way how I have them arranged in my albums are in 2 x 2 holders. It would be nice if I could design anything I like. For bulk lot of coins where I collect by years such as the Australian 5 cent shown earlier, I have them in Numis coin album, manufactured by Leuchtturm. Some examples as shown online: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...0ahUKEwjHqrX8oPrLAhXIFpQKHT8vB1QQsAQIcQ&dpr=1 Now back to the Korean Empire type set - I'm still not quite happy with the photos I've taken a while back. Recovered most of them from the old laptop that fried itself a while back so I was missing a few pictures. A fair number of copper coins were treated with Verdicare so there has been a lot of work going on in the background. Of course I didn't have the newer photos... For a preview, this is a design that was made 7 years ago (!) http://gxseries.com/numis/koreatype/album/korea_early_type_pg3_small.jpg Of course the quality of photography and everything else has improved since then. I've got hold of some really nice coins as well to go with it. Ideally if I could sell such ideas / designs to coin album publishers and make money out of it, it would be a win win solution for everyone. I really do enjoy designing even though it does get very overwhelming at times. Trust me, at times it does make you become Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as you have to become your worst critic to make this 'perfect'. I'll see if I could find that print out of the Japan album and place it side by side against the original Japan Dansco album...
As promised, this is a Korean Dynasty type set. https://issuu.com/gxseries/docs/korea_dynasty_type_set_1888_1910 Not so many pages but this has been difficult to work with since it is a lot smaller than A4 size. I guess what is neat with this is that for the first page - all coins were struck in Korea and in the following page, all coins were struck in Japan. Pretty neat contrast in my opinion. As of why this takes so long to design a single album, there is good reason. This is essentially designed to spec and here are some examples - Coin on the left is on top of a printout - you can see that it fits exactly Compared against the original. Just a bit of the same that I have a cheap printer and this is printed on standard paper, not photo paper. Background color is lighter than the original and the dimension is probably about 2-3mm bigger. I think I got the dimensions off another album hence it might seem a bit bigger. That said, I'm quite happy with what I've done!
Thanks for the links. I like the numis albums. I'm sure they're made with safe plastic. I once got a small book like that from Canada and it started leeching onto my coins. I was using the album for a coin from every country around the 1950s or so. Very good job on the second link. Your diligence has paid off big time!
Awesome! Great job. I don't think it could have been done better. The quality is excellent. I could see clearly when I zoomed in for details. It is hardly different than having the album in hand, which is a great achievement. Congrats
I guess with modern technology, anything can just happen if you have the right mindset and altitude. Personally within the next 10 - 20 years, I wonder if I would come back here and read this thread again. I suspect that with 3D printing, it would make coin album and coin plastic manufactures worry for good reasons. Understandably at current moment, 3D printing costs are still high but it's only a matter of time. Remember the times when color printers just seem like a novelty? I still remember using a dot matrix printer (!) With 3D printing, you eliminate so many variables such as a minimum amount of print run, ever rising postage prices, outdated albums which takes years just some minor updates, ability to customize - something where current manufacturing method just cannot do with the current market. I suspect when printing cost drops down to less than 10 dollars and the author takes about 10 - 20 dollars each for royalty, it will change the landscape of manufacturing. I don't even think a person even needs to have a 3D printer at home - go to office depot and they can take care of it. Maybe a bit too ahead of times?
