My latest storage and display solutions for a collection containing both slabbed and raw coins

Here is my latest storage and display solution for the "Eclectic Box" collection. It does indeed reside in an actual box most of the time, but when I display it, I wanted to "think outside the box" (literally), and upgrade to something a bit more interesting to look at.

This is primarily a collection of slabbed (i.e., third-party certified coins in plastic "slab" holders), but at any given time there are a number of newer purchases which have not yet been submitted for slabbing, and remain "raw", or loose. Finding a consistent way of storing the raw coins with the slabbed coins and displaying them all together in an organized and appealing manner has bedeviled me for a long time.

Most of the time these coins are inside my safe deposit box, where space is at a premium. For this I use a double-row Intercept Shield slab box which fits inside my in my lockbox. This is a totally utilitarian solution which has worked fine- and will continue to- but on the rare occasions when I visit numismatic friends and want to show off the collection, it is not terribly elegant. Furthermore, the unslabbed coins ended up stuffed randomly in bags and envelopes inside the slab box.

Recently I decided to purchase some Lighthouse Grande slab albums, each of which will hold three 9-compartment pages for slabs. I think the Lighthouse albums are the nicest on the market, and like that they have slipcases, which the Eagle brand albums do not.

However, I prefer the Eagle brand slab pages, since those allow you to remove a single coin or rearrange more easily without having to dismount the pages from the album. The Lighthouse brand pages fully enclose the slabs, but require you to dismount the whole page and pop it open to add or remove coins. This is not an issue with most folks, but I find it slightly inconvenient. Besides, if you're showing off your collection to a friend and he wants to take just one slab out of the album to examine the coin, it's a pain to have to pop out the entire page of nine and open it up to remove one slab.

It's just a matter of personal preference. Both brands of slab pages are fine. I have found that the Eagle pages fit perfectly in the Lighthouse albums.

As an added supplement, I have also started using 9-pocket trading card pages to hold the description tags, sales receipts, and older collection tags from each coin's prior history. I happened to find these at Office Depot. You can of course find them online or wherever hobby supplies are sold.

(This little stroke of brilliance- adapting baseball card pages- came by way of @Aethelred, who does this with his slabbed medievals. He puts a card with a portrait and bio of each medieval king in the page that overlays his slabs.)

The trading card pages overlay the slab pages perfectly, so each pocket can be used to hold description tags, receipts, and so on for the coin which lies directly beneath it in the adjacent slab page.






You will note that some of the coins seen in the animated GIF images above are still raw (uncertified). What I do with these is first put them inside a regular 2" x 2" double-pocket safety flip (I like Meghrig brand since they're sturdy, with slightly rounded corners). Then I put the flip inside a "do-it-yourself" slab style holder. I bought Lighthouse brand "Everslab" holders with 40 mm inserts for this purpose. Then I lay the flip inside the Everslab holder, add a label, and snap it shut. It then fits perfectly in the album pages along with the other slabbed coins.

(Note that if I used the Lighthouse instead of Eagle brand pages, I could just put the flip inside the compartment directly and snap the slab page shut, without using the Everslab holders, but since a 2x2 flip is smaller than a slab, it would stay inside the compartment, but rattle around loosely in there.)

When I make the descriptive tags to go inside the sportscard pages, I print three of them- one for the front and one for the back of each pocket, facing outwards, and the third is in case I need a spare, or so I can cut out the title portion of the tag to use in one of the Everslab holders. This gives me a classy way of displaying the raw coins indefinitely, but when I finally do get around to sending them off for certification, the temporary Everslab holder can always be reused for the next new raw coin purchase later.




(If I had a lot of raw coins in 2x2 holders, I could also mix in some 20-pocket pages for 2x2 holders to the binder, since it has a standard 3-ring configuration. But for the few I have on hand at any given time, I like the Everslab solution.)

If you are perceptive, you'll notice that when these images were created, the description fields on the coin tags were incomplete (still blank), as this is a work in progress. I haven't gotten around to finishing all the tags yet. However, I've uploaded a sample image of what the description tags will look like when they are finished:




I hope you liked looking at my new system, and if it gave any of you ideas, great!

~RWS/"LM"

 

I just got these particular Eagle brand pages, but I did use them many years ago without any problem. However, the issue you've brought up is certainly a concern to be noted for anyone who has an album that's going to be used a lot.

In my case, the coins stay in my safe deposit drawer (inside the Intercept double-row box) most of the time, and only come out for display once or twice a year. So they will only be in these albums on special occasions when they're out for viewing. Hopefully that will reduce the wear and tear on the pages. But I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Even though the coins will be locked away separately most of the time, leaving the albums empty when they're not on display, it will still help me to have the albums at home. The tags in those sportscard pages will hold all the receipts and older tags and stuff (which I was always lax about keeping up with in the past). And I will know which slot a new purchase is going to go in when it arrives, and be able to lay out the albums accordingly, without even getting the coins out of the safe deposit box.

 

This can be done for my presently small collection (which is at 49 pieces as of the last update). But yeah, if you have thousands of coins, it wouldn't be feasible.

I've been there. But since my "Great Purge of 2013", I've subscribed to the "less is more" philosophy. I'd rather have 50 well-organized coins I like than hundreds or thousands of pieces of random stuff scattered through boxes and bags and jars and whatnot.

There is some appeal to piling and stacking up great quantities (check out this guy if you want your mind blown), but in the last five or six years I've taken a much more minimalist approach, and have savored my collecting more. I can actually keep it straight in my head, y'know? Before, when I had huge heaps of stuff, I couldn't tell you what I owned, or what coin was in which box, etc.

 

Crown-sized silver coins are hard to beat, and very popular for very good reasons. I'm tickled pink with my newp.

 

Uh-oh. Well, if the worst comes to pass, I've got the original Lighthouse pages that came with the albums.

 

I didn't think to try that. It only dawned on me last night. I figured they'd slip out.

 

While I do not know specifically, I'm nearly certain they're fine. They are, after all, made with coins in mind.

 

I bought a crown (that Charles II previously mentioned.) Don't recall selling one in my recent selloff. I haven't owned an actual British crown in a while, though I have a few crown-sized pieces.